Two weeks left… three days… one day… finally, the countdown has ended for Netflix’s launching of season two of Stranger Things. Time to curl up in a blanket and watch it all. This nine episode second season of the sci-fi TV series Stranger Things maintained the show’s reputation of captivating an audience. Read ahead, but be warned, spoilers will be encountered.

The season finales of Stranger Things specialize in ending with a question that never leaves the viewer perfectly content. At the end of the first season of this 1983 supernatural thriller, the cast has just defeated the demogorgon, the protagonist with supernatural powers, Eleven, has vanished into the gate of the upside down world, leaving behind the normal world and her acquired friends. But beside Eleven, as we view the christmas celebrations, we see Will lean over the sink and throw up. However, it is not food that comes out of his mouth but a strange creature. And just like Eleven, this creature is very important… and makes a reappearance in season two.

Almost a year later, season two picks up with the original cast— Dustin, Mike, Will, and Lucas— are ready to go trick-or-treating. They stroll into school wearing their matching ghost-buster costumes, only to find the rest of the school decided not to participate in dressing up. Then, when trick-or-treating, Will is revisited by the upside down for the first time of many, coming face to face with a terrifying monster, creating the lovable tension and suspense this show is famous for. Stranger Things also keeps people watching with their mysterious endings of each episode, like when Dustin finds a unidentified creature in his trash can.

One of the most stunning element to the show is how the actors become immersed in their characters and roles. Noah Schnapp, the actor behind Will Buyers, does a stupefying job of becoming the haunted, terrified and possessed little boy. Schnapp uses wide eyes, shallow breathes, shaky movements, and facial expressions to convey the danger Will Buyers is in. Aside from Noah, Millie Bobby Brown (Eleven) and David Harbour (detective Hopper), create such a strong father-daughter relationship. It is seen in the way he rustles her hair and she responds with a little smirk, how they argue and scream, but Hopper displays such deep feeling of guilt, and how they stick by each other when facing the biggest challenge of all— defeating the mind flayer.

The strong cast is not the only claim to fame the show holds but also their special effects and scenery. In an argument between Eleven and detective Hopper, Eleven uses her mind to shatter the cottage windows and, as the Duffer brothers, the co-producers explain, they actually blew the windows off the cottage positioning David Harbour, who refused to use a stunt double, in an area where no broken glass would touch him. With Eleven’s telekinetic abilities, the crew also has to make doors open, clocks unlock, and people fly off the ground without any wires of machinery visible, doing a decent job of it too.

Other elements are also used to make scenes come to life. As the camera pans to the exterior of the high school, where students flock to the entrance, ready to begin a new day, loud carefree music can be heard in the background, capturing the perfect mood. Soft music for romantic scenes and suspenseful music, or just eerie silence, is used to form the action packed scenes that give viewers goose bumps. The Duff brothers even discussed during beyond Stranger Things that during the big school dance at the finale, they used “Every Breath You Take” by the Police to foreshadow to the viewer that there is still something dangerous out there, watching them all, biding its time. Dim lighting is also used to create cozy vibes, while pale blinking lights bring together the eerie and quiet feeling suited for the Hawkins laboratory.

Each episode contains a well thought out set, where every detail brings out the atmosphere, and the 1980’s time period of the show. Every car in the high school lot, every article of clothing, every house possesses the characteristics of the 80s. Just the hairstyles alone, between bowl cuts and slicked back yet curly styles, express the fads of the decade.

Perfected lighting, sound, acting and details have helped Stranger Things wins awards like the Screen actors award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a drama series, producers Guild of America Award, MTV Movie & TV Awards for Show of the Year and the MTV Movie & TV Award for Best Actor in a Show awarded to Millie Bobby Brown.

However, because the series has perpetual suspense, it makes the finale episode less climactic, since they hold similar atmospheres to the rest of the episodes instead of something at a whole new level. The season finale was not intensely dramatic only because the entire show is absolutely saturated with drama. Nevertheless, the show is highly recommended and something that would be a shame to miss, holding an audience at the edge of their seats, especially with the final scene showing the monsters lurking in the world of the upsidedown.