Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Body horror, guns in worthy fantasy drama update.
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Stranger Things: Season 3
What's the Story?
STRANGER THINGS: SEASON 3 picks up in the summer of 1985, when the teens of Hawkins, Indiana, are all hanging out at the town's new Stargate Mall. Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), Max (Sadie Sink), Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Will (Noah Schnapp), and a recently-home-from-camp Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo) are having plenty of fun hanging out by the mall fountain, and even Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is able to let loose a little. But when a lifeguard goes missing from the community pool, Dustin picks up a radio signal from Russia, shady types appear at the Stargate, and Max notices her stepbrother Billy (Dacre Montgomery) is acting weirder than usual, it's clear that Hawkins' problems are not over. Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Hopper (David Harbour) swing into action with the help of paranoid but usually correct citizen Murray (Brett Gelman). With a new job at Stargate's ice cream parlor, Steve (Joe Keery) and his sardonic co-worker Robin (Maya Hawke) are in place to help solve the mystery, while Nancy (Natalia Dyer) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) unravel curious happenings they uncover while interning for The Hawkins Post.
Is It Any Good?
If Stranger Things' first season was sci-fi horror and Season 2 verged on a John Hughes-style teen romcom, this third season is something new: an '80s-style heist, with Russians, no less. In the first moments of Stranger Things: Season 3, we learn that Hawkins isn't the only locality grappling with interdimensional monsters: There's a Hawkins cognate in the U.S.S.R., right at the peak of 1985 Cold War panic ... and Will's lingering senses are picking up monster vibes again. Cue simultaneous investigations from the characters we've already met, plus the delightful addition of Robin and Lucas' 10-year-old sister, Erica (Priah Ferguson). You can count on something amusing and/or interesting happening anytime either of these two show up. Erica in particular is a precocious little sister in grand TV sitcom style, with a comic delivery that's perfect.
When it comes to the monster-of-the-season stuff, much feels the same as in the first two seasons. There's a big CGI thing that Will feels on the back of his neck (under the bowl cut), and there's a rubbery fleshy barrier between the monster dimension and our world that's penetrated at regular intervals. At some point in Season 3 you realize the mystery is a MacGuffin, just a quest to send our familiar noble soldiers on. The real drama and joy of Stranger Things: Season 3 is watching the various characters teaming up, heist style, while continuing to navigate the pangs of adolescence. Will is sad that his friends have all gotten girlfriends and don't want to play DnD in Mike's basement anymore; Steve, Nancy, and Jonathan are all toiling miserably at their first jobs. On a more cheerful note, Eleven strikes up a friendship with Max, and starts gaining some real teen attitude. Throughout, the 1980s references are nostalgic candy to those who lived through the neon years: There's bright pink sunglasses, Orange Julius, Jazzercise, glamour shots, a mall with cars in it, and a trying-on-clothes-to-music montage. What fun.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the changes to Stranger Things' storylines as the narrative has gone on and its cast members have matured. What concepts do the characters grapple with now that they didn't before? Is that typical of real life? Why, or why not?
The actors who portray characters on Stranger Things are generally older than their fictional counterparts. For instance, in this season, Finn, Eleven, Lucas, Mike, Dustin, and Max are all supposed to be 13 to 14, while the actors who play them are one to four years older, and adult actors play the show's "teens." Why do actors usually play younger than their screen age? How does the age disparity affect our ideas about what teens or tweens look, sound, and act like?
Director Alfred Hitchcock coined the word "MacGuffin": an object or event that motivates characters but is irrelevant outside of the film's world. What's the MacGuffin of Stranger Things: Season 3? Is it the same MacGuffin as in previous years?
TV Details
- Premiere date : July 4, 2019
- Cast : Millie Bobby Brown , Winona Ryder , Finn Wolfhard , Maya Hawke
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Adventures , Friendship , School
- TV rating :
- Last updated : April 7, 2026
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