The first two seasons of Netflix’s hit streaming series Strangers Things took place in the bitter autumn of Hawkins, Indiana. As such, we’ve already seen Mike, Nancy and all of their friends tackle costume parties, trick-or-treating and their school’s annual Snow Ball dance, so it only seems appropriate that the third season would heat things up by following our heroes into the summer of ‘85
For a show depicting otherworldly monsters, mutated teenagers and secret government agencies, Strangers Things is wickedly funny, and the first full clip from the new season leans hard into the laughs. Set to the time-appropriate “Moving in Stereo” by The Cars (which features rockin’ riffs and creepy synths in equal measures), the scene finds Dacre Montgomery’s antagonistic Billy Hargrove on a power trip as the community pool’s lifeguard, much to the delight of many local moms. The irritating machismo radiating off of Billy’s strut is a perfect reintroduction to the character, who will surely, definitely, in-no-way use his time off from school to wreak havoc and mayhem in the lives of our kid heroes.
A much darker full trailer for the new season of Stranger Things dropped back in March and star Natalia Dyer, who plays Nancy Wheeler, revealed a few months ago that shooting the show has become a substantial feat of its own, with this season’s material growing darker along with the characters:
Obviously I haven’t seen any of it, but it does feel bigger, darker, scarier. It felt like they noticeably bumped it up to a different level this season.”
Considering our heroes are about to face their largest challenge yet, we’re sure they could use some much-needed R&R at the community pool, Billy be damned. After all, summer vacation is pretty much the pinnacle of childhood freedom, so it’s a shame that the Mind Flayer et al. is going to turn these kids’ lives upside-down once more. We’ll have to see how it all plays out when the third season of Strange Things debuts on July 4th.