fast times
The hawkins’ gang strike back…
STRANGER THINGS 3 15 show 2019 AVAILABLE NOW Netflix
After a more-of-the-same second season, streaming’s premier ’80s-loving teen-horror saga needed to claw back some goodwill. Mission accomplished. Still (over)reliant on certain staples - Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) superpowers for one – Stranger Things 3 isn’t a radical reinvention, but does feel like a refresh, galvanised by new settings, new friends, new foes, New Coke (the year is 1985).
The pace has picked up, too. True, S1’s slower burn facilitated stronger frights; S3’s heebiest-jeebiest moments are rooted more in gore than suspense. But there are no misguided detours à la S2’s infamous seventh episode.
The plot confidently hares off in all directions – Russian skulduggery, body snatching, erratic fridge magnets – before knitting together to deliver narrative satisfaction, if not quite an emotional sucker punch. The new cast intake fit in nicely – or nastily, in the case of this year’s guest star
Cary Elwes (gleefully slimy as Hawkins’ mayor) and Andrey Ivchenko, who plays a tongue-in-cheek homage to an iconic hunter-killer.
Stepping up from Lucas’ little sister to a character in her own right, Priah Ferguson is adorably gobby as (“You can’t spell ‘America’ without”) Erica, and best of all is Maya Hawke’s Robin. Bonus point for her and Joe Keery (as Steve), enduring the entire series in Donald Duck outfits. As ever, Stranger Things’ fashion sense is one of its guiltiest pleasures. Matthew Leyland