Max and Billy were mostly pointless additions who were literally just there as padding and the payoff for the D'art storyline was pretty poor given how much time they spent on him in the first four episodes. The Justice for Barb storyline was pretty drawn out and pointless as well. It just felt like the writers were like 'We need to give Jonathan and Nancy something to do. **** 'em off for an episode or two for some silly storyline that could have been done in one scene.'
I think the Demodogs weren't that great either, I get that Stranger things was akin to Alien with the Demogorgon and this time they wanted to go for an Aliens styled storyline but I don't think the dogs had the same punch as the Gorgon did and the Shadow Monster felt like it was just there to set up for Season 3.
Eleven being sidelined for most of the season felt a bit crap too, I actually didn't mind Episode 7 at all, my biggest issue with it is that it should have happened earlier since it disrupted the flow of the story by having what is essentially a bottle episode right before the attack on the Lab was going to begin. The episode itself wasn't too bad though.
As for what I liked, Steve's character went from strength to strength, I really liked Bob and I liked that they redeemed Lucas after making him too much of an obstacle character in the first season. Hopper and Eleven's relationship was also great but keeping them separated for so many episodes was a mistake as was waiting until the last episode for Eleven to reunite with the Party. I also really liked the ending although the tease for next season felt a bit weak.
Next series needs better pacing, a better monster, they need to give Max and Billy a reason for being included and a more well developed storyline that can actually fill the episode count without filler.
