What I’m Watching: Stranger Things

Stranger Things: Season 3, Episode 5 “Chapter Five: The Flayed” (B+)

It’s episodes like this that explain why this show is often classified as horror (which made me avoid watching it until the overwhelming awards love convinced me I had to try it), though it’s the type that doesn’t bother me or really scare me despite its inherently frightening construction. I was thrilled that two distinctly separate groups came together in this hour when Nancy and Jonathan showed up to convince Mike, Will, Lucas, Max, and Eleven that something seriously bad was going on, though the hospital’s two-visitor policy just served to separate them again. Nancy and Jonathan experienced quite the terrifying pursuit from Tom and Bruce, who weren’t particularly nice before they got flayed. Let’s hope that Eleven isn’t too distracted by Mike sucking up to her with M and Ms to show up to try to defeat the newly-reformed Demogorgon or whatever that is in the hallway between Nancy and Jonathan. The elevator crew encountered their own worrisome sight in the form of a Russian drilling operation to seemingly puncture the Upside-Down, and, resourceful as this crack team of Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Erica may be, I don’t know that they’ll be able to stop what they’re doing before it’s too late. Hopper was unhinged as ever as he battled some Russians and even managed to capture one, and I can definitely understand why David Harbour is the lone cast member earning awards recognition at this point for this show, even if I’m partial to a handful of the child actors. Brett Gelman’s conspiracy theorist Murray Bauman was nutty as ever, and I like that Joyce wasn’t about to put up with any of his behavior.