Persephone's (Gothic) Insights

This article covers some of my problems with  Stranger Things 3 (2019)  and one of my favorite moments. Spoilers! Stranger Things 3 is uneven. In short, episodes one, two and three are solid horror. After that, it's a mixed bag. There's much to appreciate, and much to criticize. I'll start with the latter... Invulnerability Clauses Season three continues many problems I've had with the show to this point. For one, its cast is a bit too large for its own good, and contractual obligations make it impossible to kill any of main players. Hopper's "death" is frustratingly noncommittal. Off-screen, the maker's hide it behind the splattering of so many disposable Russian scientists. The only main player to bite the dust is Bill, a casualty from episode one who spends more time off-screen than on—so much so that his development occurs entirely by Eleven invading his mind. There, we get a mess of smokey images. Whenever he's in a scene, Bill is lar...

This article is part of a series meant to review Stranger Things 3 (2019), per episode. Here is my review of episode three: "The Case of the Missing Lifeguard" It's a bit longer, and analyzes season 3's web of subplots and Gothic content thus far. Spoilers! Before going in, I automatically wondered "Shouldn't 'Lifeguard' be plural?" Bill disappears, but so does the Linda Barrett lookalike (currently anonymous). Both of them were lifeguards. I digress. The episode starts at Hopper's place, where Max and Eleven are fantasizing about other boys (including a centerfold of the Karate Kid, himself, Ralph Macchio). Max continues to liberate Eleven, encouraging her that Mike will come crawling back (as Lucas often does). Apparently she'd kill to see "their stupid faces," so Eleven blindfolds up. In this case, the normally unsettling "dark space" is a site for comedy. Eleven peers in on the hare-brained theories of emo...

This article is part of a series meant to review Stranger Things 3 (2019), per episode. Here is my review of episode one: "Suzie, Do You Copy?" Spoilers! The episode starts in a concrete bunker. Men in olive-colored hazmat suits strut around a giant machine. Their war-like gas masks are elephantine, bound to rope-like hoses. Upstairs in the command module, a group of scientists and military personnel look on: a general and his second-in-command; another, an aging scientist. The scientist produces a key by which to carefully activate the machine; a mess of teeth-like gears, the contraption jolts to life. It spews lightning it can scarcely contain. Eventually a beam of light shoots into the wall—specifically an archway purposefully engraved into the concrete. The shape of the door reminds me  the Krell metal from  Forbidden Planet (1956). In that movie, the Monster from the Id taps into the Great Machine to burn a whole through the Krell-metal door. Here, the scientists ...

"We're not kids, anymore!" the voice-over exclaims. "What? Did you think we'd sit in my basement and play games for the rest of our lives?" Oh, they grow up so fast! Note: This is my first impression of the new trailer to season 3 of Stranger Things (2016). I may not have caught every single detail. Still, spoilers! Stranger Things season three is nigh, and one thing seems plain: the show, now more than ever, remains stuck in a time warp. The children age; the show does not. Its "past" is the sort envisioned by the likes of Carpenter, Henson, or Spielberg. Here, the action builds to a crescendo courtesy of Pete Townsend. Even as the world of these extraordinary children continues to change, the immortal lyrics of "Baba O'Reilly" (1971) provide a sense of wistful nostalgia. The actors themselves have all grown. Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, is taller, with a full head of hair. No longer the awkward, ball tween, she...