Thursday, February 27, 2020

What I’m Watching: Stranger Things (Season Finale)

Stranger Things: Season 3, Episode 8 “Chapter Eight: The Battle of Starcourt” (B+)

I realize that I’m way behind on finishing this season, but I really enjoyed it. I also know that I’ll still have to wait a long time for season four since it likely won’t be out until the end of the year or sometime next year, but I’ll be ready and I’ll start it right when it begins. This has been a superb year. I was thrilled when Hopper showed up to emphatically stomp on the creature Eleven had just evicted from her leg right before the opening credits, and it was good to see everyone finally together. We got confirmation – finally – that Suzie is very real, and she and Dustin had quite the duet when he called her to get some very important time-sensitive information. I was impressed with Lucas’ idea to use fireworks to combat the mind flayer, and Eleven managed to get through to Billy by talking about his childhood before he ended up getting killed. It seems unlikely that Hopper is really dead since he’s such a central character on this show, and we didn’t actually see him die (I'll make no mention of season four trailers here). After such an action-packed episode, I was glad that we got to fast-forward a little to check in with our characters. Eleven telling Mike that she loves him too was sweet, and I particularly enjoyed Steve failing so miserably at identifying even the most basic movies like “Star Wars” and “Back to the Future.” That post-credits scene indicates that things are far from safe in Russia, and something tells me that the Demogorgon will return to Hawkins sooner rather than later. Bring it on!

Season grade: A-
Season MVP: David Harbour as Hopper

No comments: