Editorials
“Stranger Things” Continues to Brilliantly Develop Some of the Best Characters on Television
Warning: This article contains Season 3 spoilers.
One of the major advantages television shows have over movies is that they’ve got a lot more time to play with, and the best ones relish that free time to develop and evolve their characters and the storylines they’re wrapped up in. In its 8-episode third season, Netflix’s “Stranger Things” continues to prove that on the character front, there’s nothing else like it on TV.
Above all else it’s the characters who call Hawkins home that make its fictional world such a joy to hang out in, and it’s the show’s excellent writing and performances that have allowed each of them to grow far beyond ’80s tropes. Much has been said and written about the entertainment that inspired “Stranger Things” and its Easter egg tributes to the past, but all of that stuff is actually the *least* interesting thing about the show. It’s all just nostalgic set dressing for what’s really important: letting a wonderful set of characters shine.
And the best of them all may very well be Joe Keery’s Steve.
Initially, Steve Harrington was a walking, talking ’80s trope, the personification of the handsome high school jock we’ve hated in so many movies over the years. And if “Stranger Things” was a 90-minute movie, that’s precisely who Steve would’ve been throughout the entire runtime. But across three seasons now, Steve has surprisingly become one of the most likable characters on TV, evolving so far beyond the trope that the Steve of season three is hardly even the same person as the Steve of season one. Mind you, Steve’s redemptive arc began in the latter half of season one, and continued with the fan-favorite “babysitter Steve” storyline in season two, but it’s in season three that Steve reckons with who he once was.
Bloodied, imprisoned, and facing certain death in the Russian lab underneath the Starcourt Mall, Steve shares a beautiful moment with fellow Scoops Ahoy employee Robin in episode 6, which kicks off with Robin sharing a high school memory. Robin tells Steve that she was “obsessed” with him (we’ll get more into that in a minute) in sophomore history class, sitting behind him for a whole year without ever being noticed. She was, after all, a “band dweeb,” while Steve was “the King of Hawkins High” – and in high school, never the twain shall meet.
“Everything that people tell you is important, everything that people say you should care about, it’s all just bullshit,” Steve responds to Robin’s story, acknowledging that the person she’s talking about and the person she’s talking to are not at all the same. “But I guess you gotta mess up to figure things out, right? You know, I wish I’d known you in Click’s class.”
Later, in episode seven, Steve pours his heart out to Robin, confessing that he’s got a crush on her and that he only didn’t talk to her in high school because his friends – the same friends who spray-painted obscene messages about Nancy and Jonathan back in season one – would’ve made fun of him. For Steve, the scene is the completion of a wonderful character arc – “Mr. Cool” is in love with a “nerd” – but for Robin it’s something else entirely. After Steve pours his heart out, Robin gets honest with herself, revealing to Steve that she’s a lesbian. She wasn’t obsessed with Steve because she was into Steve, but because Steve wouldn’t give the girl she had a crush on the time of day. “I wanted her to look at me,” Robin tells Steve.
Rather than going down the expected path and setting up Steve and Robin as the hot new couple in Hawkins, “Stranger Things” instead hits us with a powerful curve ball, one that reminds how good the show’s writers are not just at evolving characters but also creating them. Equally impressive is how well cast and acted the show is, with Maya Hawke shining bright as Robin, another new character who seamlessly fits right in with the rest of the gang that we already love. Going forward, it’s looking like Steve and Robin will be friends, an infinitely more interesting dynamic than if they had become a couple. The Steve of old would surely never believe you if you told him who his two best friends would become.
Season three of “Stranger Things” is loaded with these interesting dynamics, and the show’s writers always seem to know which pair-ups we want to see most. Joyce and Hopper spend most of the season solving the Russian mystery together, flirting with a relationship while they uncover secrets, work together to beat up the corrupt mayor, and even take one of the Russians hostage in the pursuit of information. Joyce continues to be one of the most proactive and intelligent characters on the show, figuring things out long before anyone else catches on, while Hopper’s approach in season 3 is the polar opposite of Joyce’s calm intelligence – moreso than ever before, Hopper is a total brute, rampaging his way through the case. Yes, the show finally made Hopper and Joyce the buddy-cop duo you didn’t know you needed in your life, and it’s a highly entertaining good cop, bad cop dynamic that’s rife with sexual tension.
