Stranger Things; Poison Water

“With each of the four episodes running on from the previous one, we have a five-hour action-comedy-horror movie, where each part of the story is luxuriously stretched. Episode one is all set up; episode four is a solidly thrilling 90 minutes of flame-throwing, bullet-dodging spectacle that makes good use of what looks like a virtually limitless effects budget, and which culminates in a moment that will have fans standing on their chairs and hollering joyfully. Stranger Things definitely needs to switch off its boombox, hang up its catapults and admit it’s too old for these capers, but it’s worth indulging it one last time.”
Jack Seale, The Guardian

“Volume one doesn’t rewrite the manual but why would you want it to? This is richly entertaining stuff with proper jeopardy and bags of emotion.”
Ed Potton, The Times

“It has never entirely stood on its own two legs – the fun comes from spotting the references and being reminded of older, better films and series. But Stranger Things remains top-rank comfort viewing and for now, despite a slightly slow start, the signs are promising that it will go one better than Game of Thrones, and deliver a send-off that lives up to audience expectations.”
Ed Power, The Telegraph

“Even while their friends and family are in mortal peril, the central kids crack wise, treating this existential threat with a quippy irreverence that stops the show from going up its own gaping wormhole. That familiar tone – brisk, upbeat, fun – is maintained throughout these concluding episodes… Yet now, the show overwhelmingly plays out in or around the Upside Down, and the stakes are never lower than critical. It is like IT, if 90 per cent of the novel involved Pennywise baring his teeth and chasing the children. It lacks the contrast – the light and the shade – that in earlier seasons really brought out the emotional heart of the show.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“Poison Water relies heavily on a Horizon episode and other archive material, and there is a risk that the final product could feel more like a repackaging than an original piece. Naturally, though, taking a four-decade step back from events casts them in a different light. And there are enough new interviews here – with residents, experts and politicians – to bring the whole thing startlingly, discomfitingly into the present.”
Hannah J Davis, The Guardian

“It was heartbreaking to hear from so many people whose lives had been ruined by the poisoning and its aftermath.”
Roland White, Daily Mail