Stranger Things season 3 opens with Hawkins summer and Russian plot

Netflix's Stranger Things reintroduced its core cast in the third season with a pair of episodes that shift the series into a summer setting in Hawkins, Indiana, expand the show’s geopolitical backdrop and blend coming-of-age comedy, horror and conspiracy-thriller elements. The premiere episodes reestablish character relationships and lay groundwork for a broader season arc that includes a Russian subplot and renewed Upside Down activity.

The two episodes open with ordinary summer developments—jobs, romances and mall visits—before small disturbances indicate larger threats. Dustin returns from a month at summer camp and quickly becomes the audience surrogate for changed group dynamics. His radio picks up a Russian broadcast, a signal that the season will foreground Cold War-era tensions more explicitly than earlier seasons. Will experiences renewed sensitivity to the Upside Down, and power fluctuations at the Starcourt Mall are tied to covert experiments conducted by Russian operatives working at a remote, snowy site.

The show leans into teenage concerns without abandoning its darker thread. Mike and Eleven’s relationship causes friction among friends and with Hopper, who has...