TV Review: Stranger Things 3

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

SYNOPSIS: It's 1985 in Hawkins, Indiana, and summer's heating up. School's out, there's a brand new mall in town, and the Hawkins crew are on the cusp of adulthood. Romance blossoms and complicates the group's dynamic, and they'll have to figure out how to grow up without growing apart. Meanwhile, danger looms. When the town's threatened by enemies old and new, Eleven and her friends are reminded that evil never ends; it evolves. Now they'll have to band together to survive, and remember that friendship is always stronger than fear.

REVIEW: After a two year absence from screens, Stranger Things is back. Despite becoming an instant pop culture phenomenon when it debuted, some (including myself) were a bit underwhelmed by the sophomore season of the show. Time has been kind to both of the first two seasons but the third has been building so much hype, it was going to be virtually impossible to live up to expectations. Shifting from a Fall premiere to the Fourth of July, Stranger Things 3 has to contend with a national holiday as well as the big screen premiere of SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME. While it does have some minor stumbles, Stranger Things 3 is an improvement over the second season with a lot more thrills and an ending that works both as a finale or a lead in to an even more epic fourth season.

Over the eight episode season, Stranger Things 3 looks different than previous seasons. Set in the bright days of summer, you can see the production values are better across the board and take full advantage of the change in visuals that come when not filming stories taking place during Halloween. There is the inclusion of the new Starcourt Mall which fully immerses the series in 80s nostalgia while also impacting the small town of Hawkins itself. There is also the new threat of the Cold War which presents itself in the form of very on the nose Russian military and spies. This may be one of the few missteps made by the Duffer Brothers with Stranger Things 3 as the Soviet element does come across a bit heavy-handed. Nevertheless, the rest of Stranger Things 3 is really quite good.

The entire cast of young actors are all noticeably older and the story takes advantage of this. Like the aging of the stars of the Harry Potter franchise, the Duffers have matured this story along with their actors. At the start of the season, everyone aside from Will is in a relationship and the hormones raging through these teens gives them all the hallmarks of true teenagers and irks their parents, especially Hopper (David Harbour), now sporting a Magnum PI stache. Eleven is no longer the monosyllabic experiment she once was and last year's newcomer Max (Sadie Sink) is a full member of the party. Even Dustin's girlfriend from Utah serves as a reminder of the times we all had a friend who claimed to have a girlfriend from out of town. It is sweet and chock full of nostalgia, just how we like our Stranger Things. 

While Steve Harrington has lost his mojo, Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers are finding their groove at the local newspaper, Joyce Byers and all of the rest of the cast are back and changed by last season's events, it is Dacre Montgomery as Billy Hargrove who has the biggest change to their character. Billy was meant to be a play on the cliche 80s villain in season two but he ended up being wasted as a character. As you can surmise from the trailers, he is changing into something more menacing than a bully. Without giving any plot details away, I can tell you that the threat from the Upside Down is bigger than it has ever been and that works for and against this series.

What helped make Stranger Things so popular and so good was the mix of nostalgia and homage to film and TV from a bygone era. So much of that has been used by this series that Stranger Things 3 borders on overkill. Maybe it is the fact that 1985 was one of the least subtle years for fashion, music, or anything popular, but when this season is not focused on the main plotline, it veers a bit too far into cramming references to the 80s. There is also an abundance of CGI that may be slightly better than what we saw in prior seasons but there is so much more of it that you cannot help but notice when it is on screen. While you may not have the same complaints about the show, I would categorize these as nitpicks since the still stellar musical score by Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein is better than ever and the direction is as good if not better than most of this summer's big screen offerings.

With new castmembers Maya Hawke, Jake Busey and Cary Elwes and returning faces like Paul Reiser and Brett Gelman, Stranger Things 3 is going to be a quick binge for everyone this holiday weekend. Like the Fourth of July, Stranger Things 3 packs some serious fireworks into a season that feels like a worthy conclusion if the story were to stop here. While I don't think it is quite as good as the first season, it is a definite course correction over the second and feels like an eight hour summer movie. Stranger Things 3 is also no longer the homage to Amblin and Stephen King; it has evolved into it's own story and one that will serve as a template for seres to come.

Stranger Things 3 is now streaming on Netflix.

Netflix

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