[ad_1]
Warning: this review contains major spoilers for all the episodes of season 3 of Stranger Things. Our criticism without spoiler is here.
Repeating success is never as easy as it seems. For the groups, it is this second thorny album. For films, more than anything else, the third installment was so often the one that undermined the former greatness. Wars of the stars. Extraterrestrial. Terminator. Fascinating sagas that shape the genre landscape that inspires Stranger things, but also get rid of their trilogy entries. It is only natural that each story develops, if only to allow its creators new ways to develop creatively. The third season of Stranger things, a show so self-reflective in its styles, is clearly aware of this trap of the most famous genre, and embraces it relying heavily on change. In the case of the series's passage to the horror of adults and in some ways, in its description of the distress of adolescence, it is often uncomfortable and sometimes ugly, but as a creative metamorphosis, it is certainly bold and largely successful. stage of its lifespan and delivery of the goods as entering the trilogy.
Teen Fauna
Growth pains are the order of the day in Hawkins, Indiana. Puberty did what an infernal horde of demodogs could not do and divided the party. Mike and Lucas in particular have become unbearable teenagers, an uninteresting growth spurt, no doubt fueled by the girls' discovery. Mike's bug in Hopper during the first episode, alongside Lucas' growing talent for exasperating Max, his girlfriend on / off, shows that growth is not always good. Even the physiognomy of the actors themselves is discordant. It's been almost two years since we last saw them on the screen. Today, it is clear that the party we left at the end of season two are not the same children to whom we bid farewell. In some ways, it is difficult to monitor, especially since some of the boys do not seem very enthusiastic about the journey back to adulthood and its detrimental effects on their friendship. The excellent Noah Schnapp as Will, hit so convincingly in season 2, is again wonderful, as he observes what remains of his childhood, so captured by the Darkness, eclipsed by the insurmountable combination of pheromones and caress. The moment in episode three (The case of the rescuer disappeared) where he desperately addresses his friends, literally dressed in the fantasy of childhood such as Will the Wise, is as moving as incongruous, defined as in the hangover of junk food, extremely heavy gathering place of Mike's basement.
Will's misery, as well as Dustin's realization that the group he left for the science camp are no longer the ones he returned to, is subtly highlighted by the series' approach to reference. and tribute. This feeling of Amblin, so central to Strange thingsThe tone of the seasons one and, to a lesser extent, two, is summed up in an aesthetic that has undergone its own evolution. While the moonlit mists of Spielberg AND. are still present, sickly green, interior lighting, spurting high-resolution images and buzzing light as they stand out in the dark are becoming more prevalent as the season advances. This is of course the visual grammar of horror, which is also reflected in the plot using episode 1 of exploded rats to signal a wicked and more graphic approach to the horror themes of the series.
Scary monsters (and super creeps)
Exploring graphically the horrors of falling prey to inter-dimensional monsters that resemble each other Strange things 3The highlights of season three. With adolescence clearly revealing the party's weaknesses, the first half of the season reconfigures the world of Hawkins, Indiana, turning a best-friend show into another one where the "F" is suddenly questioned. This sudden feeling of "no matter what" makes the progressive descent of the series into a coarsely effective double terror. The giant meat puppet of Mind Flayer is a horrible abomination (and by far the most terrifying monster the show has given us so far), but the notion that even the most honored aspects of the saga (such as the character sacred of the party of our heroes) were indispensable is also disturbing. It is said that good stories teach you to read them and, in this sense, Strange things 3The first episodes of this film are excellent in this respect.
Even more satisfying, this impending narrative threat is entirely paid for by the (apparent) death of a main character. The apparent disappearance of Hopper as the Upside Down gate was closed gave the final the emotional punch needed to validate the increased level of threat this time around. This has also led to the most bitter-sweet epilogue to date. The second season's "snowball dance" was a joy tinged with nostalgia, watching the gang enjoy their first dance, their first kiss, with the imminent presence of Mind Flayer unable to mitigate the pleasure of the public that after all that they had lived, still time, at least a few moments, so that our young heroes enjoy the crucial moments of their youth.
Do not forget
In the third season, as the camaraderie parted from the shadow of Hopper's death, the only sweetness was deep in sorrow and the finale was more and more resonant. If the end of season 2 consisted of fighting to find the right moments, the rites of passage that punctuate a life, the closing of season 3 was to say goodbye to those moments, knowing that certain purposes can not be surpassed, foiled or lost. beaten, and sometimes the most heroic thing you can do is gather the strength to let go. The final words of Hopper in El, delivered as a letter, were both tender and heartbreaking, offering the emotional weight needed to give real weight to a satisfying finale. The sincere hope of this author (that to maintain the validity of this finale) that Hopper entered the realm of the perma-death, although not seeing his body fall apart (and with the average credit sequence teasing a prisoner American) suggests the opposite. With one of the most laudable aspects of Strange things 3 Having the courage to part with a love letter loaded with tropes to embrace other stories and to become fully a full person, it would be a shame to see her turn to trope the braver of all: the resurrected hero.
