‘Stranger Things’ Season 3 Review: Scarier, Funnier, and Better Than Ever

Stranger Things Season 3 is fantastically good. In fact, it is the first season that actually lives up the show’s monster-sized, zeitgeist-consuming, blockbuster hype. It’s always been a fun show; at worst, Stranger Things has been a merely fine show. Now it is a bananas summer delight, full of grisly scenes, hilariously absurd set pieces, and a sauntering confidence in its own storytelling. Most of all, Stranger Things 3 is an epic step forward for the series. As ever, the Duffer Brothers use the characters of Hawkins, Indiana to pay homage to the touchstones of ’80s genre storytelling, but in Season 3, they’ve finally seemed to master those beats. This latest season of Stranger Things is accomplished, thrilling, and most of all, better than it’s ever been.

Since its debut in July 2016, Stranger Things has made it clear that it wants to pay tribute to the great slasher films, monster movies, and Stephen King stories of the 1980s. While Stephen King’s influence is felt in every stroke of angst on screen, at times the actual scares have fallen short. Stranger Things 3 made me want to retch, though. There are scenes of pure gross out horror — gooey, bloody, and wrong — that made me gag out loud. The battles now are bloodier, the supernatural creatures more monstrous, and the jump scares are far scarier.

But Stranger Things has also upped the ante on its humor. One of the reasons the show is so popular is the way it remixes the most popular clichés of ’80s genre flicks and gives them new life. Last season, the show reveled in the oddball pairing of jock Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and adorable geek Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo). Stranger Things Season 3 not only doubles down on this bromance (and ropes a few funny ladies in, too), but shows off a comedic ease we haven’t seen before. This season has the sharpest jokes, the most laugh-out-loud moments, and one insane sequence that feels like nothing Stranger Things has dared do before.

This new season of Stranger Things is also the horniest. What I mean is our little protagonists have just crossed the other side of puberty now. Puppy love has turned into full on romance. Sheriff Hopper’s (David Hopper) main concern when the season starts isn’t the Upside Down, but making sure Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) and Mike (Finn Wolfhard) aren’t making out so much. Elsewhere, Billy (Dacre Montgomery) is providing a show for the town at the pool, Steve is striking out, and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) are hopping out of bedroom windows together. The biggest sexual tension in the season though comes courtesy one lonely sheriff and the lovely Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder). It’s a will they/won’t they that feels moderately inspired by Cheers‘ Sam and Diane.

The show’s biggest surge forward is in how it treats its female characters. As someone who has given Stranger Things flack on this before, it was not just refreshing, but inspiring to see a vibrant cast of female characters brought to vivid three-dimensional life. Joyce Byers teams up with Hopper in a hilarious screwball comedy-like adventure that provides her the opportunity to be more than just a worried mother. Max (Sadie Sink) not only gets stuff to do, but she forges a friendship with Eleven that gives the girl a sense of her own ferocious femininity. Nancy proves herself to be intrepid in the face of sexism, little Erica (Priah Ferguson) gets to show off her incredible intellect, and newcomer Robin (Maya Hawke) gets to charm with her easy coolness. Even Cara Buono gets to give mom Karen Wheeler an interiority that we haven’t seen signs of before.

However, it is Eleven who might have the most delicately beautiful emotional arc of the season. The girl who started off as an experiment gets to learn the strength in vulnerability, and in doing so, finally becomes fully human. Like the show itself, its central star gets something of a level up.

Stranger Things Season 3 was not only well worth the wait, but it’s positioned to be the epic summer adventure we’ve been waiting for. It’s a dazzling season that doubles down on what the show does best and fixes its past hiccups. Stranger Things 3 is simply thrilling.

Stranger Things Season 3 premieres on Netflix on July 4, 2019.

Watch Stranger Things on Netflix