TV review: Stranger Things 2, Netflix

Season one of Stranger Things was a surprise smash that caught the entire world unawares — including Netflix, which had taken a gamble on

unknown Carolina filmmakers the Duffer Brothers. The genius of the show was that it simultaneously paid tribute to and subverted the tropes of early 1980s blockbusters. Even as it proudly wore its debt to Stephen King, Steven Spielberg and John Hughes, Stranger Things offered a clever twist on Jocks v Nerds cliches — and also gave Winona Ryder her meatiest screen role in decades. Throw in a monster straight out of Ridley Scott’s Alien and you had the year’s biggest TV hit.