After struggling to get through the show Dark, Stranger Things is like going back to an earlier time where everything is simple and makes sense. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit to myself that a little mindless entertainment at the end of the day is more practical than something that requires a 4D flowchart to understand.
This show has always been flirting with the line between sci-fi and fantasy, but having a Russian base underneath the town mall is a bit of a declaration. Even more fantastical and immersion breaking is all the present day self-awareness set in the 1980s.
It's a show about 2010s stories and politics, with a thin 1980s coat of paint. Not a 1980s story with some 2010s sensibilities. It was good enough but its wearing thin. I kind of hope with this trajectory they don't make a fourth, but from what I hear the income would make it inevitable.
