Speak Now Storyteller

Summary: The summer of 1985 is disrupted when the Mind Flayer returns, possessing Hawkins residents like Billy and using them to build a new physical form at the new Starcourt Mall. As the teens grapple with new romances and friendships, they must uncover the Soviet plot to open a gate to the Upside Down beneath the mall and defeat the monstrous Mind Flayer, leading to a climactic battle and tragic sacrifices

Season 1 Review

Season 2 Review

Season 4 Review

Spoilers Obviously

Pros:

Cast and Characters. This will be broken up in “kids”, “teens”, “adults” similar to how they do it in the show’s credits.

The Kids.

The kids steal the show. I generally enjoy everyone in the show, but the kids really make the impression, and I would enjoy watching them the entire time.

• Finn Wolfhard as Mike Wheeler. Mike continues to be my favorite character. In this season, it’s a turnaround from his behavior last season as he’s no longer depressed and he starts out the season happy as he gets to finally be with El. It’s the summer so they spend a lot of time together at the cabin due to El’s limitations from Hopper on where she can go and how long she can be out. Because Hopper is annoyed with how much time they’re spending together, he tries to talk with them and I’m not gonna lie, in that scene when Mike was whispering to El while Hopper was trying to be serious, I would have been upset too. Because of Hopper’s unhinged behavior, he scares Mike into lying to El when he doesn’t show up for their schedule date time. Because he knows he messed up, he tries to fix it by getting El a present only to be confronted by El, who “dumps his ass”, and now he’s wallowing in self-pity. The first half of the season, focuses a lot on their relationship woes and this issue is still there but as the Upside Down plot starts to bleed back into their lives, it’s on the backburner but Mike never stops supporting El. It was his idea to the sauna test on Billy, and he was the only one who said something to Max when Will sensed the Mind Flayer was nearby, and he was the only one who tried to help El when Billy started choking her. Paladin indeed. When she pushes too hard, he’s concerned because he clearly remembers S1 when she disintegrated killing the Demogorgon. In the cabin, he’s concerned while she’s trying to find the Flayed but it’s being looked at by the others (except Lucas) as him being controlling. I literally could rant about this but I won’t. He also blurts out his love confession for El in this scene as well. He continues to support El, catching her when she falls, encouraging her but also trying to remind herself of her limits due to trauma. As always, I think Finn does a great job with Mike. He’s grown with the character and when he’s being awkward works really well for him as I think Finn has a naturally awkwardness to him. But he continues to play Mike who is observant, most times, who reacts quickly and tries to be as supportive as possible.
• Millie Bobby Brown as Eleven (“El”). This is the first time where things are okay with El. She’s living in a home, with a father figure who loves, cares and protects her (overprotective most times) surrounded by her friends and her boyfriend. She’s happy. When Hopper steps into her relationship she is thrown off because suddenly Mike is lying to her and not coming to see her. She seeks out Max to talk and this sparks their friendship. While cultivating this new relationship, they go to the mall and have a shopping spree where El starts to discover her personal style. Which I love all the new outfits she gets this season. I’m not sure which one is my favorite they’re all so good. Being around Max she parrots her behavior a little when it comes to interacting with Mike, but she always falls back on him because he’s always there and she knows that. Every single time. When she sees something is going on with Billy and Heather, she seeks them out to understand what’s going on and stop it. She trusts her instincts as she tends to always be right. She wouldn’t let go what she saw happening with Heather in the void go and I love that she doesn’t back down. El really gets to show out this season with her powers. When she confronts Flayed Billy in the sauna, she gets choked by him but still comes back to throw him through the wall. While I feel like her closing the gate last season was a huge task, I think this season puts her through it so much more, having her use so much of power, so much emotional, mental and physical toll that there is more than just a bloody nose. She manages to protect her friends every time. She ends up losing her powers but that doesn’t stop her, but it does make her concerned that she’s no longer useful. It’s shown in her expressions when she’s trying to crush the can. MBB continues to shine in the role as she continues to show El’s different emotions as she experiences different things. She continues to have great chemistry with both David and Finn, and I always enjoy watching El’s relationship with Mike grow along with her other friendships. I think this simultaneously gets to be a fun upbeat experience for her as El but also a super emotionally draining one.
• Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin Henderson. Dustin was away for most of the summer at science camp. He returns, at first upset that none of his friends were there to welcome him back the way he thought but they actually surprised him. He’s excited to show them what he worked on, especially Cerebro, his ham radio with a huge radius. He tries to introduce them to his girlfriend Suzie but since the connection doesn’t work, they don’t believe him. While trying to contact Suzie, he ends up intercepting a secret Russian transmission. He goes to Steve, and meets Robin, and they decode the message, branching off in their separate plot. Dustin’s friendship with Steve is fun, I like that he has a big brother figure who helped him with confidence. Adding Robin to their group also works out because they all play each other well, and a lot of time it ends up being Robin and Dustin teasing Steve. It’s actually funny because this group is very loud, they yell a lot. I don’t have a ton to say about Dustin because I feel like he’s so straight forward. As always, Gaten is fantastic in the role. His delivery is great, his comedic timing is natural and he’s just naturally charismatic.
• Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas Sinclair. In this season, Lucas is at his most relaxed and I appreciate that. I feel like my boy is stressed out every season so while he still has stressed moments this season, I like that he gets a chance to breathe by enjoying his summer. He spends time with his friends, sneaking into the movies, and just doing whatever. Apparently, he and Max broke up several times over their time together, but he seems to always take it stride. When Mike is faced with his lie to El because of Hopper’s threats, Lucas tries to be a great wingman by helping Mike figure out how to best apologize to El. He even asks his dad how to go about it, even when the woman is wrong. I appreciate how Lucas also comes up with plans to help in addition to El’s powers and he just doesn’t expect her to handle it on her own. I appreciate how levelheaded he is when trying to help Mike through his relationship problems even though they’re literally the same age with the same amount of experience (probably). I like when he interacts with Erica because he’s always so shocked to see her in places lol. Lucas has been one of my favorite characters and he continues to be top 5 for me. I also liked his little teasing duet with Max at the end of the season. Caleb is great and I think he has chemistry with Finn and Sadie as I think he interacts with them the most.
• Noah Schnapp as Will Byers. In this season, this is the first time we get to see Will be a kid for a time where he’s not being tormented by creatures from the Upside Down. His True Sight ability doesn’t count as he’s pretty passive this season. He’s the only member of the party who is single and there’s a clear indication that Will feels a little left behind by his friends in many ways, but he does take this emotion out on Mike specifically. Though, I have to say, when I first watched this season, I didn’t think anything of Will having feelings for Mike. It was just friendship pains to me. He spends a lot of the early season wanting to play DnD but is shot down because everyone is dealing with emotional relationship matters, or Dustin isn’t present. Honestly, outside of a few specific moments, I think Will is in the background a lot this season, which I think is fine since we did focus a lot on him last season. But I think his story is a lesson in growing up and how sometimes even in friend groups, you grow apart, or you find that your interests shift and it’s up to everyone to maintain those relationships. This bit continues into the next season where I think Will hasn’t learn that he’s part of these relationships and he ALSO has to put in the work to maintain them and not just expect for everyone else to do the work. I think Noah is just fine this season compared to the previous season.
• Sadie Sink as Max Mayfield. Max has more to do this season because she gains a friendship with El. They don’t seem to be all that close at the start but once the boy troubles start, El seeks her out for advice. Not gonna lie, every time I rewatch this season, I am EXTREMELY annoyed with Max, but I keep her in the pros because I don’t think she’s a bad character, I understand her mindset and Sadie Sink is a great actress. Max is a teenager, and she think she knows everything, especially in a sense with El who is still learning now that she’s free in the world. It’s that kind of thing where she gets to show off how much she thinks she knows, and it comes from a positive place. She wants to help, she thinks she’s helping even though she’s very misguided because she doesn’t have all the facts and she came after the main trauma happened with El so she doesn’t have that baggage. I like her montage in the mall with El, I liked seeing their friendship grow as I think all girls should have a best girl-friend. It makes sense that El and Max would eventually find friendship being in the same friend group and El now knows that Max wasn’t trying to steal Mike from her. When they find out that Billy is up to something, she really hopes he’s not because while she hates him, she doesn’t want him to be the cause of evil things happening. She tries to appeal to him in the sauna scene and then later in the mall, failing both times, then she has to watch him die by saving El. Sadie does really well at coming off very pushy as Max, and the fun loving she has when paired with MBB but also when she has the emotional moments, she’s great with those too.
• Priah Ferguson as Erica Sinclair. Erica officially makes her series regular debut this season. She’s Lucas’s 10-year-old sister and she spends her time at the mall, terrorizing the Scoops employees for trying 50 million flavors every day. She gets involved because Steve, Dustin and Robin needed someone small to crawl the through the vents to find out more about the mysterious shipments. She ends up mixed in their mission and she definitely makes sure to make her stamp on the team. I like Erica, she has a line that really cracks me up this season, when Lucas sees her at the mall he says “isn’t it your bedtime?” and she says “isn’t it time you DIED?” and it’s so funny to me because girl what?? I know she can be a lot, but as I said in my S4 review, kids like her exist. I like that she’s smart, independent, funny and mean wrapped up in one. She takes stuff from no one. Priah does a great job, her comedic timing is fantastic.

