Stranger Things Review

Season 1 of Stranger things was the best nostalgia trip of the 80’s packaged in a mystery and adventure. Season 2 felt a bit stretched out to me.

Now we have Season 3 out on Netflix.

I took a while to review this since I didn’t binge watch the series. I saw 2 episodes a day. This was done purposely so that the show doesn’t overwhelm me.

This show is one of Netflix most popular shows and really well known. So there is always high anticipation for the new season. I didn’t see any of the trailers to keep it spoiler free.

Lets start out with, this is better than season 2 but not as good as season 3. The story is still upside down related and the writers have had to REALLY stretch out the concept to still take place in Hawkins Indiana. They do this by introducing a huge shiny new mall in the sleepy old town. But I feel the next season should move to new locations rather than sticking with the same out place.

The characters are all growing up really fast and a lot of time in the show is spent detailing their love lives. This is something the duffer brothers are not really good at. Every scene which was between a couple, be it Mike and El or Hopper and Will’s mother Joyce was painful to watch and really not as engaging as the other part of the adventure.

Next we have the bad guys, since this is set in 1985, the Russians as the villains makes total sense, but they are badly underutilized. Not to mention there is such a random Terminator-ish character who accomplishes nothing is also an excess which we could have done without.

Stranger things is slowly going past referencing or feeling similar to 80’s nostalgia to in your face 80’s references. Which is not as interesting.

But not all is bad! The season is pretty good and plenty entertaining, although I felt the first few episodes were very slow and not much takes place. It picks up pace halfway through the season.

Rating : 7/10. This is a must watch for fans of the show and anyone who is new to this, do binge the previous 2 seasons as this is NOT a standalone sort of series.