Forget about all the copy-paste from other movies that the third season is built onto and that we already discussed. Now we are going to discuss some of the points of the season that don't make sense:
1. Why the soviets want to open the gate? Obvioulsy it is because they are very evil (which shows the level of manichaeism of this season) with no other particular reason. It's not to bring chaos to America, because they were initially trying to open it in Russia (and Aleksei specifically pointed out that they went to Hawkins only because the wall was thinner there).
2. And how do the Soviets know about the Upside-Down by the way? And how do they know that the gate was opened in Hawkins?
3. How do the Soviets build an entire mall (with a never-ending elevator) in a small town in Indiana going completely unnoticed? How dozens of Russian (who mostly don't speak English) move around Hawkins without being noticed?
4. This was a part of the second season but still: even if we believe the government of the US will get so scared because of a bunch of soldiers being killed as to close the Hawkins lab... Obviously they would never just close it with a padlock and leave it unguarded. Even if they ignored the potential scientific and military implications of the gate, simply closing it with concrete and a padlock is like closing the reactor of Fukushima with concrete and a padlock...
5. Why L loses her powers? The last time she uses her powers is to take out that "mind flayer" stuff from her leg, so it is not the possession... It is insinuated that it is like a draining, exhaustion of the use, but sure it was more energy demanding to close the gate in the second season than what she faces in the third season... It feels that it is just a cheap excuse to make the rest of the party fight the mind flayer without the help of L's superpowers.
6. We see in the post-credits scene that the Soviets have a demidog in Kamchatka... Assuming that it's the same location as in the opening scene for the first episode, and that the demidog was not captured in Hawkins (because, as far as I remember, we didn't see any demidog in the third season and the gate in Hawkins was still "opening" as Aleksei said), it means they opened the gate and captured the demidog in Russia... So then why did they go to Hawkins?
7. Dustin and Suzie's "Neverending Story" duet... Well, it was supposed to be a funny moment, but... it was completely out of place. Singing while a giant monster is going to kill your friends... It just proved how childish the series had become.
8. And the lowest trick of all the season: Hopper's false death. We all know he is alive, we know he is the american in the cell in Kamchatka. But why using the lowest of all storytelling tricks, the false death of a main character? Specially in a "there-is-place-for-two-people-on-this-piece-of-wood" Titanic ending situation; why Hopper doesn't run upstairs with Joyce, considering he has time for it? Or someone is trying to say that the soviet female scientists in the suits are stopping him after killing the soviet "terminator"? Specially considering that it is hard to believe that Hopper can realize from his point of view that Joyce has tied a belt to try to turn both keys alone... To the best of his knowledge, Joyce can not close the gate alone.
PS: Finally, a very good example of bad writing (and the tricks used in this season) is the dialogue between Steve and Robin were the latter reveals her sexuality:
-Do you remember, um, Mrs. Click's sophomore history class?
-What?
-Mrs. Clickity-Clackity. That's what us band dweebs called her. It was first period, Tuesdays and Thursdays, so you were always late. And you always had the same breakfast. Bacon, egg, and cheese on a sesame bagel. I sat behind you two days a week for a year. Mister Funny. Mister Cool. The King of Hawkins High himself. Do you even remember me from that class? Of course you don't. You were a real asshole, you know that?
-Yeah, I know.
-But it didn't even matter. It didn't matter that you were an ass. I was still...obsessed with you. Even though all of us losers pretend to be above it all, we still just wanna be popular... accepted, normal.
So they made us think that Robin had a crush on Steve, and it's only several scenes later (in the next episode) that Robin decides to finish her story, and we discover we were "wrong":
-Do you remember what I said about Click's class? About me being jealous and, like, obsessed?
-Yeah.
-It isn't because I had a crush on you.
-It's because... she wouldn't stop staring at you.
-Mrs. Click?
-Tammy Thompson. I wanted her to look at me. But... she couldn't pull her eyes away from you and your stupid hair.
