Nine Thoughts About Stranger Things 3! With Spoilers!

I thought Stranger Things 3 was pretty close to perfect, and by perfect I mean finding a balance between outright fan service and solid writing which offered both closure and some good prospects for a fourth season.  Some thoughts:

1)  This felt a lot more action-oriented than the previous seasons, and that was OK.  They were juggling a ton of characters and while the first few episodes were slow, the fast pace of everything else felt justified and not at all rushed.

2)  There were plenty of emotional moments, but one that stood out for me was Will tearing down Fort Byers, "putting aside childish things" so to speak as his friends discover girls.  I had many a feel with this scene.

3)  Something I didn't like: while using music well is a powerful technique, they really overdid it here.  Every damn scene doesn't need a cutesie 80s gratuitous musical cue.  A few would have been awesome, but it became tedious and predictable.  (Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher" is from 67, natch.)

4)  I really want Steve to find a nice girl and settle down.  He's earned it.

5)  Robin was great.  Erica was great.  Max felt a little underdeveloped, even though she got plenty of screen-time this season.  She grieves after Billy sacrifices himself but it felt kind of rote.

6)  As good as this season was, part of me kind of wants it to end here -- Hopper dead, the kids growing up and moving on, everyone fully experiencing "the hurt" of the final letter.

7)  I get that part of the show's charm comes in the form of 80's pop-culture references, but Grigori the Russian hit-man was a little too on-the-nose in referencing The Terminator.

8)  Nancy is bad-ass, as always.  The actual NRA is a terrorist organization, but if she started her own gun club I'd join in a heartbeat.

9)  As a life-long nerd myself who used to play a lot of Dungeons and Dragons, you'd think I'd relate to one of the "core" kids the most (Will, Mike, Lucas, Dustin).  But Steve -- saying stupid things, the faded glory, multiple romantic failures, but very occasionally rising to greatness when needed?

Yeah, I'm definitely a Steve.