After nine years, ballooning lore, and a few too many movie-length episodes, I heard from many fans anecdotally who had lost patience for Netflix’s banner sci-fi/horror show. But there’s a certain catharsis in seeing how a show of this scale chooses to end its story. So how does Stranger Things measure up against other fantastical TV that ended after long runs?
Read MoreThe balance between titanic brawls and terrified citizens is redistributed in the right direction; as any die-hard fan of the franchise will tell you, we’re not meant to focus on the drama of the helpless humans caught in the fray.
Read MoreIn many ways, this serves the Duffers well. Season two of Stranger Things is marked by a willingness to diverge from some of the things that made the first season so addictive. The nostalgia for 80s pop culture is less pronounced. There’s very little (if any) Dungeons and Dragons. The dynamics of the core group of kids are in flux. But this doesn’t reduce our craving for more; in fact, the show keeps us clicking the “next episode” button by folding in character development and narrative experiments, all to test what Stranger Things can be.
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