Will ( Noah Schnapp) is frustrated by being a fifth wheel with Mike/El and Lucas/Max ( Caleb McLaughlin & Sadie Sink), reminiscing to the days when it was just the boys dressing up like Ghostbusters. Mike ( Finn Wolfhard) and El (Millie Bobby Brown) are still a couple, but they’re struggling to communicate. While Steve ( Joe Keery) is working at the Scoops Ahoy stand in the mall, the kids are dealing with typical teen problems like love and friendship. There’s also something suspicious going on at Starcourt, something that will push the characters we know and love harder than they’ve been pushed before, and lead to some truly unexpected consequences. This is the most purely entertaining season of “Stranger Things” to date. The big talk in Hawkins is the new Starcourt Mall, which always seems to be crowded but local businesspeople are angry toward for stealing business. It’s the 4 th of July weekend in 1985, a time that saw the release of Romero’s “ Day of the Dead” and Zemeckis’ “ Back to the Future,” two films that greatly inspire the action of “Stranger Things 3” (along with major influences from “Fast Times at Ridgmont High,” “The Terminator” and “The Thing”). Not only am I a writer who typically avoids spoilers, but Netflix has politely asked that we not reveal a laundry list of details that covers, well, almost everything. Now is the place in a review in which I would usually detail some of the plot to convey what the season is about.

It’s such a finely-tuned and executed piece of escapist entertainment that I watched it twice.

The Duffer brothers will likely never match the creepy wow factor of season one, but they’re not really trying to do that anymore, moving from the obvious Stephen King and Steven Spielberg touchstones of the first two seasons to incorporate more action influences-narratively and visually-from James Cameron, John Carpenter, George A. They’re back! The put-upon residents of Hawkins, Indiana have returned to Netflix after a year-and-a-half off the pop culture scene, and I have to admit to wondering what other tricks the Duffer brothers had up their sleeves, and if people would still care about El, Hopper, Dustin, and the rest of the gang of “Stranger Things.” I went into season three with a great deal of trepidation about a show that already felt like it was repeating itself a bit in season two, but I came out as exhilarated as I often did after seeing the movies and creators that inspired this hit show.

Stranger things 3 blu ray