Netflix continues to hit traditional television hard, and not only with the strength of its streaming, but also with original content of very high quality. The latest series to take the Web by storm is undoubtedly Stranger Things, which, besides doing an excellent job representing the pop culture of the '80s, is one of the best horror, mystery and science fiction shows we can find today. Fans devoured the first season, but before the "withdrawal syndrome" does its thing, Netflix reacted quickly and confirmed its second season.
It appeared on Netflix on July 15. Its name is simple but suggestive: Stranger Things. Its creators? The Duffer brothers, young writers and directors known for the film Hidden from 2015, and for writing four episodes of the series Wayward Pines aired on Fox. In about a month, approximately a quarter of planet Earth (or something like that) did nothing but talk about Stranger Things. Its main characters, the rest of the cast (Winona Ryder and Matthew Modine are high-profile names), choosing the full decade of the '80s for the series' setting, dozens of references that a trained eye and ear can detect (from D&D games and RadioShack Realistic walkie-talkies to "Should I Stay or Should I Go" by The Clash), and a great mystery that captures the audience from the first minute formed the ideal equation.
So, after having "consumed" the first season (some did it in a weekend), fans simply said "we want more", and Netflix took some time to think. On the calendar it may seem like a month and a half, but I think in the minds of its executives it was 45 seconds. Yes, Stranger Things will have a second season, and it will have one more episode than the first, raising its total to 17. The little official teaser that lasts less than a minute shows nothing about the second season... with the big exception of the names for each future episode.
Even so, the short has a million and a half views, which gives us a very good idea about the show's popularity these days. Is it possible to predict "something" about the second season? Well, the Duffer brothers confirmed that there will be four new characters, that it will begin "a little further from Hawkins", and that it will have influences like "Indiana Jones and the Time of Perdition", "Aliens", and "Terminator 2". What do those two have in mind? We'll know next year. Yes, Netflix gave the year, but kept the exact date...
