Chapter One: The Hellfire Club

A pretty well made season opener. The intro was really intense and gritty, followed by some catch-up with all of the characters that makes this feel like the opening episode it is. BUT, I love most of the characters and I hope the ones I don't quite love will grow on me this season, which may happen, seeing as all of the episodes are well over 75 minutes.

I love all of the horror vibes as well, that's something that keeps me coming back to this series. As per usual with Stranger Things, the sound design, VFX, acting and direction are all top quality!

Really solid.

Fabulous opening with a recollection of El, her powers and their origins in a dramatic first scene with shocking consequences. We move on to discover how each of the heroes has developed in the intervening time and where they have landed now. This could have been awkward and clunky, but it works extremely well, perhaps a reflection of my investment in these characters.

El struggles in highschool with her naïvete and social awkwardness becoming more exposed and her not being able to rely on her powers to help as her goto coping mechanism.

Overall a great scene setter, I was concerned about the format, but in this episode there is plenty to fill the extended time. The final scene is freaky and provides the usual ST tug towards the next episode.

The first season had a great sort of creepy horror feel which was missing the later seasons, but here it is back again. We also get a perfect setup episode with updates us on all the players and and what is going on in everyones lives. Pretty brilliant start of the season.

The big negative, which has been the negative with this show since the start, is that there are too many characters and too many things going on in each characters life. It goes so far that one barely care about anyone since everything is sort of spread out.

But at least the acting has clearly improved. Even the most annoying characters seem to have gone through acting classes and come back with a higher level so it this was still very good.

Very good start. Lets see if they can keep it up or improve.

Jeeesus that was intense. Most of the episode focuses around the kids as they've grown up, like season 3's first episode, but that ending was insane! High hopes for the rest of the season.

This is a great start to a new season of this amazing show. We have been waiting for this season for almost four years now! This episode introduced some great special effects and added a great element to this show. Now there was a little bit of pointless filler, but it wasn't all the way useless. You have to have some annoying drama to start this seasons theme of eleven getting bullied. I liked the ominous style that set this seasons terrifying effect. As every group of characters faced there own problems all apart from each other, a batch of scariness stirs up around the world. I recommend watching this episode. A solid 8/10.