Ali Plumb reviews Stranger Things Season 3

A year after the events of Season 2 and we’re back in good ol’ Hawkins, Indiana’s most paranormally messed-up town. It’s the summer break, and the gang is loving the brand new mall that’s opened up just outside of town. Everything seems fine: Nancy and Jonathan are working hard at the local paper, Jim Hopper is making his uniquely clumsy attempts to win over Joyce Byers, and Steve is selling ice creams as he learns to put up with his new co-worker Robin. But when Dustin comes back from camp, the cracks in the façade become clearer as the blossoming relationships start to disrupt friendships. And has anyone else heard the strange noises coming from the abandoned steelworks? Could the inhabitants of The Upside Down be back in town, and might these mysterious Russians hanging around have something to do with it?

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Pros:

• Writer-creators The Duffer Brothers have given us some of the most loveable TV characters of recent years with Stranger Things. Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) and Steve (Joe Keery) are my personal favourites, but there are so many to choose from. Maybe Hopper (David Harbour) is your fave, or Eleven of course (Millie Bobby Brown), or Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin)… the list goes on and on. When it comes to Stranger Things, even if there were no Upside Down or Demogorgon or what-have-you, the characters are so enjoyable, so fun, so dynamic, you’re just happy to be back in their company. Stranger Things is thoroughly entertaining – and pleasingly horrific – throwback escapism, stuffed full of these cute characters brought to life so well by an embarrassingly talented cast. After her smaller role in the recent Godzilla movie, Millie Bobby Brown will undoubtedly be the lead of her own film soon enough.

• Though a lot of the edges have undeniably been smoothed off here and there as the show has evolved, the gruesome, ghastly, gungy gore has gone nowhere. The monster this time around is a very sludgy… something. While Stranger Things is kiddy and silly and clichéd and stuffed to the gills with references, the creepiness is still very much on show, its many teeth on proud display and gloopy gunge dripping everywhere.

• There are so many characters now it’s a minor miracle that the showrunners have managed to deftly weave all their separate stories together. It’s a proper wire-walking act these days, with the additional characters from season 2 now joined by further newcomers – all of the proper gems, honestly – and I have to salute all involved for making everything mesh together as well as it does. To do justice to the old and the new is a very tricky manoeuvre.

Cons:

• There are plenty of things I could put in the cons column here – it’s one of those shows you’re really enjoying in the moment, but in the back of your mind you’re unintentionally compiling a list of annoying little niggles – and as they are pretty much all massive plot spoilers, I’ll have to hold my peace. I’ll say this though… could the characters stop arguing? Because they argue. A lot. When you binge all eight episodes on the trot, repetition like this is more obvious, with another oft-beaten drum being “saved in the nick of time” trope, and while it’s all very minor, there are quite a few of these gripes, and they add up. It’s just more predictable than it’s ever been before, and that’s a big shame.

• Are you good at suspending disbelief? Because this series asks you to do so over and over. Yes, it’s a fantastical horror TV show with an “Upside Down World”, and demons, and a girl who can move things with her mind, but there are plenty of other gobsmacking new revelations here as well, so… forewarned is forearmed.

• There is some achingly in-your-face product placement in this series. A reference is a reference, and a nod is a nod, but on a couple of occasions, it’s practically beamed into your brain.

Three word review: Gory, loveable, busy.