The Teens

• Natalie Dyer as Nancy Wheeler. This season Nancy, alongside Jonathan, is working at the local paper and she and Jonathan are fully dating. She wants to be a reporter but isn’t taken seriously by the men there. She spends a lot of her earlier time trying to impress them and trying to stand out and be taken seriously. She decides to follow up on a phone call they received and gets narrow minded on finding out what’s going on with all the rats eating fertilizer. Of course, her ideas get shut down and she’s chastised for it. When she goes too far, she ends up getting both herself and Jonathan fired (though he didn’t have to go with her). But she continues looking into the situation because it’s just so weird. Of course, she and Jonathan’s plot converges with the Party’s, and they all learn that the Mind Flayer is back and doing weird stuff to people but it’s not quite like what happened with Will this time. It’s actually worse and gross. She visits Mrs. Driscoll in the hospital and stuff really hits the fan with the guys from her job attacking her and Jonathan. It was a very good sequence where she got to be a scream queen, which for a summer vibe, I think worked really well with her. I like Nancy, she’s the best of the teenage characters and they really give her a lot to work with. She’s very capable and that continues to grow each season. Natalia Dyer continues to do great work in the role.
• Charlie Heaton as Jonathan Byers. This season Jonathan and Nancy are fully dating and working together at a local paper where’s the photographer. As per usual, Jonathan is practically dragged along because Nancy wants to investigate something. He takes pictures of the rat and if he would have stayed just a little longer, he would have seen it exploded. Smh. I do appreciate that he doesn’t just let Nancy walk all over him all the time, he does fight back. He’s a fighter during the hospital sequence and even though I know that boy got his back broken, he still tried to protect Nancy. As usual, he serves his purpose. I do think it’s lessened since season 1 but sure. And Charlie Heaton is fine.
• Joe Keery as Steve Harrington. In this season, Steve has graduated high school but literally talks about not having a future. That was one of his early struggles in S2. But he works at Scoops and seems to have lost his coolness as every girl he tries to flirt with, he crashes and burns. I was like Robin, laughing at him because relax bro. But he reunites with Dustin and along with Robin, they get mixed up in the Russian plot of trying to reopen the gate and using Starcourt Mall as a front for their deliveries. I appreciate how Steve took Robin’s confession in stride and just moved on like it’s not that big a deal, which for that time period it is a big deal. I appreciate how he does try to fight to protect the others. It’s a running joke that Steve always gets beat up and he does manage to actually win a fight in this season. He also willingly sacrifices himself to be caught so Dustin and Erica could escape. Steve isn’t my favorite, not by a long shot, but I always appreciate how he does try to protect the kids. Joe Keery is fine in the role.
• Maya Hawke as Robin Buckley. Robin is introduced this season as Steve’s cool and sarcastic coworker from Scoops. She takes tallies of how often he strikes out with girls in the store and makes fun of him for being lame when he’s always been cool in school. She ends up involved for helping Steve and Dustin decipher the Russian transmission Dustin intercepted. Throughout their adventures, she’s quick on her feet, still sarcastic and still has a cool demeanor to her. She has great chemistry with Steve to the point that Steve recognizes it as well and confesses to having a little crush just for her to confide in him that she’s a lesbian. The rest of the season she’s along for the ride and is helpful in their final battle with the mind flayer. I like Robin this season. I made a comment in my S4 review about how I liked her more this season, which is still true, but I did recognize some of her “manic” tendencies in S3 that they amped up in S4. I think there could have been a better balance for her personality than how they decided to handle it in both seasons. So, I still prefer her in S4, I also liked her hair styling better. But I like Maya Hawke, she fits in well and I think she has good chemistry with Steve, Dustin and Erica.
• Dacre Montgomery as Billy Hargrove. I have a hard time with Billy since I really don’t like him. I still don’t like him here, but he has way more to do than he did last season. He’s graduated high school and working as a lifeguard, where everyone fawns all over him because he’s hot (to each their own). At least his hair looks better this season. But he basically basks in the attention he gets from the ladies and makes sure to single out Karen Wheeler, which sure, she’s hot. He plans to meet her at a motel, and he gets accosted by a small piece of the Mind Flayer which possesses him. It affects Billy like an illness, different from what happened with Will. He’s all sweaty, tired, hallucinating and gross. He lures people to the Mind Flayer to have them turned Flayed. He even gets to play a little preppy when he and Heather target her parents. I think the Sauna sequence is just such a good scene for him. Plus, the conversation he has with El when he talks about how they’re making the army for her. If anything, I will praise Dacre’s acting. I think he’s a good actor and he does his job with Billy. His death is sad but more because of Max’s reaction than his actual death (for me). But Dacre does stand out this season with a lot more to chew on.

