Stranger Things will return in 2017 for a second season with nine episodes by original writers/directors Matt and Ross Duffer.
The news is about as unsurprising as, say, the idea that four Dungeons and Dragons-playing nerds in 1983 would be bullied at school. But it’s also an intriguing development”not unlike the revelation of an alternate dimension that resembles our own but has unfriendly plant-headed monsters roaming about.The first eight episodes of the nostalgia-soaked sci-fi saga became the unpredicted breakout pop-culture conversation piece of summer 2016, spawning memes online and faux funerals in real life. It received critical acclaim for its characterization, pacing, atmosphere, acting, soundtrack, directing, writing, and homages to 1980s genre films.
Netflix doesn’t reveal viewership numbers, but this week the independent data-measurement company Symphony Advanced Media estimated that the series drew an average of 14.07 million adults age 18-49 in the first 35 days of streaming.
That would make it the second most-watched Netflix original of 2016, just behind Fuller House and the latest Orange Is the New Black season, both of which (unlike Stranger Things ) arrived with established fan bases. Netflix’s business model relies on shows doing exactly what Stranger Things has done: draw buzz to lure subscribers.
Anyone who finished all of Stranger Things season one knew to expect more story to come. The teaser video for the second season does a nice job of renewing that buzz while revealing very little information.
