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In the grand tradition of sequels everywhere,adult korean | Page 5 of 5 | Adult Movies Online Stranger Things 2had more of everything – more demogorgons, more Will, more Steve being a good guy, more Hopper being Hotper (I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I knew as soon as I said it).

The one exception? Mike Wheeler.

SEE ALSO: 'Stranger Things 2' review: Binge-watching can't disguise how bad this is

In Season 1, Mike wasn't just part of the gang – he was the guy, around whom much of the action revolved. He was the dungeon master and ringleader; he was Eleven's closest friend and ally; he was brother of Nancy, another key character.

This season, though, Mike takes a significant step back. He's still there, but his position in the story is much less prominent. He doesn't even really get a plotline to call his own. He's a supporting player in Will's storyline and a distant motivating force in Eleven's.

Mike's loss is his friends' gain. The time and energy devoted to him last year gets divvied up among his friends in Season 2. Dustin gets a mom and a cat, and his very own story arc involving a mysterious creature and, eventually, Steve; Lucas gets a (delightful) little sister and a romantic subplot with a new character, Max.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

No one benefits from the new, less Mike-centric focus more than Will Byers, who spent most of last season MIA – it's his disappearance, after all, that serves as the catalyst for the rest of the story. Though he appeared sporadically throughout the season (usually in flashbacks or glimpses of the Upside Down), he was ultimately more of a plot point than a character.

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In the new season, Will gets to come to the forefront while Mike retreats into the role of sidekick, and it's immediately clear that actor Noah Schnapp's strong work last season was no fluke. He tears into the meatier material he's given like a pro.

SEE ALSO: Here's what that creepy 'Stranger Things 2' ending means for Season 3

Will is less the new "everyboy" (a la Mike) than he is the new Eleven, and he strikes a similar balance between disarming and unsettling. You want to protect this trembling, wide-eyed kid at all costs, but you also want to run screaming in the other direction when, for example, he deadpans that "He likes it cold." Stranger Thingshas its flaws, but it works as well as it does because it's so easy to care about characters like Will.

Will's storyline also gives Mike his strongest material of Season 2. Mike is at his best when he's cheering on his best friend – reassuring Will that they'll "go crazy together," helping Will face down the shadow monster, dropping everything to be at Will's side, telling a possessed Will exactly how much he means to him.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Outside of his friendship with Will, though, Mike leaves much to be desired. He spends much of the season missing Eleven, and while it makes sense that this young man would be traumatized by the loss of his friend, it mostly manifests onscreen as whining and moping. He snipes at most characters who aren't Will and is downright hostile to Max, going out of his way to exclude her because they "don't need another party member."

It's a jarring shift from the boy who welcomed Eleven with open arms last year. Maybe that's the point. In context, though, it makes Mike seem petty and small, as if he begrudges his friends the opportunity to find love. Or as if, like the show itself, he struggles with the concept that more than one girl character can exist simultaneously.

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None of this is the fault of actor Finn Wolfhard, who continues to act the hell out of any scene he's in. The best showcase of his abilities is the finale: his scene with Will is devastating, his fight with Hopper is raw, and his kiss with Eleven is so heart-meltingly adorable that I came back around on the Eleven/Mike ship after spending the previous eight episodes rolling my eyes at it.

SEE ALSO: 'Stranger Things' finally solved its biggest mystery

In other words, Wolfhard is hitting all the right notes. It's the writing that's letting him down. Ultimately, it feels like the storytellers simply couldn't come up with anything better for that character to do. Even in Season 1, Mike was defined less by who he was than by what was happening to him. That's still true in Season 2, but less is happening to him, so he's less interesting than ever.

It's a problem that's plagued many of the characters in Stranger Thingsat one point or another – but it's also one the show went a long way toward fixing this year, by fleshing out characters like Lucas and Dustin. Now the challenge of Stranger Things 3will be to show Mike what he's really made of, other than a totally unremarkable boy who just happens to be near some remarkable stuff.

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Topics Netflix Stranger Things