Stranger Things 2 Podcast: PART 2 -The Structure of Two Seasons

Stranger Things 2 Part 2: The Structure of Two Seasons By Jacob Krueger In last week’s Stranger Things 2 Podcast, we talked about the way a TV pilot starts up the engine of a series, and the challenges, especially in a TV Drama series like Stranger Things where everything changes at the end of the first season, of getting that engine started again in Season 2. Because the main structural elements that drive the engine of the show have mostly been resolved by the end of Season 1, the first episode of Stranger Things, Season 2 ends up functioning like a new pilot, trying to get the engine started again to launch us into the second season. But while the pilot of Stranger Things, Season 1 dropped us right into the heart of the action, and rocketed the characters into the story from the very first page, the first episode of Season 2 gets that engine started in a far less effective way. And that’s because the pilot of Stranger Things, Season 1 is built around a rock solid Primary Structure-- the way the things the characters want and the choices that they make and the obstacles they must navigate, shape characters’ journeys and push them out of their normal world from the very first page. While the first episode of Stranger Things, Season 2 is focused mainly on the Secondary Structure-- the way the audience experiences the episode. As a result, Stranger Things, Season 1 launches us into the engine of the series from the very first page, just as you must if you want to sell a pilot for your own series, or use your pilot to get staffed on an existing show. Whereas the first episode of Stranger Things, Season 2, for its many good qualities, starts us off with more of a whimper than a bang.   It’s a problem that the Duffer Brothers manage to correct in a big way by Season 2, Episode 2, when they finally get that engine started. But it’s one which you, as an emerging writer, are unlikely to survive at this point of your career. Because until you’ve got a hit series on the air that everyone loves, the chances are that if your first episode doesn’t launch us into your series with the force of a rocket, no one’s ever going to read Episode 2. For that matter, if your first few pages don’t launch us into your series with the force of a rocket, no one is going to even finish the pilot. So what’s the structural difference between the Stranger Things, Season 1 pilot and the first episode of Stranger Things, Season 2? At every moment of Stranger Things, Season 1 the characters are facing obstacles and making choices that change their lives forever. And at most moments of the first episode of Stranger Things, Season 2, they quite simply are not. In the pilot of Season 1, the characters are living their lives for themselves. And in the first episode of Season 2, they are establishing their lives for the audience. So let’s break it down together. The pilot of Stranger Things, Season 1 starts with a bad ass chase sequence. We start by panning down from the stars, and find ourselves at the lab, a location that is going to end up mattering a lot for us. We’ve got the flashing lights, we’ve got the scientist running in the wrong direction, we’ve got that horrifying scene where the scientist finally makes his way to the elevator, only to be be snatched up and out of sight just as the doors close. And even though we’re dropped from there into the quiet, mundane world of the kids playing Dungeons & Dragons, even in that scene, The Duffer Brothers are not simply “establishing” that the kids play Dungeons & Dragons. Already the characters are facing huge obstacles and making huge choices that affect their lives and their relationships forever. And for that reason, in Stranger Things, Season 1, we can feel the story start right away. We meet Mike, the Dungeon Master, who wants all his friends to work as a team in the game, and introduces the obstacle of the Demogorgon to test them. We meet Dustin, the cautious one of the group, who wants to cast a spell of protection. We meet Lucas, the impulsive one, who wants to cast a fireball. And we meet Will, who’s afraid to make a choice, but who ultimately risks his own life to protect his friends. The scene isn’t about a Dungeons & Dragons game. It’s about a bunch of kids making big choices that affect each other, in relation to something they care about deeply. And because these are great writers, they keep raising the stakes, by making sure nothing turns out the way the characters are hoping, so they have to keep making big choices that change their lives forever. Instead of rolling a high roll that would allow him to defeat the Demorgorgon, Will rolls a measly seven... and Mike, the Dungeon Master, doesn’t see it. Wanting their friend to survive the adventure, the other boys tell Will it doesn’t count if Mike doesn’t see it. But at the end of the scene, Will makes a different choice. Will admits to Mike it was a seven, “The Demogorgon, it got me,” he says.   