Some of the most interesting character work going on in season three, however, is Hopper’s internal fight. When we catch up with him in 1985, Hopper is a raw nerve on the verge of a breakdown, dealing with a daughter who’s growing up and a town that has for the *third time* been overtaken by monsters. Given everything he’s been through, up to and including the death of his biological daughter and the dissolution of his marriage, Hopper is an emotional wreck in season 3, and that hurt manifests itself in some pretty unsavory ways. In many ways, the Hopper of season three is a far cry from the Hopper we know and love, and David Harbour wonderfully paints a portrait of a flawed man who’s just barely holding it all together.
And don’t even get me started on those final moments of the season, which deliver “Six Feet Under” levels of emotional devastation. That note. That song. Beautiful storytelling.
But as heartbreaking as it was to see Hopper give his life to help save Hawkins and the people he loves, it was equally heartbreaking to see Dacre Montgomery’s Billy do the same in season three. Billy, a character who wasn’t exactly a pleasant person even before the Mind Flayer got into his head, has a surprisingly redemptive character arc this season, with the writers cleverly using Eleven’s powers as a way of taking us on a little trip down the Hargrove family’s own personal memory lane. Through these stylized flashbacks, enough light is shed on Billy’s childhood to clue us into why he is the way he is, and he gets a nice little final moment where he temporarily holds back the Mind Flayer’s control over him and becomes the hero Hawkins needs… if only for a moment. You know a show is firing on all the best cylinders when you’re wiping tears from your eyes over the death of a character like Billy Hargrove.
Of course, you can’t talk about “Stranger Things” without talking about the kids, who share an overarching storyline in season three. They’re not quite the little kids they were when we first met them, and now that they’re teenagers, there’s a sense of nostalgia that the season has for the show’s own past. In particular, Will can’t come to terms with the fact that his friends no longer want to sit around playing Dungeons & Dragons like they used to – after all, Lucas, Mike and Dustin now have girlfriends to worry about – and it’s devastating to watch along as he desperately tries to recreate the fun of the past. For Will, childhood has been ravaged by the creatures from the Upside Down in a way that his friends never quite experienced, and so it makes perfect sense that he’s the one trying to hang on to every last second. Thankfully, Will finally gets something a bit different to do in season 3, with his connection to the Upside Down serving as something of a Spidey sense-like superpower of sorts. After two seasons of Will being a victim, it’s nice to see Noah Schnapp getting to dig into some new material.
Like many fans, I had wondered if the show would become less charming as the actors got older, but season 3 suggests that “Stranger Things” is only going to get more interesting from here. Growing up presents an entirely new set of struggles that bring fresh subplots and dynamics to season 3 – the show itself, I’d argue, has done a bit of growing up too, getting darker and more dangerous this season – with one of the big highlights being the relationship between Max and Eleven. It’s through a friendship with Max that Eleven starts to really discover who she is and what she wants, developing her own style and figuring out how to deal with boys. It’s been a real treat to watch Millie Bobby Brown evolve the character.
Also great to see? Erica Sinclair, a season 2 scene-stealer, becomes a full-on main character in season 3, and actress Priah Ferguson knocks her material out of the park. Erica, who had been too cool for the “nerds” that her brother hangs out with back in season 2, spends much of the season paired up with Dustin, Steve and Robin, and every scene she’s in is another opportunity for Ferguson to steal the show – which she does, every single time. Erica even gets a little arc of her own that presents itself when Dustin realizes that she’s, well, a total nerd!
The monsters are cool and the retro aesthetics continue to fill me with warm nostalgia, but it’s the characters that make “Stranger Things” an all-time great show. They’re the reason it has evolved from a show that pays tribute to iconic pop culture properties to a pop culture icon in its own right, and season 3 is a new benchmark for character-based storytelling on the small screen. Whether it’s expanding upon existing characters or creating brand new ones, “Stranger Things” makes it all feel so effortless. Here’s hoping other shows start taking some notes.
On July 13th, 2026, the world lost one of its brightest stars.
Beloved New Zealand actor Sam Neill passed away from pneumonia after a long battle with stage 3 lymphoma. The multifaceted movie star will be remembered by mainstream audiences for his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 masterpiece Jurassic Park, as well as powerful turns in A Cry in the Dark (1988), The Piano (1993), and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), and prestige TV series The Tudors and Peaky Blinders. But horror fans know him as one of the genre’s most surprising Scream Kings.
Through a handful of memorable starring roles, Neill spent the 80s and 90s bringing life to a wide variety of characters and finding humanity in the most unusual leading roles, regardless of how heroic or villainous.
