This season is everything I expected from this show. I wouldn't say it is perfect but It is a very compelling one, at least to me. I saw a lot of people complaining about this season being so predictable and there wasn't much intensity to the story. While I somewhat agree with the first point but the second point was patently absurd. You can't expect every show to be mind-bending and full of twist. It has its own thing and the characters that people really care about. They knowingly embrace the cheesiness and It works for the show.

The stakes are raised even higher than the previous seasons. The first few episodes were a bit slow but we get more time with the characters and seeing them learning things about each other was a wonderful experience. Everything from the cinematography to the production design is top-notch. The CGI in this season, my goodness! It is incredible. Seems like they went all out this season. Some new characters were introduced. Some of them work well with the story some of them didn't add much. I particularly liked Robin and Alexei. All the kids did a great job with the acting. Eleven is by far my favorite character of this show. She once again proves that she's one of the best talents working today. Dustin is as lovable as always. Even though I missed him with the gang for the most part but I enjoyed Him and Steve doing stuff together. In this season everyone is separated into different groups and they are all engaged in things that are somehow connected to the main story. Each character had something to do. I thought it was great. I liked the friendship between Max and Eleven. Lucas was charming as always. I enjoyed Erica's sarcasm. Mike is irritating for some part but in the end he comes around. They could've done better with Will's character. It seems like he was in a vegetative state for the entire season. He didn't have much to do aside from sensing the Mind Flayer whenever he was nearby. As for Nancy and Jonathan, they didn't have much of character development as I hoped. Although Nancy has some cool action sequences. Joyce and Hopper's performance is fabulous.

This show is extremely well directed. The last two episodes were nail-biting. I thought the pacing was much better than the last season. There was something constantly happening, so I never felt outright bored for once. I felt when each specific thing happened. Most of the choices they made with the characters worked for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this season. I'm really excited for what comes next.