I really liked the new season. I liked 1 and 2 as well, and I think this one lived up to that standard.
Oh, while I’m here: Can someone please explain to me why the Russians were in America and how they found out about the American experiments? I think I missed that scene.
Also, did the Russians let out the creature that took over Billy, or was that a coincidence that all this stuff was going on at the same time?
Because in the 80s, the USSR was an evil empire superpower, with unlimited resources and global reach. Rather than a bloated, corrupt bureaucracy that could barely feed their own people.
Probably my favorite season so far.
I loved the growing maturity of the core group and the issues that they face. It’s not a spoiler to point out that growing up has wonderful rewards, but damn, it hurts sometimes.
I have one discussion point along those lines about the state of one of the characters by the end of the series, but that is best saved until spoilers are allowed.
There actually was a little jokey reference to one of Winona Ryder’s movies:
When Joyce goes to visit Mr. Clarke (the science teacher) the song “My Bologna” by Weird Al is playing as the background music. This is, of course, a parody of “My Sharona” by The Knack–a song that had a revival in 1994 when it was featured in the movie Reality Bites starring Winona Ryder.
The USSR was really, really big. It’s something like 5,000 miles form Chernobyl to Kamchatka, and that’s as the crow flies. Far longer if you tried to drive it.
I was not enjoying this season at all. It felt to me like an eight-episode treatment of one episode of Red Dwarf.
And little things kept pulling me out of it, like I don’t remember ever seeing them selling sneakers in The Gap. And seriously, poor little El has had enough. I don’t think I can watch this show torture her any more. Did they really have to do that to her? 
Yep, I noticed that one.
Yeah, but, lets assume that was true in-universe (and that it is necessary to dress in full Russian military attire in Indiana deep underground). Why were they there?
Because evil empires must control the means and science behind interdimensional travel and communication, in their quest to control the world. And Hawkins
is special. Duhh! 
In Season 1 - flashbacks to Ell’s early days of testing, she was shown specifically spying on the Russians - then she discovered the creature and the upside down as part of that. (And papa started focusing on that aspect).
I absolutely loved it. It was sufficiently its own story that it felt newish and I’ve fallen in love with this bit, although it turns out a 10 hour loop is too much. I did enjoy it for 25 minutes though, and then starting missing it two minutes after turning it off.
YouTube link in spoiler tags just for extra caution since it’s from the last episode:
I assumed they had a spy in the U.S. gov’t that told them about the facility doing research into psychic powers and dimensional travel and they didn’t want to have a psychic/dimensional weapon gap with the U.S.
The Russian technician (“Smirnoff”) specifically mentioned that they couldn’t break through the dimensional barrier in Russia, but in Hawkins the barrier was particularly thin. Remember his demonstration with the straw poking through a napkin?
We started watching a couple nights ago… ep 1 and 2 the first night, 3 and 4 last night. My wife said two a night is enough otherwise she won’t be able to get to sleep.
At one point during episode 4 we both blurted out at the same time “Doesn’t anybody dry off after they take a shower?” Earlier in the episode it was Hooper, later it was Billy. They both started getting dressed while they were still soaking wet. WTH?
The little girl coming to the ice cream store every day asking for samples was simultaneously annoying and hilarious. “You can’t spell ‘America’ without ‘Erica’.” 
So much for no spoilers.
It’s kind of pointless to put everything in spoiler tags in a thread like this. Much easier to just give a warning in the OP that there will be open spoilers throughout the thread. Those who haven’t watched the season yet aren’t likely to come into the thread anyways.
Agreed. But that’s not what the OP requested.
[Moderating]
I’m told that there are a lot of spoilers in this thread. But the report just pointed to the OP, and I have no idea what is or is not a spoiler. If there are any spoilers, please report the specific posts that are the problem, and describe what needs to be edited. Oh, and stop posting spoilers, too, I guess.
I created the OP stating spoiler-free open for discussion and that I shouldn’t just make the rule. Having opened this fairly quickly after it came out I figured that there should be some reasonable period for people to read spoiler-free reviews. I have concluded to 8/1 is too far and am taking it upon myself to unilaterally change the guideline.
OPEN SPOILERS AHEAD
Be so advised.
You may want to include the spoiler warning in your title in case someone misses this post.
Request made.
I do think that the best approach for these dropped seasons is some arbitrary period of spoiler-free so those who ave not yet binged can get some reviews, but keeping that period short enough that it isn’t too annoying to others. Agree that until 8/1 is too long. One week would be I think too short.
Accepting my premise that there should be some time period, what time period seems right?