The new Stranger Things is loopy and sweet

So, the new – and supposedly final – season of Stranger Things has arrived in Netflix, just in time for Thanksgiving. Expectations have been through the roof that this installment will not be a turkey, but the good (stranger?) thing about the series so far is that it has maintained a remarkably high level of quality since it began in 2016. This is by no means a given for an Eighties-inflected fantasy show that is so devoted (the cynics might and have said slavishly) to all things that Steven Spielberg produced in that decade that the bearded one might have sued for plagiarism, were it not for the fact that the homage remains an affectionate and heartfelt, rather than cynical, one.

The new season, which has an apparently exorbitant budget of as much as $60 million per episode, expands the palette to include influences ranging from Stephen King and John Carpenter to mid-Eighties James Cameron (rather than the Avatar incarnation of the king of the world). The latter is made explicit by a totemic cameo by Terminator actress Linda Hamilton, as redolent of the Eighties setting as Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” was in the fourth season. But amid the Sturm und Drang, there are moments of sweetness and levity that remind the viewers why this became such a massive hit in the first place.

As the inhabitants of Hawkins, Indiana, all bond together in an attempt to defeat Jamie Campbell Bower’s nefarious and terrifyingly all-powerful Vecna, whose appearance on screen was heralded from the last series with as much pomp and circumstance as a show like this merits, those who cannot remember all the twists, turns and developments of previous series – the last of which aired in 2022, a considerable period in streaming chronology – might instead enjoy pondering other issues.

These include, in no particular order, what, exactly, has happened to Millie Bobby Brown, who seems to have gone from being a wholesome, sweet-faced teenager in the first series to a cynical woman of the world in this. Offscreen, she has attracted a raft of negative publicity for what has been seen in some circles as a life lived rather too quickly and large in the public gaze; at the age of 21, she is already a married woman with an adopted child, as well as a veteran of both this and the Enola Holmes series. Yet she’s as dynamic as the Eleven character in Stranger Things as she always has been, ably mixing mystery with jaw-dropping supernatural abilities to give the show genuine jolts of excitement and spectacle whenever she appears.

Tabloid connoisseurs, meanwhile, might be amused by the continuing presence of David Harbour as Eleven’s quasi-adoptive father Jim Hopper. Harbour has been dogged both by his ex-wife Lily Allen’s coruscating dismissal of him and his extramarital antics on her latest album, West End Girl, and by Brown’s allegations of on-set bullying, which has led to an unusual degree of interest in their on-screen relationship. Yet truth be told, if the stories had not emerged, it would be hard to discern any especial difference, and the warmth and strength of the bond between the two characters has grounded the show, giving it an emotional heart that at times might be lacking amid the sheer preponderance of special effects, lore and big moments thrown in to get the show’s millions of fans cheering.

As is semi-obligatory with these big shows, the episodes released only constitute half the series, with the remainder scheduled for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. As audiences eagerly await the grand finale – written and directed by the show’s creators, the excellently named Duffer Brothers – there can be little doubt that Stranger Things, in all its loopy, self-referential excess, is pretty much the exemplar of Eighties-themed fantasy on television. A lot of people are going to be made very happy by this, and it would be churlish not to wish them joy.