Stranger Things Season Three (2019) (DVD review)
I thought time had frozen in ‘Stranger Things’ when it went back to June 1943, but it was really to show it wasn’t only America investigating the Upside Down, although not with, should we call it, success. As none of them were speaking, it’s a neat turn to realise they were Russian.
Things then switch to 1985 and the teens have suddenly grown. Hormones are raging across the board and Jim Hopper (actor David Harbour) is uncomfortable with being a foster father-figure to Eleven (actress Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike Wheeler (actor Finn Wolfhard) spending too much time in her bedroom, albeit with the door ajar. Oh, there’s also a little matter of rats fleeing into a barn and exploding. Billy Hargrove (actor Dacre Montgomery)’s car breaks down to an illicit date and he’s dragged off as well. Things are going down hill for everyone.
Hitting on homages here, its Invasion Of The Body-Swoppers (the word change is deliberate) with a touch of ‘Beetlejuice’, the setting for ‘Night Of the Living Dead’ and, mid-season, a heavy dose of ‘The Terminator’. Dividing the big group into smaller groups is an old technique to give everyone screen time, even if they are heading in the same direction. Even so, you do have to wonder how Russians could infiltrate Hawkins and build a big underground network to open the fissure into the nether-world without anyone spotting so much soil removal. They wouldn’t have had their own power source when digging and where did all the soil go? The sixth episode does explain the Russians were ‘borrowing’ electricity from the local grid but, even so, the amount they’re using can’t be hidden. These are the kinds of questions I ask about other shows and films when a little more thinking and detail than just saying it was so.
Best stand out point is Robin Buckley (actress Maya Hawke) and Steve Harrington (actor Joe Kerry) in the ice cream seller sailor suits being caught by the Russians and escape with the help of Dustin Henderson (actor Gaten Matarazzo) and scene-stealer Erica Sinclair (actress Prian Ferguson) and recovering from truth serum and having a trip, literally.
Without going too spoiler, there are many comparisons to the second season because the rift has been opened again. Even so, it becomes pretty obvious that the Duffer twins are setting up things to be used at the end.
The post-script shows what happens afterwards but doesn’t answer some basic questions like how could Joyce Byers afford to move her family. What happened to Murray Bauman (actor Brett Gelman) considering his role was developed in this season. Come to that, very little about the surviving Russians other than what they are fed to at the end. This time, the media did get wind of everything. It also works as a closing point should they not make a fourth season, which of course they did
Only one extra. Well, that’s what the box says although I couldn’t find it.
GF Willmetts
June 2023
(pub: Widescreen Presentation/Lionsgate. 3 DVDs 480 minutes 7 * 50 minute and a couple at 75 minute episodes. Price: varies (UK). ASIN: 300002792)
cast: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Noah Schnapp and many, many more.
check out websites: www.netflix.com and www.lionsgatefilms.co.uk
