Edit: Lmao I was a little dramatic with this long ass rant, wasn't I :sweat_smile:
[7.5] While this had some really great standout moments and some of the series' best scenes, for me as a whole this was a lot weaker than the previous seasons. Here's why:
1) Hopper
What happened... How come one of my favorite characters from the first two seasons is now one of my least favorites? Well the sudden and jarring change of personality is what happened. See, Hopper was always a flawed individual; a man struggling with his grief, someone who mostly resolves his problems with punching them. His arc was to find purpose in life again and throughout the series we see him trying to get and be better. He still loses his temper occasionally but he is also shown to be vulnerable, he respects Joyce's feelings and tries to be a good father to El and keep her safe. One of my favorite moments of the last season was when Mike learns that Hopper was hiding El the whole time which results in him getting overblown by his anger so he starts to throw punches at Hopper and what does Hop do? He lets it happen, turns it into a hug and apologizes to him. Such a good moment for him and then boom, first episode of the third season and Hopper resents Mike and wants to break him and El up. Which yeah, time has passed and things have changed (and Mike is kinda a brat) but Hopper should be at his happiest and healthiest point ever since we've known him. Instead he is now angrier than he ever was. He is also extremely jealous and manipulative and suddenly incapable of communicating his feelings. His constant bickering with Joyce is what annoyed me the most. I get what the Duffer brothers were trying to do; bring in this typical 80s love-hate relationship but this is never how their dynamic has been before. Not to mention it's just in general toxic. Well now Hopper is trying to trick Joyce into a date, doesn't take her seriously when she tries to tell him about the magnets, is overly jealous and constantly complaining. I'm sorry this is not sexual tension like the show tries to tell me, these are multiple red flags. I really liked the idea of those two getting together in the past but now after S3 Hopper just seems like huge downgrade from Bob and Joyce honestly deserves better. And what's also sad is that in normal circumstances I would have been devastated if Hopper "died" but now I just felt hallow watching it. In fact I wouldn't mind that much if he actually didn't come back and if Joyce and him never become a thing (but it will definetely happen, no doubt) and that's just sad.
2) The plot
With my main complaint out of the way, let's focus on the plot. It actually wasn't bad but its problem lies in that it's more of the same old stuff. A new monster that gets defeated by everyone coming together at the end to make a plan, then split up and accomplish it. We had that before and everything's going more or less exactly how you'd expect. Which brings me to the point of predactability. I don't know if it's just me but there were hardly any surprises this season. Most stuff happened as I thought it would and even a lot of the jokes I could tell by miles away. It's not necessarily a bad thing but I wish there was bit more mystery and subverting of the tropes (the only thing that came close was everyone parting ways at the end and Robin and Steve not ending up together which I personally loved!). In general I thought the plot just moved too slowly and a some of it fel like filler and the same thing happening again and again: hide, fight a little, run, repeat. In fact I was kinda really over the whole Mindflayer plot by the second last episode that I wished they just defeated it here and then and spent the last episode focusing on the friendships and relationships. It also didn't help to have no personal connection to the Mindflayer or all the people it killed - which by the way was totally brushed over?? They were even kids under its victims yet we never see anyone in town mention it and the 4th of July celebration goes on without anyone talking or worrying about all the missing people? Weird. Just like no one mentions the chaos that happened at the hospital. They were barely any consequences to stuff happening in general like Jonathan got beaten up really badly and to me it seems like his back got broken but he's physically fine in the next one, so my bad I guess. Feels a little lazy to be honest.
Billy's character was a bit of a missed oppurtunity too. I wish they actually showed us how the relationship between him and Max looks like now. The last time we saw them together (before he got flayed) was last season when Max threatened him after he constantly abused her and beat up her friend. What's their situation now? Does he ignore her? I wish they showed us if not just a glimpse of their dynamic, maybe him trying to treat her better. It would have made their storyline here a lot more tragic and heartbreaking if we actually got something of a redemption arc for him before he meets his end. There was great potential in exploring his emotions and trauma more. The show only hints at it and it's just not enough for me and therefore his sacrifice and Max' reaction fall a little flat.
3) The tone
This season was quite cartoonish honestly. Some of the things that happened were actually bonkers, like they really had two teenagers in their Scoops Ahoy costumes and two children infiltrate a secret Russian base, get captured and then escape by their own unharmed. Not gonna lie it was extremely fun to watch, I was always happy when the plot went back to these four because the quartet's dynamic was so entertaining but I wish this whole plot was taken much more seriously. It just feels like a jarring change from how the show used to approach such dangerous situations. Them constantly goofing around and yelling while they're supposed to be in hiding from people that would probably torture (which they actually do but that's played for laughs too) and kill them if they were found is very untypical and crazy. Fortunately for them the Russians were acting extremely stupid and running away from and outsmarting them seems like the easist thing ever. Such lousy villains. No substance and besides the Terminator guy (whose existance felt super cheesy) no threat at all.
Despite my long rant there was a lot of great things in this season. Visually it's a feast. There's a lot of fun moments. Max and El's friendship is great. The drama between Will and Mike/Lucas is heartrbreaking but feels very realistic and raw. Some of the action scenes were super intense and intriguing. Robin was an amazing addition to the cast. I love Steve. Dacre's performance as Billy was one of the best. This season didn't rely as much on flashbacks as the previous ones which was always a nitpick of mine with this series so that's good too.
It's easily my least favorite season though and I hope S4 doesn't follow into its footsteps. I want less focus on trying to bring 80s nostalgia into everything and instead more unique ideas, a less cartoonish approach, better antagonists and if possible a little more mystery please.