And no sooner has Will left the Dungeons & Dragons game than the real Demogorgon indeed does get him-- in a terrifying sequence that we can only see in glimpses of Will’s horror. We aren't even at the credits yet! And we not only locked into these huge choices and changes and never-before experience for the characters, we are also locked in to the hook, the engine of the piece—the engine of a creature that you can barely see; and the disappearance of a young boy that is going to drive the entire season. It’s not that the Duffer Brothers aren’t setting things up. In fact if you’ve listened to my two part Podcast on Stranger Things, Season 1, you know that this first Dungeon’s & Dragons sequence actually thematically sets up every aspect of these character’s journeys. But it’s not the Secondary Structure that’s driving the story. It’s the Primary Structure. It’s Will’s choice to tell the truth, and the terrible consequences he suffers for that choice. I want to contrast that with the opening of the first episode of Season 2, to show you how, even though they’re using many of the same elements that worked so well in Season 1, even though they’re trying to replicate the engine, the Duffer Brothers are missing the Primary Structure that started that engine so brilliantly. In Season 2, once again, we start with the stars, and this time we pull down to a city, an unexpected Secondary Structure surprise for the audience. And this is fun. It is nice to find ourselves in a new place, and wondering how this new piece of the puzzle is going to fit. The Duffer Brothers have a real challenge as they start this episode, which is the creature is particularly scary when it is in the shadows through the beginning of Season 1. But, once it is out of the shadows, the creature becomes a lot less scary; it becomes a lot more typical, a lot more like something we’ve seen before in other “Monster in the House” movies. So, it is important in Season 2 to re-open the door to the danger and the mystery. And while the season could certainly have started equally brilliantly with what ends up being the first image of Episode 2, it’s nevertheless a smart and reasonable move to open to a place that we aren't expecting, and a character that we aren't expecting; the character of Eight, Kali, who is in her own chase sequence-- mimicking the structure of the first episode. But despite the cool chase sequence and Kali’s display of a magical power that reminds us of Eleven’s powers in Season 1-- what is missing is the impact on the main characters, and what’s missing is the horror for the characters that we actually care about.   As the audience, we know that there is another “Eleven” on the loose, and that she may not be playing for the right team. But unlike in Season 1, the story of Kali isn’t going to weave through the first episode of Season 2. Instead, it is going to be left to drop there, hopefully to make us wonder what is coming next. But it’s not going to affect the characters at all. This cool sequence really has only existed at this point for the audience. It hasn’t existed yet for the characters. Whereas in the Season 1 pilot, we very quickly catch up to that lab again, to Eleven again, and the journey of Eleven and the baddies from the lab very quickly get woven into the lives of our story, the lives of our main characters. And so, this is what we really want if our pilot’s Primary Structure is to come into focus: Every element that possibly can needs to affect not just the general world of the story, but the specific world of our main characters. Our characters have to make choices around those elements, and suffer consequences by them. Otherwise the story isn’t really started. It’s just setting up stuff for later. From there, the Duffer Brothers once again attempt to replicate the engine of Season One by catching us up to the boys again-- this time not in a game of Dungeons & Dragons, but an arcade game of Dig Dug. And just like in the pilot, there’s an obstacle that must be navigated in relationship to something the boys care about: Dustin’s high score has just been beaten by someone named Madmax. But the difference is-- unlike in Season 1, where the boys can make structural decisions that matter to their relationships, based on the challenge of the Demogorgon, in this scene, there’s nothing they can do-- not until Madmax actually appears several scenes later. Once again, the Duffer Brothers are setting up the Secondary Structure for the future, rather than launching the Primary Structure of the now. And that’s why the stakes feel super low. And even when Will finds himself magically transported back to The Upside Down from the middle of the arcade, the stakes still never feel like they used to feel. Last season,