#
I was looking forward to the third season of this series and when the date was announced I was quite excited. However, since the production took a long time to produce the third season, I re-watched first two seasons to remind myself of every detail of the series. While I enjoyed watching the first two series again, the third one was an absolute waste of time.
You would expect them to create something good since they took this long to create the third season. Instead, they produced a mellow show that lacks any creativity and some parts of the story border with stupidity.
For example, in the first two seasons, Eleven closed the gate so that there is no overlap with our world and the world of monsters from another dimension. Not even the CIA and the US authorities objected after everything that unravelled since they realized not much can be done to beat monsters. But in season 3 Russian Government send its military to open the gate by creating a headquarters in now abandoned lab previously occupied by US authorities and by occupying the underground of a mall in Hawking, Indiana.
Right. First and foremost, the Russians are so crazy they want to unravel monsters that not even Americans managed to beat. And then they brought the military in the middle of the US and they are opening gates without anyone noticing. Not CIA, not FBI, not US army. Nobody knows that on the US soil Russian army is unleashing monsters that Americans previously managed to lockout.
For those of us who love supernatural, fantasy and time travel, the point is in creativity and imagining things humans have not seen or invented before. While none of it is real and that is fine, that does not mean that political context in which something is happening should also be fantasy.
However, this is not the only problem. Hop’s role (David Harbour) has been reduced to someone who can’t communicate anymore and this unnatural shift has apparently impacted acting because it feels like a showoff. The same accounts for Will’s mother (Winona Ryder) who only twists her eyes and argues too.
The only positive touch in the series is the position of women in newsrooms, which has been portrayed effectively and accurately. Thus, when Nancy (Natalia Dyer) goes to do a summer internship in local newspapers she is reduced to bringing lunches and making coffees to all-male editorial. Not only that, they openly laugh to any of her ideas and treat her as if she is stupid. While the producers tried to show this as the 1980s way and while brutality and putting down might be a bit less nowadays, not much has changed in all white men newsrooms so this touch was very welcome. However, Nancy’s and Jonathan’s (Charlie Heaton) characters have been reduced to over-dramatic ones, which again impacted acting. In other words, there is too much dramatization in the series. For example, in the hospital scene, instead of running away from the monster, both Nancy and Jonathan just look at each other and scream. The same accounts for many other scenes throughout the season, including the one with Joyce and Hop when Joyce destroys the Russian machine.
However, other than the newsroom touch there is not much good that can be said. The acting was appalling, there was simply too much attempt to create the feeling of the 1980s and there are too many resemblances of other shows. For example, when the monster jumps on the roof of the mall, the way it was done immediately reminded me of GoT moment when the dragon does the same in King’s Landing. There were some moments when I was reminded of Twin Peaks too.
Overall, I was very disappointed with this season. As it again ended on a cliff hanger and with a suspicion that Hop might be alive, I hope they do something better in the fourth season. I also hope they don’t take too long to make the season. While re-watching first two seasons this time was a pleasant experience, there is no chance I could bear watching this third season again. Absolute shambles!
Thank you for reading!