The Adults – We have Murray and Alexei as a big part of this season. Murray (Brett Gelman) is fine, sometimes annoying and Alexei (Alec Utgoff) does what he needs to do.

• Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers. Joyce finds herself once again finds herself noticing something is going on but this time instead of it being with one of her kids, it’s about the magnets on her fridge. And just like she does everything, she throws herself into the mystery and hyper focuses on that until she’s able to find out what’s going on and when she finds out it has to do with the Upside Down, she locks in even more. Joyce spends a lot of the season with Hopper, Alexei and Murray on their own side quest. I think Winona and David have great chemistry and they play off each other so well but since Hopper is so yelly this season and I don’t like that, she spends a lot of the time either justifying herself… which I was shocked that Hopper didn’t believe her right away considering how she’s been right about everything EVERY SEASON. I appreciated that while she was wary of Alexei by nature of him, she was still kind with him and tried to communicate with him without straight up yelling and threatening him. As per usual, Winona is great.
• David Harbour as James “Jim” Hopper, nicknamed “Hop,”. When Hopper has quiet and soft moments I appreciate those. I actually don’t like him this season so I don’t have much to say about him in this section. David Harbour continues to be great in the role though.

The Summer Vibes. I really love that this season is set during the summer. The 80s aesthetic always worked really well for the series but I think season looks fun because of the super bright 80s clothes and colors. I love all of the costumes this season more than any season I think. I love all of El’s outfits and how she gets to find her style this season since she’s spent the last two seasons running around in hand me down clothes. It sucks she doesn’t get to keep that style in California. I like her makeover montage with Max. It was very teenage girl. I liked seeing Nancy and Jonathan in a summer job, indicating what they’re future interests are, especially for Nancy. The mall setting also really helps this along. I know Stranger Things has had a very grounded and grim look in the past, but I appreciate that because they think everything is over with El having closed the gate, they can relax… not to mention, the look of the season really juxtaposes with what’s actually going on in the season.

