Stranger Things Season 3, Episode 1
And now an initial review for the Netflix event I have been waiting for all year.
We start with a Russian prologue set in July 1984, months before the events in the second season. A crevice of the upside-down is being torched by protons, an experiment which proves adverse when a crew of suited scientists get the same treatment and split apart. Alexei in his debut scene is told he has a year to fine-tune his experiments and basically get it together.
A summer later, we are again in Hawkins where a bunch of teens are in love. Mike and Eleven are the hot and heavy make-out couple of the friend group, to the chagrin of Hopper, who is still trying to figure out how to parent his teenage daughter while he catches up on Magnum PI. Joyce tries to apply reason with Hopper when he asks for guidance enforcing rules at home. In one of the more amusing segments of the episode, Hopper rehearses a soliloquy to himself in bed while smoking a cigarette, contemplating a would-be “boundaries” talk with the two lovers. What he ends up doing instead, however, is driving a wedge between Mike and El for the bulk of the show.
Nancy and Jonathan have taken on an internship at the Hawkins Post, which gives Jonathan access to a much nicer darkroom. As for Nancy, well, this summer gig is not exactly what she had in mind. She probably hoped to pick up news reporting skills and tips—in addition to all the coffee runs—but unfortunately just gets met with a lot of condescending banter from the paper higher-ups, particularly Bruce (Jake Busey). He patronizes her and calls her Nancy Drew and overall acts like a dick.
The Hawkins Pool is where the real juice is in this episode though. Billy is the new lifeguard, and the local moms are all over it. In a great Phoebe Cates-esque sequence, Billy steps out onto the pool deck, cigarette smoke billowing out of his mouth, and charms a very titillated Mrs. Wheeler. I guess this twist is messed up, considering Billy’s character may still be a minor, but admittedly I was pretty into the show addressing this little story aside full on. It isn’t, however, what you would think.
The kids sneak into Day of the Dead in a fun little scene by walking through Steve’s new place of work, Scoops Ahoy. His ice cream job is another amusing Fast Times homage; you can almost hear Judge Reinhold discussing the importance of being a single successful guy while Steve miserably tries to hit on female customers. This new Scoops Ahoy angle also gives life to a wonderful new character named Robin, a co-worker who busts his balls, and inevitably gets entangled in the agendas set forth by an intercepted Russian radio message.
The period flavor (summer of ‘85 in this case) is still perfectly executed—there is not a single inaccurate note delivered with respect to cultural references, styles, or music of the time. It would appear Nancy and her mother have begun a contest for biggest hair. Hop’s “cutting-edge” aloha shirt is an amusing nod to Magnum PI, and the Grigori character introduced in the beginning is very Terminator.
And how about those imploding barn rats?
