I like that they are clearly world building now...in the first season they told a story that, although there was a cliffhanger, could have ended and never come back and it would have still been satisfying. This season, though, they clearly started to flesh out that world.
Things like the demodogs and the Mind Flayer filled in some "other" denizens of the Upside Down, it's not just a barren world filled with a single monster, and have we seen every type of creature that lives there, or are there even more??
We got some new supporting characters, most prominently another girl for the guys to fawn over (they are teenage boys, after all, girls are going to be something they pay a lot more attention to at this stage in their lives), with a brother who could easily play a "real world" bad guy for the guys going forward. I know that some people weren't very keen on Dacre Montgomery's Billy Hargrove, but I liked the character for the simple reason that he provided a bad guy in reality for these characters to worry about...and after seeing the way that Billy's father treated him, it's pretty easy to see where his anger/rage comes from.
We have a new doctor in play that we can trust...or can we??? Dr. Owens did all the right things...he helped everyone out, he tried to save Will, he wouldn't let the other doctors just kill him off, he helped Bob as best as he could...but in the end, here's a man that survived in a building where what seemed like NOBODY else did, with ONLY a handgun?? We'd seen the Demodogs basically ripping everyone to shreds...shotguns and automatic weapons took quite a bit to put them down, and here this doctor survives with only a fleshwound??? I don't know...I'm not really buying it. Well, it's not that I'm not buying it, but I'm being extremely skeptical.
We now know for certain that there are other kids out there, which we "knew" before, but we now know 100% that they are still alive. Is 008 the only one other than 011 that's alive?? To go along with that, something I didn't really think of much in season one...but that 011 tattoo...there's a zero at the beginning...so that means that there could potentially have been 999 initial subjects...which is just staggering to think about. Are any of the other kids trying to get revenge, or was Kali the only one that was doing things like this? Personally, I believe the zero at the beginning of the tattoo is for the facility that the kids were being tested at...the one in Hawkins being facility 0...that, to me, gives them a great way to expand on the series by having ANOTHER facility where they are doing testing, which leads us to...
...the fact that Dr Brenner is still alive. We all thought he was a goner in season one, but the man that Eleven force choked certainly seemed pretty sincere when he mentioned that he was still alive, so much so that he was offering to take them to Brenner. Why would he lie about that?? He has to know that if he took them and did NOT produce Brenner at that point, they'd just kill him then...so in my mind Brenner MUST be alive...and would be the perfect candidate to head up another research facility for the program somewhere. His personal experience with the Demogorgon and The Upside Down would certainly be of extreme importance to whoever it is that's TRULY running this program.
One word: Steve. The dude was outstanding this season, funny, heroic, sympathetic...the works. Well done, well done.
Finally, we have that ending scene...where the world turns Upside Down and we see the Mind Flayer staring intently at the Middle School...which just so happens to be EXACTLY where Eleven is at at that time, and the song??? "Every Breath You Take." If that's not a fitting song for that moment, I'm not really sure what is. The Mind Flayer is mad. Really mad. It probably wants revenge, and then some, on Eleven and the gang for closing up it's door. The question becomes now, how does it get BACK into Hawkins again...or anywhere on earth, for that matter? Are there other facilities working on projects with gates? Will one of the other super powered kids do something? Is Will REALLY completely cured of The Upside Down (I've read that the Duffers say that he is, but Noah Schnapp who plays Will doesn't believe that's the case)? Did Dustin or Hopper inhale something that will allow the monsters back in while they were in the tunnels??? Did anyone do anything with that Demodog that got stuffed in Joyce's freezer?? I mean, there's got to be some way for it to come back, and from what I understand they have said there will be four seasons, so they probably have something pretty solid up their sleeves.
Like I said, I thought the season was, on the whole, phenomenal. Again, I understand why some may not have enjoyed it as much as I did, but I think that by going into it hoping ONLY for a great story, it succeeded at that and surpassed my expectations. Even little moments where I KNEW what was going to happen still hit me and brought about emotional responses...when the Demodogs are all outside of the house after Will the Spy finally realizes where he is, I mean, you KNEW Eleven was going to show up then...and when I heard the dogs yelping it still made me pump my fist in triumph that our characters had once again survived.
Okay, I've rambled on long enough now...