Stranger Things is one of the hottest television shows and has been for the past few years. This past July, the writers of the show, The Duffer Brothers, released the third season. If you are like lots of the country or even world, you spent most of your summer attached to the screen watching over the gang of Hawkins, Indiana. This season was an emotional rollercoaster of happiness, sadness, love, affection, anger, and fear. Now before you keep reading, if you have not seen or finished the show, do not read any further. There will be many, many spoilers.

A new season always comes with new characters. This season introduced us to Robin—Steve Harrington’s coworker at the ice cream shop, Scoops Ahoy. Alexei is also a new character. He is a Russian scientist and soon joins Murray, Joyce, and Hopper’s group. We also get introduced to Mayor Kline, Bruce, Mrs. Driscoll, and many other minor characters. 

This season also brought some old friendships and relationships back and introduced us to some new ones. When Dustin comes home from camp, the whole gang surprises him. Mike, Lucas, Will, Max, and Eleven all scare him (in a nice way) using Eleven’s powers. Dustin has to show the gang his new inventions he made at camp. He also tells them about his girlfriend, a campmate, who is supposedly “hotter than Phoebe Cates,” which no one believes. Dustin’s next goal is to see his best friend, Steve Harrington. Dustin and Steve see each other again at Steve’s workplace, Scoops Ahoy. They perform their iconic handshake in front of Robin who Dustin suspects Steve might have a little crush on. Mike and Eleven are still going strong and like to spend their time kissing in El’s room which Hopper (her now official dad) is not very fond of. Max and Lucas are still going slightly strong as they have broken up many times but gotten back together.

Since the show is set in the summer of 1985, a lot of the Hawkins residents’ time is spent at the community pool or the brand new Starcourt Mall. The gang likes to spend most of their free time at the mall watching movies, getting ice cream or buying gifts for their “significant others.” Starcourt Mall is home to many stores, and under the mall is something you would only expect in Stranger Things—a giant secret Russian base. These evil Russians are trying their best to open up the gate to the Upside Down El closed back at the end of season 2.

Now the focal point of the show, the strange, strange monsters the group gets themselves tangled up with. This season, it was the Mind Flayer. The Mind Flayer was in Will’s mind in season 2, but was never given that official title. The Mind Flayer took over Billy this season. Billy has been an antagonist since the beginning of season 2 but this season, he became a literal monster. The actual physical monster is made up of exploded rats and humans. Gross, right? But Billy is the human version of him. Billy is able to lure the people into a weird abandoned factory to grow the Mind Flayer’s army that eventually takes over Hawkins.

While there were some things I did not like, I can easily say this was the best season of this show and this season also made this show my favorite. It’s always been a tie but this season broke that tie. The season was full of ups and downs but the acting was phenomenal and the effects were amazing. It’s obvious why this is one of the hottest shows right now.