Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Stranger Things: Season 2 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 26, 2018

In 2016, rising industry powerhouse Netflix released Stranger Things, a Mystery/Sci-Fi period show that earned immediate, and overwhelming, critical and audience acclaim. The story of four preteen friends in a sleepy 1980s Indiana town, the frightening mysteries they uncover, and the new friends they make quickly became the the most talked-about show of the year and almost overnight became a popular culture icon and part of the modern lexicon. Created by Matt and Ross Duffer, themselves children of the 1980s, Stranger Things has now completed two full seasons with a third season scheduled to release in the coming months. Netflix has once again partnered with Target on a store-exclusive UHD release alongside a companion Blu-ray, this time released simultaneously with the Blu-ray rather than mysteriously appearing on shelves just weeks after that season's Blu-ray release, itself kept under tight wraps at the time. Both sets are, like the matching season one releases, problematic in several areas but are home to what is unquestionably about 7.5 hours of the best television of the year.

Below is a plot summation that contains spoilers for both seasons one and two.

Things have returned to normal in Hawkins, Indiana, at least in that things have returned to the new normal of strange occurrences and deadly realities that grip the town beyond the shadows and, now, under the feet. The story begins following a nearly year-long lull from the strange new norm. The boys -- the previously missing Will (Noah Schnapp) and his friends Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) -- are in school and meet a new friend named Max (Sadie Sink) who has not only toppled their high score in Dig Dug but also happens to be a girl. Things again take a turn for the bizarre when Will continues to have terrifying visions of (or visits to) the Upside Down and Dustin befriends a strange creature he calls “Dart,” short for D’artagnan, that may be a new species or something much more sinister. While the boys come to terms with the new girl in their lives and pull her both into and away from their group, Mike continues to miss Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who has been in hiding under the care of Sheriff Hopper (David Harbour) and under strict instructions to not make contact with the outside world, which includes Mike and the gang. Nancy’s (Natalia Dyer) relationship with Steve (Joe Keery) hits a few bumps, opening an opportunity for Will’s older brother Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) to make a move. Jonathan and Will’s mother Joyce (Winona Ryder) is in a relationship with the kindly electronics guru, Radio Shack employee, and all-around smart guy Bob (Sean Astin). At Hawkins National Laboratory, Sam Owens (Paul Reiser) has taken leadership.

Season two is a finely tuned nine-episode run that is both fresh and familiar. The season introduces new blood into the Hawkins dynamic. Bob and Max are introduced quickly but developed slowly. Each plays an important part in the season, Bob more directly and Max more in a way that bends the dramatic current a bit from the season one dynamic, and her mysterious relationship with her equally mysterious and combustible older brother Billy, played by Dacre Montgomery, makes for one of the season's most compelling and slow-reveal arcs. Season two is more expansive beyond its newly introduced characters, offering viewers a wider spectrum coverage of the Upside Down world without moving too far beyond the familiar confines of Hawkins proper, though the show does stretch its wings beyond the show's Indiana world, moving one of its key characters, temporarily, to the big city in a critical fact-finding and soul-searching mission. Season two is quick to introduce new dynamics but absorbingly slow to explore them and even slower to answer questions small and large alike. One of the draws is the ever-evolving landscape, the gradually developing dangers, and the introduction of quickly developing large-scale threats to characters and the world they inhabit alike. Season two is nearly every bit season one's equal. It understandably lacks season one's novel allure if only because the world, characters, and core storylines are already in place, but it's a near-perfect continuation, not evolution, of the Hawkins story.

Stranger Things: Season 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

When Stranger Things' first season UHD release randomly started hitting Target shelves only weeks after the Blu-ray set dropped almost as quietly, fans were understandably delighted and angered at the same time, happy that the show received the 4K treatment and upset that it debuted after everyone had purchased the Blu-ray in good faith. Those who bit the bullet were downright aghast to discover that the UHD set didn't include HDR colors, didn't feature a lossless soundtrack on the audio side, and that 2160p resolution by itself really did little, if anything, to improve on the Blu-ray's already near-perfect video presentation. That made the Blu-ray the obvious choice between the two when considering which to purchase. That's not the case here. The studio has, for this release, included both lossless audio and HDR colors to compliment the 2160p video resolution. The result is a picture that is a solid, sometimes significant, step forward from the Blu-ray, which is good but problematic. This UHD tightens the image, manages noise much better, and fends off many of the same compression artifacts that plagued the Blu-ray, not entirely erasing many of them but handling them with more finesse. While noise is still intact, particularly in lower light situations, the better management reduces intensity and well-lit scenes often pass for film in terms of textural integrity, image depth, and overall clarity.

