I’ve nattered about specific TV shows one time before, but
as a rather general overview. For this one, I’m going to broaden a bit and
ramble on about a whole season—this time, with SPOILERS GALORE. That’s right, I’m not holding anything back, so if
the mere thought of pre-emptive plot details is unacceptable, well, can’t say I
didn’t warn ya.
Today, I’m going to be rambling on about one of Netflix’s
flagship shows, which I’ve certainly mentioned a fair bit in the past—Stranger
Things. The Duffer Brothers’ homage to Spielberg and Stephen King caught on with
its combination of eighties nostalgia, well-directed horror aesthetics, and
very well-acted relatable cast of characters, with charm and quirk. The first
season was pretty straightforward, but tightly shot and made, with a brisk
enough pace and good use of screentime. The second wasn’t as well-focused, but
still had a solid share of entertainment, ramping up the action and threat.
Season Three comes along with the setting changed from the slightly
desolate Fall/winter look of the first two to a summertime period—and thus allowing
the eighties fashion to come out in full
force. This more colorful look goes along with the…slightly goofier, less grounded tone of
the season, which starts to shift away from the slightly dark and macabre King
overtones to…well, some other things the eighties were known for. I’m talking
action movies that defied things like physics and oftentimes common sense, be it
Rambo 3, Red Dawn, or any Chuck Norris movis—and another thing that came with
those, namely the threat of communism!
Off the bat we get introduced to our Bolshevik bad guys,
lead by a general who’s not named but presumably called Comrade Assholov or
something, with his assassin deputy that’s basically Ivan Drago crossed with
the Terminator. They happen to have an elaborate underground base beneath the
remote town of Hawkins, staffed by Red Army soldiers in full uniform. With its
shopping mall entrance guarded by thugs brandishing Kalashnikovs and speaking with
strong accents. Right during the peak of Reaganist cold war paranoia. You’ll
either ask a million questions, like how the hell did they smuggle all that in,
and how General Assholov even got into the country to oversee it all (posing as
a Canadian tourist, maybe?), or grin at the ridiculousness. Or both.
Fortunately, the horror element isn’t gone entirely—the Mind
Flayer is back, taking advantage of experiments conducted by these seemingly
militarily omnipotent Soviets, and there’s lots of vibes crossing Invasion of
the Body Snatchers with The Thing. Mullet-sporting jock bully Billy is one of
the primary victims, and his struggle—combined with the threat of the
infection, and then his eventual redemption—is easily one of the best parts of
the season, to me.
And then I guess that bring us to the main cast, which has
certainly expanded as side-characters come to the forefront. Beyond the overall
slightly jarring changes in tone, it’s not all even—my first major real
complaint comes with David Harbour’s Sheriff Hopper. Hop apparently is reeling
from the effects of a major head injury he must’ve suffered last season, as
he’s now acting more like Jack Torrance—basically, borderline unhinged. He gets
slightly better as things goes on, but where before he was somewhat stern and
strait-laced, here he becomes a raging asshole, always arguing loudly with
Winona Ryder’s Joyce—and it gets slightly tiresome for my liking. I found it a
relief when he was able to brawl with Comrade Terminatorski and feel useful for
a change.
Then there’s the kids—now making that very awkward, very
messy transition into puberty. Mike, Dustin, Will, and Lucas still play their
personalities decently, but now comes love triangles and raging hormones. It’s
not something I’ll complain about massively as, well, it’s honestly pretty
natural for what kids their age will be going through. Will in particular goes
through some rough spots as he tries to get back into the normalcy he was
denied the last couple of seasons—it’s not easy to watch, but you sympathize with
him a lot. Millie Bobbie Brown, fresh from facing off against Godzilla, does
get more range to work with than her monosyllabic performances last times.
Dustin, played still
incredibly as ever by Gaten Matarazzo, is disappointingly not really with the
main group for much of the season—splintering off with Steve Harrington and newcomer
Robin as they undergo slightly improbable shenanigans of infiltrating the
Soviet base below the Starcourt Mall (as in Red
Star…I guess?). Robin (played by Maya Hawke) is another new female lead, who
I found a decent addition. For some reason they also have Lucas’ sister Erica
also joined them, who dipped back and forth between that line of endearingly
precocious and ‘please smack this annoying kid’.
And then there’s also the
other splintering subplot of Nancy and her boyfriend Jonathan investigating the
biomass assimilations of the Mind Flayer, and boy is there a lot of keep track of this time around. I’m somewhat
torn—it makes sense for the plot to get denser as it goes along, but some parts
do feel like they drag as you wait to get for the most interesting part.
There’s one moment near the end as Steve and Robin exchange character development—mostly
for the latter—in a bathroom, which is all fine and well usually, but when
interdimensional monsters are simultaneously smashing Middle America, I felt it
could’ve been cut just a little bit more.
But that being said, one of
the subplots I did like was Season 2’s Murray being another minor character
shoved to the forefront, as he, Hopper, and Joyce bring along a captured Soviet
scientist and proceed to corrupt him with Amerikan capitalist
decadence. Despite speaking Russian throughout, the actor still puts on
a relatable and pretty decent performance that gives it a solid impact when he
gets assassinated by Comrade Terminatorski.
Things pick up at the end when
the kids struggle to survive in a monster-besieged mall, and I did really enjoy
the climax. It’s solidly in wacky-Patrick Swayze-takes-on-Spetsnaz-land as a
schlubby cop, a beardy conspiracy nerd, and a suburban mother infiltrate the
Red Army, but by this point the plot is at full speed and I was solidly
enjoying myself. Billy gets his big moment, El has to struggle with her
overtaxed powers (avoiding a fear I had that it’d boil down to her just
pointing at something with a hand again to win the day), and ultimately, we
have the US government be its usual useful self in the show by showing up late.
I assume the reports to The Gipper would be heavily redacted as to not suggest
the CIA or NSA or other alphabet agencies would be indicted for apparently being
busy smoking weed while the USSR takes over a chunk of Indiana via their secret
weapon of Gap outlets and ice cream stores.
Oh, and Hopper apparently dies—but
as we’ve seen in season 2, this sort of thing isn’t nearly as conclusive when
you’re dealing with dimensional energies. Indeed, there’s a lot of very ambiguous
departures that are clearly there to account for actor contract deals, but
there’s enough hint that the sheriff might indeed be alive. I must also admit
that the post-credits gave me a gleefully macabre grin, with the opening shot
making me think we’d see Hop in the Upside Down. I have no idea how the main
cast would deal with it, but Soviet-weaponized teen-killing monsters do catch
my interest.
Ultimately, Stranger Things
3 is great when it’s good, and has its standout moments, but there’s a few places
too many where it starts getting too overblown for its own good—like when
characters take time to sing an eighties theme song for a good few minutes
(thus dooming one of their friends, in some rather unintentionally dark irony).
They definitely can’t make the cast any larger for next time, and I hope they
bring in the focus a bit, but a lot of the casts’ flair and talent is still on
display. A mixed bag, but one with enough interest that I was able to keep watching.
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