Billy, do not be a hero
Elsewhere, the balance of the different threats weighing on Hawkins this time was well designed. Dacre Montgomery works very well as Billy Hargrove, channeling Ace Merrill (in Stephen King's Useful things / the body) as the corrupt human face of evil. It was also satisfying to see the motivations of the character set out in the last episode and to see him gain a measure of redemption. The reward of Billy's debut Strange things 2 felt undercooked, it was rewarding to see him explored here. As mentioned before, the body shape of Mind Flayer was incredibly wonderful, from its horrible Extraterrestrial-face-huggers style to its grotesque reform process. The creature's design must be greeted, it has not been easy, and yet this creature manages to do just that. Finally, the Russian threat, so long teased, has added a new dimension to the story while bringing a little humor. The Russian operator of the KGB, who looked like Schwarzenegger, was a creation largely of a note, but in a way, it only added to his robotics, Terminator-inspired character. It is quite doubtful that anyone expects an arc of character developed, but it was simply fun to see what was in fact, 80s Arnie, unleashed around Hawkins, providing a physical repellent more than enough for Hopper . The idea that a gigantic underground facility can be planned, built, managed and operated in one year may have expanded the narrative credibility of the series, perhaps more than ever before, but when you have so much fun, do not feel that it really matters.
This is my daughter
Hopper struggling to understand the emotional connections of his life, Steve Harrington's super powers with the ladies apparently emasculated by a Scoops Ahoy uniform and the boys in the group struggling with the burden of puberty, was left to the residents of Hawkins. to assert some strength, and they did it with style. It was a joy to see Winona Ryder finally doing more like Joyce Byers than just being the "incredibly strong mother". It's a role she has beautifully played in the first two seasons, but with Will's interaction with Upside Down (most of the time) broken, it was fun to see different aspects of Joyce, her talents from bitter detective to his humorous quarrels with Hopper. Although strength has always been at the heart of Joyce's character, it was refreshing to see her doing so many things this time, and if she is, in the absence of Hopper, about to become the only protector As an adult of the girl, her secret adventures in secret fortresses have well prepared the ground for that to continue.
After saying to Mike, "I'll let you eat your ass," it was cool to see El also freeing herself from her influences (not that we put Mike in the same leagues as Brenner, Kali or Hopper, just to be clear ). Nevertheless, his release by Max ("We make our own rules") was enjoyable and one of the funniest parts of the series. Discovering the comics of Wonder Woman, the warmth of Ralph Macchio (and using super powers for voyeurism purposes) is the kind of simple and innocent entertainment we've seen boys enjoy during seasons one. And two. girls bond in the same way. The other female characters also shone, Robin de Maya Hawke proved to be a great addition to the cast, and Erica Sinclair's expanded role allowed her to realize the potential of her short scenes of Stranger Things 2. Both characters enjoyed the arcs of character with intriguing resolutions: Erica receiving the Dungeons & Dragons felt like the passing of a torch and the descent to Robin's heart with Steve after spacing Back to the future provided a result that was not only a welcome diversion from the obvious path of flourishing romance between the two, but was also in keeping with the messy and uncertain nature of this season.
Change
If Nancy and Jonathan were not mentioned, it was because in a growing whole, apart from some interesting mystery intrigues, they seemed slightly underserved. Overall, Strange things 3 not only delivered the third sacred entry of a trilogy into a style, he also found a way to give us what we love, while turning it into something different, allowing him to forge an identity both won and unique as opposed to being a beautiful collection of references and Easter eggs. In turn, this is a particularly important process, as the creators behind it begin (one might imagine) to really think about the final phase. The coarse and lean horror in graphics revealed a nasty belly to Strange things that we had not seen before, but not only was it as fascinating as it was horrible, the aspects related to body horror harmonized perfectly with the thematic sequence of change and the fear of the growth that had been so well paid for by the last words of Hopper to El.
With the party dissolved and Hopper gone, Strange things 4 promises to be something different, but if this season teaches us something, you accept that change, even when it hurts. Parts of this season have been hard to watch, sometimes because we are seeing young people who have grown up in the face of difficulty and uncertainty. Other times, it was simply difficult because, well, rats were exploding. But if the best stories teach you How to watch them, then Strange things 3 teaches us that growing up is good. And my boy, it was good.
Season 3 of Stranger Things is available on Netflix.
[ad_2]
Source link