Stranger Things Season 3: Episodes 3-8
So I’ve decided to sum up episodes three to eight in this one blog. It’s one hell of a season, and each episode is definitely worth its own entry, but at this point I think it’s better you get the rest all right here. Besides— chances are you’ve either seen this to its completion or are coming close.
The third season manages to pull off a lot of things. For one, it surpasses the previous two in storytelling, while also being markedly more violent. (And I’m saying this as a good thing. I’ve been wanting more viscera.) Homages to David Cronenberg’s Fly makeup on Jeff Goldblum seem to prevail in moments when the mind flayer is consuming human bodies, a level of gore which pushes its TV-14 envelope well beyond anything we got in season one or two.
Speaking of gore. There’s nothing in season three quite as satisfying as watching the guys from the Hawkins Post meet their demise at the hospital. Jake Busey’s character is particularly repulsive here, and by the time he finally gets impaled by a surgery utensil, we’ve all had more than enough of his bullshit.
The dinner bit with Billy and Heather is another one of my favorites. Heather has this wholesome quality to her up until that point, making the incorporation of “American Pie” to the scene pretty fitting when she clocks her dad with a wine bottle and turns him into another one of the flayed.
The development of Alexei as a character was the supplicant for a lot of show pathos in the third season. Initially you see him as this adversarial scientist in the Russian prologue, but by the end he is this loveable Americanized child-figure who even Murray the fanatical anti-Soviet reporter warms up to.
Another fun homage to the eighties in this season: the “Russian Terminator.” I mean, he has the same sunglasses, same haircut, jacket, etc. I think at one point someone even jokes about him being Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s a very in-your-face borrow from another sci-fi medium but the guy is fierce and it works.
And there’s Hopper. I’m going to say it here: he did not die. He’s a prisoner in the Russian jail in the epilogue following the credits. He just is. There is no way that this show will kill off this character. Who the hell else could have possibly wound up in that cell?
Another reason to love this season—more great eighties songs. Corey Hart, The Cars, and Cutting Crew are all well-represented to keep fans embedded in the mid-80s nostalgia Stranger Things exudes every second. Even if you’re not a fan of the eighties, or in horror/sci-fi tropes, there are too many charismatic performances for one to not like this show. While it lends from a lot, what it gives back in heart is hundredfold.
