Will 'Stranger Things' Season 3 Keep Fans Happy?
by EG
The bad thing about being a surprise hit TV series is that fans expect bigger and better things each season. Will the new season of Stranger Things, which is released this week, live up to those expectations? Read on for one reviewer's opinion.
For the second straight season, Netflix's complicated and in-depth list of Stranger Things "Do Not Spoil" restrictions is prohibitive enough to include things that take place within the first five minutes of the premiere, but I think it's OK to reveal that the season takes place in the summer of 1985 and New Coke plays a role. It's a narratively irrelevant role, but it's thematically crucial.
"Sweeter. Bolder. Better," says one enthusiastic character, while other characters mock him for endorsing change for the sake of change.
This is the exact crossroads that Stranger Things finds itself at in its third season. If there were criticisms of the nostalgically intricate drama in season two, they mostly pointed to how quickly the show settled into a repetitive formula, while at the same time lambasting the one episode that broke wildly from that formula.
I think the third season, which I've seen in its eight-episode entirety, is all about recognizing the inevitability of growing up and moving forward, while at the same time fighting against that tide. So when I say there's a repetitious fatigue that sets in through the first five or six episodes, some of that is completely intentional and much of it is still quite entertaining, but this introspection on stagnation and reticence to mature probably could have come sooner and unfolded faster. It's not New Coke, but maybe it makes me sympathize a little with the idea of New Coke.
What can I actually say about the third Stranger Things season by way of plot without giving anything meaningful away?
Like I said, it's summer in Hawkins, Indiana, and as we resume, things with Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) are hot-and-heavy (at least on a middle-school level), much to the grumpy chagrin of Hopper (David Harbour, reaching new pinnacles of huffing and puffing and exaggerated bluster).
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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