Stranger Things Season 3 Review: 6 Ups & 6 Downs

Downs...

6. The Plot Is Pretty Dull

The supernatural hooey that comprises Stranger Things' narrative has always been its weakest suit and taken a backseat to the characters, the world-building and the exuberant style.

That's perhaps no truer this time around, though, with a central monster plot involving Russians and Hawkins' nifty new mall that never really inspires the audience to get particularly invested.

Cribbing from countless popular sci-fi films throughout, there's little true creativity or inventiveness here, while the central kids are too often portioned off into their own under-cooked subplots.

This is especially true for Jonathan (Charlie Heaton), who gets virtually nothing to do for the entire season, and Nancy (Natalia Dyer), who spends way too long shoehorned into a tiresome breadcrumb-following plot where she's reinvented as a chintzy Lois Lane knock-off.

Though the surrounding style and performances certainly help prop the lacklustre story up, it's a genuine shame that so much talent and craft is wasted on thoroughly generic sci-fi tosh.