The Sauna Sequence. This is my favorite sequence in the season. They work together to execute Mike’s plan to not only verify if Billy has the Mind Flayer in him but to get it out of him in the same way it was burned out of Will last season. We get to see a good range of emotions from Dacre in how he’s responding to the situation. Max is emotional because while she hates Billy, he’s still her brother and she does love him. Mike’s quick thinking in protecting both Max and El, while trusting Will’s True Sight and El’s powers. El really shines in this sequence and MBB kills it. It’s such a good sequence that I can rewatch over and over.

Horror Elements/Dark Season. Until S4 came in like a wrecking ball, S3 was the darkest season in terms of story elements. The fleshy Mind Flayer and the Flayed really gave for some horrifying scares. Seeing the rats running at the start just to burst into fleshy blobs and then join into a growing monster. Then the same for people of the town? That’s insane. So many people died this season by becoming part of the fleshy Mind Flayer. Not to mention, El straining herself the way she does, getting told point blank the Mind Flayer was building an army to kill her. Plus, Billy’s story throughout the season and learning about his childhood and the way it’s framed while El’s in his memories.

Emotional Moments/Relationships. Every season has strong emotional moments and I think S3 is no different. There are moments that make me tear up as usual but I think there are just also very good moments that deal with adulthood, relationships and difficult choices. Mileven dealing with relationship woes and how to navigate that. It’s funny but frustrating because I at least understand what’s going on on Mike’s end. The rain scene between Mike and Will is good. Any relationship is hard to maintain and it’s work for everyone involved, but sometimes people have to learn they have to put the work in too and it’s not just on the other person. Nancy and Jonathan’s conversation about working and how being a woman is hard in male dominated industries but also being in Jonathan’s shoes, coming from a poor family and not having a financial pillow to fall back on, any good paying job doing something you love can be good enough regardless of how you (or your loved ones) are treated. It’s a difficult conversation to have, especially as a couple of teenagers. Alexei’s death is sad but inevitable. He’s cute and everything, kind of annoying at a point but the little friendship he created with Murray and kind of with Joyce was cute. I felt for him but I knew he was going to die since that Russian Terminator was still around AND you’re having fun at an American 4th of July fair?? Yeah, it was over. Then later, Hopper’s letter to Eleven was very emotional, coupled with the montage, MBB’s acting and David’s delivery for it. I felt that more than Hopper’s actual “death sequence”. Also, Billy’s death is sad in how Max is reacting to it. There’s a lot of emotional bangers this season.

Visual Effects. Just by the nature of the show, Stranger Things needs to have good visual effects. I think for the most part they continue to be very good. I think the fleshy Mind Flayer is disgusting which it needs to be since it’s made from exploding humans and rats. I do think it’s a bit over the top, especially compared to the shadowy version from the previous season, but overall, it’s a good scary, gross design. Same thing with how the melting humans effect worked. So gross. El’s powers are telekinetic so there’s not a lot to see there but it always feels seamless. There’s more happening in the void this time which I really liked. El finding Heather and then her being yanked down into the bathtub was a great horrifying visual. When El went into Billy’s memories, I really liked how that was shown. It was very dramatic with all the wind and the sky acting crazy. It really showed just how tumultuous Billy’s mind is. I do wish they experimented with the void a lot more, especially when going into people’s minds.

