Season 3

Stranger Things 3 is the best season of the series. She has a very well written story that uses narrative element as well as drama and humor in a perfect way. Besides having excellent suspense that binds you from beginning to end and a tension that only increases with passing of the episodes. And in relation to the development of the characters, this was the best season. He managed to make even the most asshole character the most relatable in the end. Excellent job. First of all I would like to summarize the season. It's summertime at Hawkins and our class is facing the transition from being kids to becoming a teenager. Some are managing to make this easier than others. And the city now has a new mall, which has become a major attraction. The adults also try to follow life after the traumatic moments of the second season, but hardly knows that a new enemy and an old threat are lurking to be able to cause the land in Hawkins again. Our class will need to be more united than ever before to overcome this evil that is to come. After the summary, I would like to talk about the scripts and the history of this season. The scripts are very well written giving layers to the characters that until then had not been seen. The characters throughout the series evolve greatly and manage to reach the end of their trajectory in a sublime way (some, others will have more development). This all delivered with enough excitement and good humor. The lesson that the script goes through is that growth is inevitable and that we are going to go wrong in this process, but that is very important for self-denial. So we can evolve. Beautiful story has incredible scripts. The direction is perfect. She needs to be able to develop the script very naturally without being forced. The scenes are very well directed, passing very true and taking the best of the actors. From the tone of the acting, the directors are able to do an excelnet job giving a great emotional load the scenes and still driving the story to unexpected moments. All the time you wondered what would happen and you were taken by surprise. An excellent direction that allied a good story, delivered the best season of the series. This season's photography was fantastic. With fantastic scenarios, the directors have managed to print a very beautiful visual identity for series. The scenes presented a high production value, with details such as color and lighting very well used to give each scene its tone. It was an exquisite work for only one TV series and deserves to be exalted. They gave a visual spectacle in several scenes of that time, making you appreciate the visual work of the team and the directors. The special effects were first-rate. The use of the practical effects and CGI was very well done. The monsters were very well animated and rendered, giving a veracity to the creatures that came to impress a lot. They looked like creatures that really existed. Already the practical results were well used, not sounding false in any moment. Explosions, scenes of car crashes and fireworks were very well done. A true excelnet work from the team of specials this season. The soundtrack and the songs used this season were sensational. They managed to marry the soundtrack very well with the scenes giving the tone and atmosphere that each scene needed. Other than that the songs used gave a great nostalgia. I felt in the 80's just listening to the great classics. And what struck me that these songs also served for scenes as a narrative way to give more tension or humor to them. Incredible work! Already the edition of the episode was very well done. The scenes were very well set up, leaving no scenes that were unmanageable or abruptly cut. The scenes flowed in a very natural way, giving room for the directors and the roberts to tell the story in a perfect way. Beautiful work. Already the duration of the season of 8 episode proved very successful, since it gave to tell the story well and develop the characters very well within that limit. I believe that if they had more episodes, the rhythm would have been very dragged and muddled the development of the narrative. After the technical part I would like to talk about the performances. Dacre Montgomery was the highlight of this season with his troubled Billy. The actor managed to pass a great threat, but at the same time a fragility and humanity to the incredible character. And the redemption of his character in the end was fantastic. A real acting show. Winona Ryder and David Harbor were sensational. The actors had managed to overcome all the melancholy that the characters felt and, moreover, they made an incredible partnership with a great deal of chemistry. Excellent performances. Gaten, Joe, Maya and Priah were another plus point. Gaten is very charismatic and I managed to give his Dustin a funny and serious tone at the same time. Already Joe had an excellent evolution of his character, managing to evolve him even more of the asshole he was in the second season. Nice acting of the two. Maya already surprised me with her cheeky and funny Robind, giving the right tone to her character. I just did not like that forced a homosexuality in the character without even having worked this previously. Already Priah was hilarious as Erica and was an excellently comic relief. The rest, I would like to highlight Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard and Sadie Sink who have excelled in their roles. Mike and Eleven had a big breakthrough this season and she managed to be more independent thanks to her friendship with Max, which gave Eleven more personality. And so MIke had to learn that Eleven was not only his, but that he should also know how to evolve. Already Max had a good turnout and Sadie thrilled on the scene of his brother's death. Good acting of the actors. Noah Schnapp did not have much time to shine, but his scene in which he destroys Castle Byers was a first-rate performance. Too bad he had no more opportunity to show off his talent. Already Caleb McLaughlin and Charlie Heaton have been very erased in their characters. Lucas and Jonathan were null characters this season and did not add up to anything. Natalia Dyer had good moments in her performance, but even so, she was overshadowed by other better performances. Overall, the third season of Stranger Things was sensational, full of good twists. This with a very engaging story that used drama and humor very well to thrill, make cry and laugh. It was a whirl of emotions watching these characters evolve, but it was well worth it. Let it come to season 4! This season deserves 10/10.

It’s good, but it’s not as good as the previous seasons. I felt like there wasn’t really anything original going on. Everything just felt like a rehash of stuff from the previous seasons.

Some of the believability was getting really ridiculous too. I know the show was never exactly true to life, but this season takes it to new heights with the kids managing to outrun and even beat up some military operatives in their secret base. Even Hopper holding his own with them was a huge stretch. All that stuff was just a big ‘meh’ to me because of how absurd it was. I also felt like there was no real sense of danger until the last episode. Constant fight scenes with people just being thrown to the other side of the room over and over again as the monster lingers over their body for a minute so that someone gets a chance to save them ruined a lot of the action scenes for me. So when we finally did get a few deaths in the final episode, they didn’t really hit me as much as I feel they should have.

It was nice seeing some fresh faces focused on this season, and as usual, the acting, cinematography, and all around production of the show is excellent. I think it’s clear that Netflix will continue to milk this show and make another season or two, I just hope that they take it in a new direction and don’t just rehash the same old stuff, although that doesn’t look promising considering how the final scene played out.

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.