The third season of Stranger Things was a ton of fun, but that doesn’t mean it was
flawless, so we’re breaking down season three to find the high points and the low
points.
From "interminable bickering" to fresh comic relief, here are the three best and three
worst things about Stranger Things season three.
Making things bigger is a classic element of serialized cinema.
Simply put, you can't go on entertaining the masses with the same stuff that hooked them
in the first place.
Showrunners, directors, and producers are always working on ways to make things newer,
better, and badder.
On top of that, the third season is an interesting point in any series, as it serves as a transition
point of sorts.
On the one hand, it typically connects to original plots from the beginning of the show,
while on the other, it attempts to reorient and expand the story to keep things entertaining
and map out future possibilities.
This is always a difficult task, but in the case of Stranger Things season three, the
production crew has actually managed to calibrate and graduate the story to greater heights
without losing the cozy, small-town feel of the first season.
Season three clearly has some pretty big fish to fry, like the invasion of the Mind Flayer
and the unveiling of a huge Russian base underneath Hawkins.
However, it masterfully balances these major plot points with a healthy dose of carnival
fun, trips to the mall, a deep dive into the relationships of awkward teenagers, and even
a hilarious reference to the massively overblown New Coke fiasco.
"How do you even drink that?"
"Because it's delicious."
"What!?"
It's incredibly sweet to watch as Eleven and Mike date, break up, and then find their way
back to each other.
Lucas and Max get in on the fun, too, with their sage relationship advice.
Plus, Dustin keeps us endlessly entertained as he loyally maintains his season-long quest
to link up with Suzie.
"Think Phoebe Cates, only hotter."
But there's one relationship throughout the series that's just beating a dead horse.
We're talking, of course, about the unspoken attraction, disgust, tension - whatever you
want to call it - between Chief Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers.
The two have been flirting since the earliest days of the show, and by the end of season
three, they still haven't managed to hook up or call it off.
Season two had Bob Newby, Joyce's boyfriend, who eased the tension and served as a natural
barrier between the two characters.
There was no such firewall in season three, and the banter the two engaged in as they
traveled together got old really fast.
"That's why you should have listened to Alexei."
"Oh yeah, right, your new boyfriend, right?"
"Yes, every man I talk to from now on has to be my boyfriend."
Murray Bauman said it best in episode seven,
"Children!
Children!
This interminable bickering was amusing at first, but it's getting very stale."
Lucas Sinclair's little sister was in season two, but season three is where her star really
shines.
Erica Sinclair is all sass and sharp comebacks ...
"Isn't it past your bedtime?"
"Isn't it time you die?"
Erica is also keen negotiator.
As the kids plan to infiltrate the secret Russian operation within the mall, they attempt
to recruit the little hellraiser due to her smaller physique, as she can crawl through
the air ducts.
Sensing an opportunity, Erica has them bring her all of the ice cream she could possibly
desire as they discuss her potential involvement.
Erica ends up being a steady presence throughout the season, nearly always delivering a bit
of comic relief that cuts through the tension like butter.
Her bump in screen time isn't an accident, either.
In an interview with Vulture after season two had just dropped, writer and director
Matt Duffer said she totally earned it, revealing,
"Any excuse we had to get Erica in there, we'd write her in."
The character's role in season three is so entertaining and scene-stealing that it even
pushed Entertainment Weekly to dub her the MVP of the season.
One of the hallmark features of the Stranger Things storyline is the occasional trips to
the Upside Down.
The first two seasons feature multiple forays into that gloomy, dangerous, inverted world.
The third season goes there, too, as Billy Hargrove meets his other-worldly counterpart
just after his mind is flayed.
But after that?
The Upside Down nearly leaves the story entirely.
To be fair, it makes sense.
After all, the Mind Flayer is doing its level best throughout the season to invade the normal,
"right-side up" world.
It follows that the majority of the season would take place in the real world as the
flayed carry out their master's bidding and form a bloody, mutilated mega-corpse for it
to use.
Nevertheless, the lack of time spent in the Upside Down in season three ends up being
a bit of a disappointment.
Throughout the season, the possibility of running into Demogorgons or Demodogs in their
own element remains firmly out of reach.
Instead, the utter and complete mystery of the Upside Down remains just that - a mystery.
Conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman appeared earlier in the series when he was hired as
a private investigator by the Hollands to find their missing daughter, fan favorite
Barbara.
From there, he ended up helping Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers as they attempted to expose
the Hawkins National Laboratory.
"What are you doing?"
"Thinking."
"With vodka?"
"It's a central nervous system depressant, so yes."
Bauman's role was fun, but auxiliary at best, until season three.
Much like Erica Sinclair, season three sees Bauman became a much bigger player.
His character is integral to the entire second half of the season, as he gives asylum to
Hopper and Joyce, helps infiltrate the Russian base under the Starcourt Mall, and translates
for Alexei, who quickly becomes Murray's friend.
Murray's sweet but short-lived relationship with Alexei was the surprise friendship of
the season, on par with Dustin and Steve's unlikely bond.
Too bad poor Alexei didn't survive the carnival - Murray, who's typically a loner, really
seemed to take a liking to the guy.
"No."
Hopper is awesome.
The dude is nearly as good at stopping bad guys as he is bad at being a parent.
But the truth is, he's a small-town law enforcement officer, not Rambo, and the endless stream
of villains he takes on throughout season three gets way out of hand when you add it
all up.
From an ongoing string of fistfights and shootouts with the Russians to his multi-episode duel
with the Soviet equivalent of the Terminator, Hopper comes across as an unstoppable juggernaut
in season three.
No matter how badly each fight goes, he always comes back for more.
No matter how beat up he is, by the next episode, he's swinging away like he's still in round
one.
Even the fact that he may have survived the explosion in the Russian base - an event that
vaporized Soviet agents standing much further away from the blast - boggles the imagination.
Plus, why did he wait until the events of episode six to call for backup, considering
he was getting his butt kicked and running from Russian soldiers multiple episodes prior?
"Because you're a policeman.
Policemen have rules."
"Oh yeah?
You wanna test that theory?"
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