After almost two years of waiting, a new threat comes to Hawkins. Actually, he never left. The Duffer brothers continue the story that began there in 2016, and that was delightful for my generation: four friends, a monster, a girl with powers and innumerable references to horror movies, adventures, fantasy, and the aesthetics of the 80's But, unfortunately, the repetition of a certain formula that worked perfectly was running out and the third installment of the series did not like as much as the previous ones. He who warns not betray.
The group of boys and girls who played dungeons and dragons and rode a bicycle through the town is no longer, now it is a group of preteens with "typical" concerns of their age. They go to the mall, the brand new Starcourt, and only talk about the boys and girls they like. At least the majority, poor Will, the boy, who was kidnapped in the first season and possessed in the second, does not have such a good time in this third: he sees how his friends are replacing children's customs and he is completely lagging behind. The girls don't like her, she wants to keep playing, go to her little house in the forest, let's say that the traumas of the previous seasons could have influenced. There the first conflict; the second, Mike (Finn Wolfhard) and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) are boyfriends and Hopper (David Harbor) can't stand to see them stuck all day, so talk to the boy to get away. This gives rise to a lot of common and quite sexist issues in which the reflection is: the boys suffer from emotional stupidity and fart, and the girls are mature, sororic and independent. To my liking, a "feminist" look very misunderstood. There also seems to be an affair between Mike's mother (Cara Buono) and Billy (Dacre Montgomery), which leads nowhere. Also, since Stranger Things is not a romantic comedy (isn't it?) We have the real conflict: the Demogorgon or "Skinning."
He never left, or yes but he is coming back, it is not clear. This is one of the many moments in the script that give an account of a certain “laziness” of the Duffer brothers. I do not say that it is easy, but in the desire to continue a story that could have closed at the time - literally closed, remember the end of the second season -, the scripts begin to stumble on themselves and become a little more clumsy. So the problem, again, is the Demogorgon, whose modus operandi is now a little more active and organized. On the other hand, human characters collaborate with the catastrophe: a group of Russians (motive of Yankee cinema not only of the 80s, it is worth clarifying) has come to Hawkins to reopen the portal that Eleven had so hard closed. It is not a spoiler, this is shown in the first minutes of the season that begins by promising something that I do not know if it ends.
As the chapters progress, the lateral conflicts are losing strength and something happens that, to my liking, remains: the protagonists separate until they end up forming three groups. The “Scoops Troop”, “Griswold family” and “Eagle’s Nest”. The impact on the facts and the rhythm of the stories themselves are very uneven and if we had to choose which team to belong to, at least one would lose out because they were quite boring. Something similar happens with the characters, some appear quite blurred or as shadows of what they were - Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Mike, Eleven herself - while others have grown and acquire a complexity that makes them extremely entertaining - Hopper, Steve (Joe Keery), the incredible Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) -. There are also a couple of new characters that add a lot, such as Alexei (Alec Utgoff), Robin (Maya Hawke, who is not only the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman, but also, finally, puts the body for the first character that brings a little diversity), Murray (Brett Gelman) and Erica (Priah Ferguson) - who had already appeared, but not with such recurrence - and Grigori (Andrey Ivchenko), the baddest bad Russian we can imagine.
Aesthetically it does not disappoint, the scenes of the public pool (it is summer and the 80s explode in the meshes and makeup), the amusement park, the shopping, the hill where they put the antenna, the laboratory, all strong and very evocative locations. Music and photography are a constant enjoyment. The plot has its moments, there are some good horror scenes and others very emotional. The references seem weaker in general but the dialogue with Terminator is the best of the season. And the end, well, I can not say anything, but stay watching the post-credit scenes to see if they are going out of indignation.
The fourth season is underway and of course we will see it, although we fear that the plot fall is irreversible, what am I going to tell you, friends do not lie.