The HDR colors solidify black levels, which were often all over the map on the Blu-ray but that are here much more centrist in terms of holding faithful to deep, intensive shading. The white letters, appearing over the black background with the maneuvering red letters, during the opening title sequence almost look like they are made of TV signal snow, which was not at all obvious when watching the Blu-ray (and that title sequence nine times) and only really obvious at all upon further review where comparing and contrasting it to the UHD. The red lettering is a much more intense, more brilliant, boundless red that really jumps off the screen. Such improvements hold true throughout. The level of clarity, light saturation and distribution, brightness, and black level depth -- all of the aforementioned beneficiaries -- are all greatly improved in a collection of illuminated tombstone Halloween decorations seen right after the opening titles in episode one. A bold, bright, orange and white arcade sign seen at the 9:31 mark is another example of the tremendous boost to brilliance and saturation. It's intense but not at all blinding, a terrific example of of HDR's superiority, particularly as it contrasts with a perfectly dark nighttime background. Colors are more stabilized in general, rendering shades firmer, a little less gaudy in comparison, more nuanced and accurate throughout, with special attention paid to the warmer orange and bronze fall colors that are critical to defining the mood in many of the season's daytime exteriors. Skin tones enjoy a healthy boost in terms of shading and gradations as well.

Texturally, the improvements over the Blu-ray are not as dramatic as the HDR colors. There's a modest, but very welcome and sometimes critical, increase to general scene sharpness, overall clarity, and definition of foreground and background elements alike. Skin textures and clothing fabrics are beneficiaries of, primarily, slight increases in raw visibility but greater improvements to sharpness and clarity that also extend to environments in any lighting condition, from dreary nighttime shots inside Hopper's isolated cabin or brightly lit scenes on the school playground. The UHD, which is sourced from a 4K digital intermediate that has been downscaled from 6K and 8K source photography, is quite the looker. It's a solid, oftentimes dramatic, improvement over the Blu-ray, no two ways about it.

Stranger Things: Season 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Last year, fans weren't too happy about the season one UHD set foregoing the lossless audio from the Blu-ray in favor of a Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation, and Netflix has thankfully learned from the outcry and included the same DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless track from the Blu-ray on this UHD. No, it's not Dolby Atmos or DTS:X, but it is, at least, a remedy of one of last season's most glaring UHD omissions and makes this the definitive home video physical media presentation of Stranger Things 2.

The lossless presentation is largely terrific. The show's synth/electronic score features prominently throughout the season, of course, and notably over the opening titles. It's often accompanied by extreme surround saturation which sometimes (early on in particular) overpowers surrounding elements, including dialogue. There is also some deliberate distortion to some of the score which adds to a retro feel that's not ever-present but that does punctuate some key moments. The track is also comprised of various 80s Pop and Rock tunes that don't miss a beat and deliver energetic guitar riffs, Rock You Like a Hurricane being a terrific example. The track folds in various, and high quality, discrete effects, from more mundane details like rustling corn stalks in episode one to buzzing flies in a few scenes around the mysteriously rotted pumpkin patches. Open, airy dialogue in chapter three of episode six also creates a sense of sonic expanse within the listening area. More prominent effects like swirling thunder and electrical storm type sounds when Will experiences his visions of the Upside Down engulf the listener in the frights and madness of each occurrence. Gunshots engage from around the listener in the opening minutes of the seasons' penultimate episode, but shots in the final minutes of the final episode want for added depth and power. A few instances of dialogue sounding a little shallow are obvious but the spoken word is generally clear, distortion-free, and well prioritized. Most shortcomings are usually infrequent and intermittent. Generally, sounds command the stage with rich clarity, wide and deep engagement, and usually a complimentary, balanced, and well defined low end accompaniment.

Stranger Things: Season 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Stranger Things 2 contains no supplemental content, as was the case with the season one release. Disc menus do offer brief episode synopses. DVD copies are included but no digital copy has been bundled in, which is not a surprise since the show was born and airs on a digital service. The (on Blu-ray) non skippable Lost in Space trailer is skippable on this UHD.

The packaging is very cool, at least on the surface. Rather than the cardboard slip for season one that housed the discs in a box disguised as a (very large) VHS tape, season two ships in a hard clamshell case that feels much better in the hand and more closely replicates a true video store rental box from back in the day. This review is not going to get into packaging specifics beyond to say that opening the case reveals a pocket on the left that houses five photos of cast and crew while on the right is a liftable VHS-looking flap (rewind it! this time in red!) underneath of which are the six discs which are clumsily housed on flaps and on foamy hubs, which don't hold the discs very securely. Good luck navigating to the Blu-rays; it requires a good bit of dexterity to hold open various flaps and keep discs from sliding off of the nearly nonfunctional hubs.

Stranger Things: Season 2 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Stranger Things 2 ends with a final shot that could be tricky for season three to navigate if only because there's more than one direction the show could take, including recycling main storylines from season two. But the Duffer Brothers have yet to disappoint audiences, and the smart money is on season three living up to the standards of narrative construction, agreeable character growth, thrills, chills, and heartache that have driven the first two. Netflix's three-disc UHD set for Stranger Things 2 delivers a 4K/HDR video presentation that is a notable, and welcome, improvement in video over the more readily flawed Blu-ray. For this release, Netflix has included the same DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack from the Blu-ray, and no supplements are included (but the set does include five different photos). Very highly recommended; unlike last year, when the Blu-ray was the smart buy, this UHD is the undisputed king for home video releases of Stranger Things 2.