It’s pretty good overall! I was a bit disappointed in S3 as it felt like they were spinning their wheels a bit, but this doesn’t feel like that anymore. I don’t think it’s perfect by any stretch, but it does feel like there’s an actual series-wide plan now.
Good stuff:
- Eddie is a great new character
- Argyle is a fun character (Eduardo Franco always plays the same one, but it’s always fun)
- Yuri is a fun character
- Eddie’s “concert”
- intercutting between defeating vecna in the mindscape, defeating vecna in the upside down, and defeating the demogorgon in russia
- Jason is a pretty good secondary antagonist
- Pretty significant changes to the status quo in the final episode
- if you’re gonna resurrect Hopper, the prison break stuff felt like a fairly earned way
Not so great stuff:
- Pretty significant binge syndrome. I.e., “checkins” with each group of characters in each episode makes each episode feel mostly unsubstantial, since not much happens. This led to a lot of the plotlines feeling rushed towards the end since so much of the early episodes were about teasing stuff out.
- The relationship drama was very bleh, the resolutions or lack thereof even more so
- I kept forgetting about Jason. I’m glad they made him matter in the end, though.
- They played Running Up That Hill too many times.
- Henry’s backstory felt kinda arbitrary. He’s a misanthrope… because he is. He’s a powerful psychic… because he is.
- This is a minor gripe but… it felt arbitrary that Max’s vecna murder process was so much slower than the other victims.
- The 4 chimes thing felt kinda silly, especially since it was so nonobvious it needed to be stated.
Unforgivable:
- Killing Eddie. I feel like it wasn’t worth it, especially given that his character arc was pretty forced. But it says a lot that I liked the character enough I didn’t like that he died!