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Stranger Things 3 premieres July 4 on Netflix, and it sees all the characters from Hawkins, Indiana, growing and evolving. And yes, we’re including a few monsters in that mix.
The Mind Flayer — the terrible tentacled entity last seen hovering over Hawkins Middle School in the Upside Down — is alive and well and prepared to lay waste to the whole town, and perhaps more. Cue more of what we’ve come to expect from Stranger Things by now: kids battling evil, led by a powerful Eleven sporting a nosebleed and using her version of the Force.
Meanwhile, many of season two’s flaws and frustrations have been ironed out in satisfying and interesting ways. And though a new set of problems arises, the show is still as slick and stylish as ever: Season three really feels like the cover of an ’80s pulp horror novel, in the best way. The cast is as sparkling as ever, and the new setting of Hawkins’s brand new Starcourt Mall serves up even more of the nostalgia that Stranger Things has always had in spades.