The Battle of Starcourt. I think this is one of the best episodes of the show in general. There’s so much happening, and all of the plotlines converge in a pleasing way at the mall. The adults go off to their mission, the Mall team (Robin, Steve, Dustin & Erica) go off to their thing and Nancy/Jonathan and the rest of the Party handle stuff at the mall. We have Billy’s sacrifice and death and the acting from both Dacre and Sadie in this moment. El losing her powers and already beginning to feel lost, just to also lose Hopper. The scene where she’s looking around in the mayhem of the paramedics get me every time. Mike immediately coming to both El and Max’s defense, even when trying to help Max gets him knocked out by Billy. Finally meeting Suzie, and the Neverending Story duet. Lucas’s plan to distract and hurt the Mind Flayer with the firecrackers. Joyce and Hopper’s final look before he “dies”. There’s just a lot to like in this episode. I think this season is messy, but this episode just brings it all together for me. It’s so fun and my heart is always pounding when watching.

Cons:

Mike’s Treatment. One of my biggest annoyances this season is how Mike is treated in both the show and by the fandom. But I won’t rant about the fandom here. While I think Mike’s dismissive and sarcastic attitude with Hopper at the start is cause for a talking to, I feel like he’s treated very poorly as a result. He’s like a punching bag this season. He’s bullied into making a difficult decision about his relationship which leads him to lying to save face. Just for things to spiral, then Max gets involved and she just projects her issues and reacts like Mike is the worst. It’s so annoying to me. It was even more annoying when Nancy isn’t on his side later which I could go on about Nancy and Mike’s relationship or lack thereof but that’s really the fault of the writers. Then I’m also annoyed by Will’s attitude with Mike when the season before, Will was Mike’s priority and now that he’s not and Mike has something else he’d like to focus on, Will acts like Mike is ruining their friendship. It’s really frustrating to me. Only person who Mike actively interacts with this season who’s on his side is Lucas.

Hopper’s Attitude. I cannot stand Hopper this season. His attitude is insane and I feel like they made him unhinged for the drama and tension but it makes him insufferable. Now that he’s officially El’s adoptive father, he’s even more protective and I understand him wanting to instill rules between Mileven (Mike/Eleven) because he should but his approach to them is crazy. You are the adult sir, you need to calm down and just speak to them, regardless if Mike is being a little asshole or not. Send him home and talk to El separately and then talk to Mike. “I could just kill Mike, I’m the Chief, I could cover it up.” That’s not funny. You literally lied to this boy for a year, letting him think Eleven was gone. Relax. Then losing it and threatening him in the car… it’s not funny and I know it’s meant to read as humorous but it’s not. Then on top of that the way he treated Joyce throughout the season. I didn’t see romance for them in S1 but I could see it trying to develop in S2, he was jealous of Bob and he often reminisced with Joyce about high school. So it was a natural progression that I guess I was fine with, after all, similar to Nancy and Jonathan, they’ve trauma bonded but he’s so mean to her. Good thing Joyce never backs down from him. But to get mad at her for not coming to the date that YOU SAID wasn’t even a date. I can’t stand him. His last scene with El and Mike before they split up was nice though. His letter that El got to read at the end was very nice but I genuinely do not like Hopper this season.

I still don’t like Max and Billy. Unfortunately, I still don’t like them. Billy is utilized more as a villain and it’s sad, and Dacre’s acting is great, which is why I still included him in pros. But I don’t like how it seems like because of his bad childhood it justifies his attitude and actions prior to becoming Flayed. Or at least that’s how the fans of the show treat him. He’s a bad person. Yes, he’s a victim of abuse but he chose to continue that behavior instead of choosing to break those curses. It’s sad but his sacrifice doesn’t change that for me. I don’t like how people act like it does. As for Max, she’s a teenager so I always try to give grace when it comes to kids/teenagers making decisions and not judging from an adult lens (to an extent) however, when I was their age, I was pretty mature. Max and Eleven weren’t really friends even if they hung out together until El came to her about Mike, this is shown because Max is surprised to see El. Either she was surprised to see her because they’re not friendly or she was surprised because El isn’t supposed to be out and about. I think it’s because they’re not friendly as she ignores the rules and takes El to the mall. When Mike questions them, not because of his rules but because of Hoppers, she snaps at him “is she your pet?” and you literally have to know he’s asking because of Hopper’s rules. You know she at least has a curfew because they say it earlier when they left from climbing the hill. When El questions “against the rules?” when it comes to spying on the boys, Max says “we make our own rules” okay fine, sure but then later when Mike is upset that they spied, El parrots what Max said when they’ve clearly established boundaries. I don’t mind Max and El’s friendship developing. I don’t mind that Max views El as being super cool and powerful and showing her she can be her own person but I do mind that Max is just misguided and wrong under the guise of “independence”. El’s always been her own person, and I can’t stand that some people act like she isn’t or hasn’t been. Not to mention, her whole thing where she keeps discounting anyone’s ideas just because El has powers and she thinks El doesn’t need any backup. I just find that so annoying, especially when Mike is TELLING you, he’s seen El overdo it before, regardless of whether or not El CAN do it. Lucas literally told you everything in S2. It doesn’t make me like her when I already didn’t like her in S2. I would have liked to have a scene with Max and Mike at the end of the season to have them reconcile. It would have helped their friendship as we don’t get to see it again in S4.