But of course we were wrong because the screenplay had fooled us, and not precisely in an "elegant" way.
1. Why the soviets want to open the gate? Obvioulsy it is because they are very evil (which shows the level of manichaeism of this season) with no other particular reason. It's not to bring chaos to America, because they were initially trying to open it in Russia (and Aleksei specifically pointed out that they went to Hawkins only because the wall was thinner there).
2. And how do the Soviets know about the Upside-Down by the way? And how do they know that the gate was opened in Hawkins?
3. How do the Soviets build an entire mall (with a never-ending elevator) in a small town in Indiana going completely unnoticed? How dozens of Russian (who mostly don't speak English) move around Hawkins without being noticed?
4. This was a part of the second season but still: even if we believe the government of the US will get so scared because of a bunch of soldiers being killed as to close the Hawkins lab... Obviously they would never just close it with a padlock and leave it unguarded. Even if they ignored the potential scientific and military implications of the gate, simply closing it with concrete and a padlock is like closing the reactor of Fukushima with concrete and a padlock...
5. Why L loses her powers? The last time she uses her powers is to take out that "mind flayer" stuff from her leg, so it is not the possession... It is insinuated that it is like a draining, exhaustion of the use, but sure it was more energy demanding to close the gate in the second season than what she faces in the third season... It feels that it is just a cheap excuse to make the rest of the party fight the mind flayer without the help of L's superpowers.
6. We see in the post-credits scene that the Soviets have a demidog in Kamchatka... Assuming that it's the same location as in the opening scene for the first episode, and that the demidog was not captured in Hawkins (because, as far as I remember, we didn't see any demidog in the third season and the gate in Hawkins was still "opening" as Aleksei said), it means they opened the gate and captured the demidog in Russia... So then why did they go to Hawkins?
7. Dustin and Suzie's "Neverending Story" duet... Well, it was supposed to be a funny moment, but... it was completely out of place. Singing while a giant monster is going to kill your friends... It just proved how childish the series had become.
8. And the lowest trick of all the season: Hopper's false death. We all know he is alive, we know he is the american in the cell in Kamchatka. But why using the lowest of all storytelling tricks, the false death of a main character? Specially in a "there-is-place-for-two-people-on-this-piece-of-wood" Titanic ending situation; why Hopper doesn't run upstairs with Joyce, considering he has time for it? Or someone is trying to say that the soviet female scientists in the suits are stopping him after killing the soviet "terminator"? Specially considering that it is hard to believe that Hopper can realize from his point of view that Joyce has tied a belt to try to turn both keys alone... To the best of his knowledge, Joyce can not close the gate alone.
PS: Finally, a very good example of bad writing (and the tricks used in this season) is the dialogue between Steve and Robin were the latter reveals her sexuality:
-Do you remember, um, Mrs. Click's sophomore history class?
-What?
-Mrs. Clickity-Clackity. That's what us band dweebs called her. It was first period, Tuesdays and Thursdays, so you were always late. And you always had the same breakfast. Bacon, egg, and cheese on a sesame bagel. I sat behind you two days a week for a year. Mister Funny. Mister Cool. The King of Hawkins High himself. Do you even remember me from that class? Of course you don't. You were a real asshole, you know that?
-Yeah, I know.
-But it didn't even matter. It didn't matter that you were an ass. I was still...obsessed with you. Even though all of us losers pretend to be above it all, we still just wanna be popular... accepted, normal.
So they made us think that Robin had a crush on Steve, and it's only several scenes later (in the next episode) that Robin decides to finish her story, and we discover we were "wrong":
-Do you remember what I said about Click's class? About me being jealous and, like, obsessed?
-Yeah.
-It isn't because I had a crush on you.
-It's because... she wouldn't stop staring at you.
-Mrs. Click?
-Tammy Thompson. I wanted her to look at me. But... she couldn't pull her eyes away from you and your stupid hair.
But of course we were wrong because the screenplay had fooled us, and not precisely in an "elegant" way.
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