I spent my Independence Day weekend binge-watching Stranger Things season 3, and it is now one of my favorite shows. The long weekend is perfect for taking what is really just a long movie broken up into 8 parts, and I’m now sold on the show’s entire nostalgia/horror/popcorn entertainment schtick.

    Showrunners the Duffer brothers obviously have a strong creative vision: they long ago announced that there will only be 4 seasons of their show, indicating that they have a clear ending in mind and the show will not flag in later seasons, as some other programs that drag on too long. While each season does tell a complete self contained story, they do a great job of building on the character developments of previous seasons, while still making each episode contain their own climaxes and memorable sequences. In short, there is no filler nor any scene that feels like it drags. 

By this point in time, the story is old hat: the town of Hawkins has problems with a parallel dimension called the Upside Down, and the dark, demonic denizens of that dimension that attempt to break through into our world. Luckily, a most plucky and most resourceful group of teens call Hawkins their home, and with the help from telepathic wunderkid Eleven, they are there to save the day. The beats of the story are a little predictable after a while, but that in and of itself plays into the 80s nostalgia theme. Think about all of the great popcorn franchises of that decade, from Friday the 13th to Indiana Jones. The stories all play off of an established archetype, but the fun comes from the presentation and how each installment plays with the established formula. In the case of Stranger Things, the characters are so well established and winning that I was happy to go along for another ride.

The new additions this time around are a new character, Robin, who serves as a fantastic foil to Steve’s washed up heartthrob. Lucas’s younger sister Erica is also upgraded to a full-time member of the crew, however I appreciated her more as a side character in the prior two seasons. Her wisecracks and little-sister sass worked great as occasional comedic relief, but this season leaned a little bit too hard into that, and her constant attitude was a tad grating. However her ongoing commentary on the benefits of capitalism was a riot, and I’m confident that we’ll see more development for her in the future.

Oh, there’s also Soviet Russians in Hawkins, too.

I won’t get into too many story-specific spoilers, but suffice it to say that this is the darkest season yet. Similar to how J.K. Rowling “aged” her Harry Potter series with its audience, so too are showrunners the Duffer brothers maturing Stranger Things season by season. This fits the show’s characters, who are older and dealing with more adult situations. It also continues to up the stakes for the TV audience, who, after being eased into the world through Season 1 and escalated in Season 2, are now primed for more immediate thrills. Indeed, Season 3 is more violent than previous installments, and some scenes are outright gory. It never gets gratuitous, but there is a more visceral tone to the proceedings here; once things start rolling it doesn’t slow down until the very end.

Criticisms? Very few. Okay, Sheriff Hopper came off as an angry blowhard with control issues compared to his gruff but kind-hearted cop of the first two seasons. His character was rehabilitated a bit by the final couple episodes, but I was never sold on his romance with Joyce as much as season 2’s Bob Newby, Superhero (RIP). David Harbour does a great job and clearly has fun with the role, so we’ll see what happens next season (if anything…*cough cough*).

Finally, the tone of the show ties it all together. Much has been made about how Stranger Things is essentially a long-form homage to Stephen Speilberg and Stephen King films of the 1980s, and that’s true, but the aesthetic does so much more than salute influences. The 1980s were both the culmination of classic Americana that began in the 50s, as well as a divider between the pre-digital world and our modern online era. In this regard, we currently live in that decade’s shadow, our society molded by its malls, unfettered consumerism, and cultural touchstones. However, these standards of what “American life” entail are being transformed at a rapid rate due to digital technology, social media, and the ensuing globalisation. We recognize the world of Stranger Things, but it is not quite our world. We pick up on this cognitive dissonance, and subconsciously yearn for that “classic” world again. Yes there was television and landlines in the 1980s, but these are quaint compared to the instant and inescapable level of connection we have nowadays. The children of Hawkins, like many children of the 80s, live in a much smaller world, where they use their imagination to create faraway DnD lands, where arcade video games are a portal to another adventure, and where their entire world is centered around the community pool and local mall. It makes the scary incursions of the Upside Down both more jarring and more believable — it’s easy to be cynical in a world where the answer to everything is a click away, but in their world, the world is just that much more mysterious. It’s fitting that season 3 takes place during the Fourth of July. It exemplifies the America of our collective popular imagination, an America that, in many ways, we strive to return to, but never will. That era has passed, just as it does for the characters at the end of this season. The world continues, but it’s…different.

Season 3, like the one before, ends on a surprisingly emotional note. The changes engendered by the season’s fallout speak to the central theme of the show being about kids. Life brings unexpected change, and growing up is learning how to cope with it. Regardless of what the next year or two bring, I’ll be there to binge the next season when it comes out: popcorn in hand and ready to enjoy the neon thrills, chills, and laughs.