The Final Conflict (1981)
After a decade on the stage and screen in New Zealand and Australia, Neill made his international debut as Damien Thorn in Graham Baker’s The Final Conflict, the third installment of The Omen franchise. Now a 36-year-old businessman, Damien is fully aware of his devilish parentage and hell-bent on world domination. But rather than a hooved and horned monstrosity, Neill’s Antichrist is a suave businessman who leads his followers in an expensive suit and seeks to bring about the apocalypse through deceptive altruism rather than grand proclamation.
Despite his austere demeanor, the man’s true evil knows no bounds. When a prophecy foretells the second coming of Christ, known in the film as “the Nazarene,” Damien commands his followers to commit widespread infanticide, murdering all baby boys born on a specific date. He seduces a high-profile reporter while transforming her teenage son into a bloodthirsty disciple, then uses the child as a human shield. This tricky role allows Neill to demonstrate his trademark versatility, easily charming the outside world while dropping his suave mask of normalcy behind closed doors. Though certain aspects of The Final Conflict are admittedly dated, Neill’s performance feels eerily prescient. He’s mastered the heinous portrayal of a politician willing to sell his soul for power that will ultimately bring about the end of the world.
Possession (1981)
Though Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession is often remembered for Isabelle Adjani’s stunning depiction of a woman on the edge, Neill delivers an equally unhinged performance as Mark, a spy returning home from a lengthy assignment in divided Berlin. Upon discovering that his wife Anna (Adjani) wants a divorce, Mark desperately tries to hold his family together even at the expense of her sanity. Filmed the same year as The Final Conflict, Neill dives headfirst into this visceral role, managing to evoke sympathy for the distraught father who becomes ever more desperate to regain control. Inspired by his own divorce, Żuławski resists blaming either party for the separation, instead showing the chaos and heartache that comes in the wake of a family’s dissolution.
Once considered to replace Roger Moore as the next James Bond, Neill has fun with the international spy persona as Żuławski’s plot grows increasingly bizarre. But the skilled actor never lets us forget that Mark is a flawed human being struggling to keep his life from falling apart. A second character emerges in the film’s mesmerizing climax, allowing Neill to lean into full villainy with a glassy-eyed stare that chills to the bone. Now a cult classic, Adjani and Neill bounce off each other’s seething rage, creating one of the most effective cinematic duets in the history of horror.
Jurassic Park (1993)
When Steven Spielberg’s creature feature first hit theaters, Neill was by no means a household name and hardly a traditional leading man. Without the swashbuckling swagger of Harrison Ford, the mega-watt smile of Tom Cruise, or the chiselled jaw of Brad Pitt — all famous action stars of the era — Neill felt like an unconventional choice for this massive role. But he perfectly captures the essence of Grant, an aloof academic who prefers dig sites to fancy fundraisers and social events. Despite an aversion to children, the dinosaur expert finds himself tasked with saving the theme park’s youngest survivors who gradually break down his emotional walls. Grant’s transformation into a courageous caretaker is a landmark deconstruction of traditional gender norms wrapped in the guise of a rugged outdoorsman.
Neill proves to be the perfect action star, effortlessly navigating Spielberg’s stunning set pieces without losing the character’s relatable hook. But perhaps the film’s most touching moment is Neill’s childlike wonder at seeing a dinosaur for the first time. Stunned to speechlessness, he channels the audience’s wondrous joy when Grant first spies a real, live Brachiosaurus. But he seamlessly weaves this infectious awe into serious concerns about the creature’s existence, amplifying the story’s prophetic messaging. Jeff Goldblum may utter the film’s iconic warning, but the duality of Grant’s performance perfectly illustrates the scientific imperative, reminding us that just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
Neill would go on to lead Joe Johnston’s 2001 sequel Jurassic Park III, in which Grant is again tasked with saving a child. In 2022, he would appear in Colin Trevorrow’s legacy sequel Jurassic World Dominion, which merges the franchise’s two distinct eras while bringing the carnage onto mainland shores. Despite turning in strong performances, neither film is able to top the magic of Spielberg’s original or Neill’s captivating performance as the stoic leading man. But his nuanced depiction of Alan Grant inspired a generation of would-be paleontologists and quiet kids who could now see themselves as courageous academics capable of surprising strength.
In the Mouth of Madness (1994)
After catapulting to worldwide fame, Neill returned to horror proper to lead John Carpenter’s mind-bending In the Mouth of Madness. We first meet John Trent (Neill) as he’s dragged, kicking and screaming, into a padded cell. An unknown stretch of time later, he recounts an unbelievable story while covered in protective crosses scrawled into his skin — and the cell’s walls — with black crayon. A private investigator, Trent has been tasked with locating Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), a world-famous yet elusive genre author whose work has been driving his ravenous readers to disturbing acts of random violence.
