Stranger Things 3, eps. 1-4: Hawkins, Indiana, will never be the same again



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Perhaps the teenage romance divided them at first, but you can not separate the gang long if evil is hiding around Hawkins.
Enlarge / Maybe romance between teens can be temporarily separated, but you can not separate the gang long if evil is hiding around Hawkins.

Netflix

Warning: This story contains spoilers for Stranger Things Episodes 1 to 4'Third season. You can read here our preview of the new season, which is not a spoiler, or let you know what happened with the past stories of Ars seasons one and two.

Russians. It always had to be Russians.

This should perhaps be called Gorbachev's law, but put any sort of action in the 80's for the gangs to come together, and finally, the nasty favorite of modern democracy will have to raise his head. And in Stranger Things 3, the show does not waste time – this exchange may have taken place once again in Hawkins, but the very first scene of S3 shows that it's impossible to go back after the events of the first two seasons of the series. The magnitude and magnitude of the harm faced by our favorite heroes, now teenagers, are growing simultaneously.

Of course, precisely How the largest number of villains – the Russians, the dark employees of the Starcourt Mall, the supernatural forces of Upside Down who seemed to have observed Invasion of the body thieves (1956 version obviously, since 1985) since last season – they cross each other, the goals they're looking for and the reason they choose to pick it up in Hawkins, a city unfortunately unfortunately victim, remains a mystery for us. Strange things 3is the second half. But if the first four episodes of Netflix's flagship product showed us anything, that's just the Duffer Bros. have recognized the familiar and nostalgic formula of their show, which was to change. And fortunately, for those of us who are looking fast, they seem to have a story in mind that can adapt to such an evolution.

Growing up is hard to do (the show looks easy)

The most striking thing of the first half of Stranger Things S3 it's how grown the show has become. Yes, physically, our child heroes have become teenage heroes. But rather than struggle with that (and, say, rush to produce as much as possible before the actors get older and seem unlikely out of college / high school), history has developed logically to account Life Difference An almost adolescent life – and it perfectly connects this mature material to the dark and disturbing amusement of the series.

Initially, what occupies the most life and complicates the life of Mike, eleven, and the gang, it's not another demon prince, it's the requirements of puberty. The band has partnered to some extent – Mike with Eleven, Lucas with Max, Will and the dying dreams of another D & D series – and is striving to set a new standard. Regardless of the larger group dynamics, what do healthy encounters look like for Mike Wheeler and never been kissed by Elew? The new (still) dad, Jim Hopper, certainly does not think he's seeing it, as most home nights involve Mike and El kissing all night, and the fallout from this has workout effects for the early series. Until here, the only time we see all the kids together, is maybe when they welcome Dustin home after his summer camp.

Fortunately, everyone has a lot to do as a couple. The boys (Mike, Lucas, and Will) have the most basic task in the first place: they are heartbroken, do not understand relationships, and simply have to overcome a fleeting pain. This only further widens the gap – in his best performance so far, Noah Schnapp (Will) gets a remarkable sequence in the third episode, while he gives Mike some of his mind after the show is over. constant hyper-focus on girls pushes him. to engage. Mike is unwilling to defend himself ("I do not try to be a fool, but," he began. "We are no longer children, what did you think? Would we ever have a friend? Are we going to sit in my basement and play games for the rest of our lives? "), sending Will to stomp for a little time to think … It's ultimately crucial for the group's ability to detect the fact that something is going on in town.

Girls, on the other hand, act. Eleven has always had the ability to mentally teleport elsewhere when her senses lack sensuality, so Max and she spy on boys before telepathic telepathy. He ended up landing on Max's older brother, Billy (actually the burst of a note from last season), revealing that maybe the Upside Down was not so perfectly isolated of the real world. The two groups come to the same conclusion in very different ways before coming together to do something, engaging in a clever action sequence where they have to lure a possibly demonic Billy into a public pool sauna in order to get him burn a Mind Flayer (taking advantage of the knowledge they discovered last season).

The last trailer of Stranger Things S3.

A sequence like this may not have existed in previous seasons. There is a repeated feeling of real danger: Billy has almost stabbed his sister; El being suffocated by a human – it would have been "too much" felt. The show has always been TV-14 (the very first episode involves a monster looking for a young child and lab workers being murdered by something supernatural), but its cast and its content have now reached the same level. Barb (and Bob!) Are dead for that.

Fortunately, everything is not going well in the CW drama around Hawkins. As fun as it is to watch our heroes decipher all the mysteries and tackle the dangers that lie ahead, the undeniable power of the series stems from the fact that the public loves these characters and wants to see them be themselves. Looking back on the first half of S3, the most enjoyable moments probably come from Hopper, who continues to be agitated (fighting the hangover but collecting clues of a larger problem alongside Joyce Byers). , always able) or time spent at the mall with Scoops crew Ahoy – Steve, his new colleague Robin and loyal customers Dustin and Erica.

These sequences work extremely well because not only do we get more of what we like from the characters, but their continued ability goes against what you expect from all the comic relief. Maybe Hawkins will again need Eleven to be at the center of any hope of fighting evil, but Hopper and Joyce or our international ice cream detectives will inevitably have a role to play in connecting the puzzle.

That things finish as well as they did in past seasons, the first half of Stranger Things S3 renews our trust in this world (and its potentially larger universe) in the future. There are clearly more ideas to explore from Hawkins: new life challenges, bigger evils, more impact on life elsewhere (and we are not even talking about potential girlfriends from the Mormon camp sequestered in Utah). Just as inevitably as the woes of the season will connect, our heroes will also reconnect in a larger group and discover how to defend themselves. And finally, if the Russians play again with Herculean forces, humanity does not yet know how to control or contain, well, HBO reminded us how that will be in May.

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