![]() One of the reasons the Harry Potter and Hunger Games books became such cultural phenomena, in part, lies in the way they used formula against their readers. 1) Stranger Things lacks a unifying structure as strong as, say, a new school year ![]() So why does Stranger Things’ move toward this heavier approach feel so empty, when Harry Potter’s slowly building darkness became more engrossing with every book? I took a closer look at season three’s eighth and final episode, and I’ve got three possible answers. (Typically, Stranger Things bumps off characters who’ve only been around a little while, treating them like cannon fodder.) Oh, and there’s a half-assed commentary on 1980s capitalist conformity in there, too. There’s actual gore this season, and there are also the deaths of two relatively major characters who have been around for more than a season, at least one of which seems likely to stick. What sets season three apart from the previous two is also what set the later Harry Potter books apart from the earlier ones: As the kids at the center of the story (and the audience watching them) get older, the thematic content grows a little more mature. Similarly, there’s no real reason all of the characters split up into individual adventuring parties, beyond the fact that this is how Stranger Things is always structured. There’s no real reason behind the Russians deciding they need to open a gate to the Upside Down - it’s just that the show must always find some new link to the Upside Down to generate monsters and conflict. But the show also feels more repetitive than ever. Like Harry Potter and The Hunger Games before it, the TV show is charting the maturation of a bunch of kids who start out knowing very little about the world and grow into adulthood as uneasily as the rest of us.Įspecially in the show’s darker, gorier third season, this is true. Stranger Things is arguably the most successful young adult series of the last half-decade. ![]() The episode of the week for June 30 through July 6 is “The Battle of Starcourt,” the season three finale of Netflix’s Stranger Things. ![]() Every week, we pick a new episode of the week. ![]()
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