‘Stranger Things 3’ Critics Review: Impressive but Repetitive

The new season of the Netflix hit series dropped on 4 July.

Series: Stranger Things 3
Directed by: The Duffer Brothers, Shawn Levy, Uta Briesewitz
Cast: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Dacre Montgomery

Season 3 of Netflix super popular sci-fi series Stranger Things finally dropped on Thursday 4 July. Here’s what critics are saying.

The third season... is all about recognizing the inevitability of growing up and moving forward, while at the same time fighting against that tide. Stranger Things is a show that absolutely knows its audience, and that leads me to wonder if casual viewers will be more generous to the evidence of familiarity and sluggishness that I experienced.

Daniel Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter

In terms of spectacle, this is by far the most impressive season, even if the action sequences are a bit repetitive. (You can set your watch to Eleven’s conveniently-timed arrival whenever a good guy is facing certain death.) But the growth of the characters means that they feel different and surprising,

Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone

As time goes on and their stars get older, the Duffers and team will need to similarly continue tweaking the Stranger Things formula. They don’t have everything flawlessly calibrated in Stranger Things 3, but there’s enough of the taste that got viewers hooked in the first place to keep them cracking open one episode after another.

Erik Adams, The AV Club

In a pleasant surprise, Stranger Things Season 3 manages to walk the line between conscious growth and mood maintenance, demonstrating self-awareness without puncturing its painstakingly recreated ’80s bubble. As in life, leaving childish things behind is scary, but what comes next can be worth the growing pains.

Alison Herman, The Ringer

Stranger Things 3 is now streaming on Netflix.