The Darkness of <i>Stranger Things 2</i>
The new season of the breakout Netflix show takes a turn toward horror.
The impeccable trick pulled off in its first season was how seamlessly it wove together the opposing qualities of comfort and fear. Set in November 1983, the Netflix show quickly entranced viewers last summer with its aesthetic and conceptual familiarity—the kids on bikes fighting a monster, the throwback cultural touchstones, the childlike sense of wonder. was, by design, a kid’s series for adults. Its nostalgic ambience was cozy, but real terror peeked through in flashes: the alien invasion of Will’s tiny body, the psychological torture of Eleven,