Karen (and the moms) & Billy. I hate hate hate this entire storyline. I didn’t like it the first time and on rewatches I always frown. I understand the idea of these housewives being unfulfilled in their marriages and Billy is hot, I guess, and he’s a lifeguard so everyone gets to parade around in their bathing suits, but you are adults drooling over this 18-year-old, 19-year-old at best. Even to the point of talking badly about Heather just because she’s not Billy. If Billy wasn’t in high school when introduced in S2 but Max’s 20 something year old stepbrother, then it wouldn’t be as icky to me. But what makes it worse is Karen even entertaining the idea of meeting Billy at a motel. Ted leaves lot to be desired, I understand girl, he’s a loser in a lot of ways, but if you’re going to have an affair, have one with an adult man. I also hate that she goes to apologize to him for not showing up, but I guess it was a nice thing to do. But I hate this plot, and it was completely unnecessary. Take it out and it changes nothing. The moms could have been a bunch of high school girls.

Messy Storytelling. I like s3 more than s2 but I think it suffers from messy storytelling. Particularly when it comes to the Russian storyline. I think the Mind Flayer stuff works and is the most compelling but the stuff with the Russians from both the adults and Robin/Steve/Dustin/Erica had a lot to be desired. I just don’t find it interesting. The idea that the fleshy Mind Flayer works is because the piece of the shadow that was burned out of Will was cut off from the Upside Down when El closed the gate makes sense why that’s happening. I couldn’t care less about the Russians trying to reopen the gate for a warfare advantage. It’s nice that everything comes together in the end

Overall, Stranger Things season 3 is a messy but good season. I think the kid characters are all at interesting points in their trajectory, they’re growing into teenagers and are facing important life aspects like romance and relationships. I always praise Stranger Things for doing well with how it portrays their relationships and I think that still stands for the most part. Some choices made I don’t like but I still love my favorite characters. The visuals for the season are fun with the summer vibes but also the horror elements. Out of the first three seasons, S3 is the darkest season with the Flayed and how they get incorporated into the Mind Flayer. It’s so crazy. While a lot of the relationship drama annoys me, I do appreciate it because it allows the characters to learn important lessons. I think it’s a very character driven season as everyone literally stumbles upon everything that’s going on this season. My main issues are that the characters I find annoying, are still annoying or I don’t like them. While I praised Will last season, he really irked me this season alongside Billy and Max who I already didn’t enjoy last season. I hate the storyline with Billy and Karen. I hate how Mike gets treated this season and I strong dislike Hopper this season. But I still like this season more than S2 lol.

Rating: 3.9 out of 5 stars.

I have now completed all of my Stranger Things reviews. Be sure to check out all my previous reviews, including Season 4 which I did back when it premiered. It’s going to be annoying to watch season 5 broken up but I definitely can’t wait till it’s all out. It would drive me nuts. I will be watching twice before doing a review. Follow this blog to get a notification for when that review gets posted!

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