A love letter to fans of horror fiction, we delight in watching Trent explore literary easter eggs that lead him down jarring rabbit holes. A late-night road trip takes Trent and Linda Styles (Julie Carmen), an editor for Cane’s publishing house, to a tiny New England hamlet teeming with darkness. While investigating an ominous cathedral on the outskirts of town, Trent realizes that he’s somehow been transported into the author’s interdimensional story and become its unwitting protagonist.
Neill serves as a skeptical everyman and the audience’s conduit through this bizarre tale of literary monsters that find a way to burst through the page. An often overlooked Carpenter film, In the Mouth of Madness spirals into insanity, but Neill keeps us grounded throughout each outlandish twist. A shocking conclusion leaves us gaping at our screens and contemplating our own relationship with horror fiction. After all, does free will truly exist? Or, like Trent, are we merely pawns in someone else’s monstrous creation?
Event Horizon (1997)
One of the scariest movies ever set in space, Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon builds upon the heroic image Neill established for himself in Jurassic Park. Dr. William Weir (Neill) is a physicist temporarily joining the crew of the Lewis and Clark to assist in their latest rescue mission. Seven years after vanishing without a trace, a spaceship called the Event Horizon has suddenly reappeared near Neptune’s orbit. As the creator of a top-secret gravity drive designed to facilitate faster-than-light travel, Dr. Weir has been sent to explore the ship and find out what happened to its missing crew.
Still haunted by his late wife’s suicide, Dr. Weir is a sympathetic figure, particularly in comparison to the harsh Captain Miller (Laurence Fishburne) who commands the crew of the Lewis and Clark. But Weir’s desperation to return to the infamous ship hides a sinister secret that leads his fellow astronauts to the threshold of hell. Neill’s talent for playing the everyman pays off in spades as the formerly sympathetic widower transforms into a disciple of this frightening dimension. Resembling a long-lost cenobite, Weir claws out his own eyes and prepares to drag the crew into a world consumed with sadistic pain.
Daybreakers (2009)
Neill returns to his Omen roots in Michael and Peter Spierig’s action-packed film as a secretly sinister businessman. But rather than the Antichrist, Charles Bromley (Neill) is a proud vampire convinced of the species’ superiority. With human blood in short supply, Bromley Marks Corp. is working on a synthetic substitute to prevent the human race from impending extinction. While hematologists perfect the formula, Bromley oversees disturbing fields of humans chained to massive machines that systematically harvest their blood.
Neill chills in this sinister role with vampiric yellow eyes, a pale complexion, and subtle fangs. But more upsetting is the fact that he honestly doesn’t believe he’s wrong. Once diagnosed with cancer, Bromley was delighted to find that vampirism would totally reverse his illness and grant him the gift of eternal life. He begged his daughter Alison (Isabel Lucas) to turn alongside him, but she has rejected her father’s controversial choice and is now hunted by his bloodthirsty goons. In a heartbreaking moment of clarity, Bromley brings his daughter to the brink of death, then turns away in disgust when she will not embrace his undead lifestyle.
Daybreakers is a surprisingly thrilling exploration of survival and sustainability. Similar to a plot Damien Thorn would hatch, Bromley’s ultimate plan is to placate the vampire population with synthetic blood while allowing the human population to replenish itself. With a larger stock, he plans to sell authentic humans at a premium, hunting these poor souls to season the meat. Bromley rejects a cure that would reverse the vampiric disease, choosing to enrich himself over saving the world. The strangely captivating villain’s end is a cathartic nightmare and fitting punishment for a wealthy man who places himself above everyone else.
In the Mouth of Madness
While the world may remember Neill for his signature role as a gruff but compassionate paleontologist going head to head with a raging T-Rex, horror fans may picture the versatile actor maniacally rocking back and forth in a filthy Berlin apartment, commanding a boardroom of corporate vampires, disappearing into the darkness of a haunted spaceship, sermonizing to satanists, or giggling over popcorn in a deserted movie theater. Or perhaps you have another favorite role in the beloved actor’s stellar career. But whether he was playing a hero or villain, Neill brought undeniable humanity to every role, redefining our idea of masculinity and the very nature of goodness vs. evil. By bringing such disparate characters to life, Neill challenged audiences with a variety of complex roles, asking us to examine the humanity of each character no matter how flawed or virtuous.
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