Review by vanesaVIP 2BlockedParentSpoilers2022-06-21T01:05:06Z— updated 2022-06-27T13:58:14Z
Edit: Lmao I was a little dramatic with this long ass rant, wasn't I :sweat_smile:
[7.5] While this had some really great standout moments and some of the series' best scenes, for me as a whole this was a lot weaker than the previous seasons. Here's why:
1) Hopper
What happened... How come one of my favorite characters from the first two seasons is now one of my least favorites?
Well the sudden and jarring change of personality is what happened. See, Hopper was always a flawed individual; a man struggling with his grief, someone who mostly resolves his problems with punching them. His arc was to find purpose in life again and throughout the series we see him trying to get and be better. He still loses his temper occasionally but he is also shown to be vulnerable, he respects Joyce's feelings and tries to be a good father to El and keep her safe. One of my favorite moments of the last season was when Mike learns that Hopper was hiding El the whole time which results in him getting overblown by his anger so he starts to throw punches at Hopper and what does Hop do? He lets it happen, turns it into a hug and apologizes to him. Such a good moment for him and then boom, first episode of the third season and Hopper resents Mike and wants to break him and El up.
Which yeah, time has passed and things have changed (and Mike is kinda a brat) but Hopper should be at his happiest and healthiest point ever since we've known him. Instead he is now angrier than he ever was. He is also extremely jealous and manipulative and suddenly incapable of communicating his feelings.
His constant bickering with Joyce is what annoyed me the most. I get what the Duffer brothers were trying to do; bring in this typical 80s love-hate relationship but this is never how their dynamic has been before. Not to mention it's just in general toxic. Well now Hopper is trying to trick Joyce into a date, doesn't take her seriously when she tries to tell him about the magnets, is overly jealous and constantly complaining. I'm sorry this is not sexual tension like the show tries to tell me, these are multiple red flags.
I really liked the idea of those two getting together in the past but now after S3 Hopper just seems like huge downgrade from Bob and Joyce honestly deserves better.
And what's also sad is that in normal circumstances I would have been devastated if Hopper "died" but now I just felt hallow watching it. In fact I wouldn't mind that much if he actually didn't come back and if Joyce and him never become a thing (but it will definetely happen, no doubt) and that's just sad.
2) The plot
With my main complaint out of the way, let's focus on the plot. It actually wasn't bad but its problem lies in that it's more of the same old stuff. A new monster that gets defeated by everyone coming together at the end to make a plan, then split up and accomplish it. We had that before and everything's going more or less exactly how you'd expect. Which brings me to the point of predactability.
I don't know if it's just me but there were hardly any surprises this season. Most stuff happened as I thought it would and even a lot of the jokes I could tell by miles away. It's not necessarily a bad thing but I wish there was bit more mystery and subverting of the tropes (the only thing that came close was everyone parting ways at the end and Robin and Steve not ending up together which I personally loved!).
In general I thought the plot just moved too slowly and a some of it fel like filler and the same thing happening again and again: hide, fight a little, run, repeat. In fact I was kinda really over the whole Mindflayer plot by the second last episode that I wished they just defeated it here and then and spent the last episode focusing on the friendships and relationships.
It also didn't help to have no personal connection to the Mindflayer or all the people it killed - which by the way was totally brushed over?? They were even kids under its victims yet we never see anyone in town mention it and the 4th of July celebration goes on without anyone talking or worrying about all the missing people? Weird. Just like no one mentions the chaos that happened at the hospital. They were barely any consequences to stuff happening in general like Jonathan got beaten up really badly and to me it seems like his back got broken but he's physically fine in the next one, so my bad I guess. Feels a little lazy to be honest.
Billy's character was a bit of a missed oppurtunity too. I wish they actually showed us how the relationship between him and Max looks like now. The last time we saw them together (before he got flayed) was last season when Max threatened him after he constantly abused her and beat up her friend. What's their situation now? Does he ignore her? I wish they showed us if not just a glimpse of their dynamic, maybe him trying to treat her better. It would have made their storyline here a lot more tragic and heartbreaking if we actually got something of a redemption arc for him before he meets his end. There was great potential in exploring his emotions and trauma more. The show only hints at it and it's just not enough for me and therefore his sacrifice and Max' reaction fall a little flat.
3) The tone
This season was quite cartoonish honestly. Some of the things that happened were actually bonkers, like they really had two teenagers in their Scoops Ahoy costumes and two children infiltrate a secret Russian base, get captured and then escape by their own unharmed. Not gonna lie it was extremely fun to watch, I was always happy when the plot went back to these four because the quartet's dynamic was so entertaining but I wish this whole plot was taken much more seriously. It just feels like a jarring change from how the show used to approach such dangerous situations. Them constantly goofing around and yelling while they're supposed to be in hiding from people that would probably torture (which they actually do but that's played for laughs too) and kill them if they were found is very untypical and crazy.
Fortunately for them the Russians were acting extremely stupid and running away from and outsmarting them seems like the easist thing ever. Such lousy villains. No substance and besides the Terminator guy (whose existance felt super cheesy) no threat at all.
Despite my long rant there was a lot of great things in this season. Visually it's a feast. There's a lot of fun moments. Max and El's friendship is great. The drama between Will and Mike/Lucas is heartrbreaking but feels very realistic and raw. Some of the action scenes were super intense and intriguing. Robin was an amazing addition to the cast. I love Steve. Dacre's performance as Billy was one of the best. This season didn't rely as much on flashbacks as the previous ones which was always a nitpick of mine with this series so that's good too.
It's easily my least favorite season though and I hope S4 doesn't follow into its footsteps. I want less focus on trying to bring 80s nostalgia into everything and instead more unique ideas, a less cartoonish approach, better antagonists and if possible a little more mystery please.