(CNN) As part of a small subset of the pop-culture universe that thought "Stranger Things" was nice but nothing special, the second season provoked some trepidation. How can one characterize whether the Emmy-nominated Netflix phenom lives up to the hype when you felt it was overhyped in the first place?

The result is a second season that replicates and, indeed, enhances the show's central charms -- its group of pubescent nerds, and nostalgic sense of time and place -- while still feeling less compelling with its teenage contingent. All told, it's an impressive follow-up, if one perhaps burdened by expectations raised by the over-the-moon reaction, to couch it in the fantasy of the era, to the debut.

"Stranger Things 2" has a fair amount of work to do given where season one ended, and that's accomplished pretty seamlessly. The five boys, for starters, have a new girl, Max (Sadie Sink), to trigger their curiosity and confound them, albeit without quite the impact as the telekinetically gifted Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), whose return has already been teased, and whose plot is easily the best thing about this second flight.

Meanwhile, Nancy (Natalia Dyer) is still dealing with guilt regarding her friend Barb, Will (Noah Schnapp) is experiencing after-effects of his time in the Upside Down, and his mom Joyce (Winona Ryder) is wracked with concern about him, even as she tests whether it's possible to have a life of her own.

The Duffer Brothers, who created the show, waste little time setting the scene, as the camera reveals Reagan/Bush yard signs and "Terminator" marquees. It's a time of "Ghostbusters" Halloween costumes, when strange doings around the town are seen by some (in what feels like a dual nod to "Red Dawn" and "The Americans") as evidence of a Soviet invasion.

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