The opening is intriguing, the new glimpses of the upside down are effectively eerie, hearing the iconic synth tracks from the first season again is wonderful, and there are plenty of enjoyable character moments: Will missing Eleven and having to give away some of his toys, Nancy dealing with the loss of Barbara and her mournful parents, Jonathan comforting Will about being a freak, the likeable introduction to Bob, and the final scene between Eleven and Hopper is simple but heartfelt.
However, there is still some jarring editing (sometimes cutting to establishing shots in strange ways), the visuals and lighting are much cleaner and brighter than before which loses a bit of the first season's 80s aesthetic, there's a complete over-abundance of licenced music used in back-to-back scenes, and some of the reintroductions of characters are a tad overdone and overwritten in their execution in the opening half (almost as if it's going through the motions in terms of re-establishing character tropes and dynamics in a very obvious manner). There's also a strange uptick in how many people are smoking? I'm unsure if that's just a time-period thing or what but it stuck out to me, not that it's necessarily bad.
Overall, 'Madmax' is not an outstanding episode, perhaps the weakest of the series yet, but it's still filled with plenty of the show's typically solid acting, character-work and intrigue.
However, there is still some jarring editing (sometimes cutting to establishing shots in strange ways), the visuals and lighting are much cleaner and brighter than before which loses a bit of the first season's 80s aesthetic, there's a complete over-abundance of licenced music used in back-to-back scenes, and some of the reintroductions of characters are a tad overdone and overwritten in their execution in the opening half (almost as if it's going through the motions in terms of re-establishing character tropes and dynamics in a very obvious manner). There's also a strange uptick in how many people are smoking? I'm unsure if that's just a time-period thing or what but it stuck out to me, not that it's necessarily bad.
Overall, 'Madmax' is not an outstanding episode, perhaps the weakest of the series yet, but it's still filled with plenty of the show's typically solid acting, character-work and intrigue.