Chapter Seven: The Bite

All the commenters lamenting the "product placement" Coke dialogue are likely too young to know or remember this pop-culture (wink) juggernaut of the 80's.

The Coke scene isn't just some dastardly commercial... it's a poke at the huge "New Coke" debacle of the mid 80's. Why do you think Coke is now called Coca Cola "Classic" or "Original Taste"? Look it up, kids, to literally get with the program!

It is funny, though, that Coke capitalized on this new generation by offering a limited run of 500k cans of New Coke in May 2019. America!!

So once again, a solid episode but come on, an axe does more damage than a shotgun blasted at 5m? Has anyone on the crew ever shot one at something close range? I can tell you now, things get real mushy, really quickly

Never have I watched a show that I want to like so much but has failed. How I have got to EP7 I'll never know, S3 has been awful.

Jim and Joyce, uuuurgh, just terrible. As for the rest it's all so disjointed, the spookiness and goose bump moments all gone too.

This show had the potential to be epic, it's failed so badly.

Season 3 has blown me away! I go from feeling nostalgia to laughing to full blown crying. It is well written and well casted. I have never connected with a show as much as I have with this one. Netflix is really stepping up their game. I just hope they don't cancel it after season 3.

Most of the previous Season 3 episodes of 'Stranger Things' in my view have been disappointing. Liked a good deal "Chapter Three: The Case of the Missing Lifeguard" and loved "Chapter Four: The Sauna Test" (the latter a return to form for the show). The other four were average at best, with the premiere being a major disappointment after the previous season's finale being as outstandingly good as it was. So expectations were a bit mixed for "Chapter Seven: The Bite".

It luckily turned out to be a lot better than expected. Not "Chapter Four: The Sauna Test" level, but nearly on par with "Chapter Three: The Case of the Misssing Lifeguard" and much better than the rest of the previous episodes. "Chapter Seven: The Bite" is a long way from perfect and has a couple of the flaws of most of the previous episodes had, but it has also has a lot of truly great things and has less of the issues that the other episodes did have. Ranking the episodes, "Chapter Seven: The Bite" for Season 3 is one of the better ones generally.

"Chapter Seven: The Bite" isn't flawless. Not all the comedy hits, not that it is not funny but more in terms of placement as some of it situates awkwardly in serious situations so it occasionally felt out of place.

The whole Russian threat subplot was less than suspenseful and was actually somewhat heavy handed. It was a little too reliant on coincidence at times and some of the teen situational comedy induced some cringing.

A lot is fantastic though. The production values are superb. Very stylish and atmospheric, with some truly beautiful images that one can't believe such high quality comes from a Netflix show. Not to mention the highly impressive special effects that put a good deal of big budget films in recent years to shame. The music has a wonderful 80s nostalgic vibe while also being quite haunting, enhancing the atmosphere beautifully.

On the most part, the writing is a return to the brains and heart kind rather than what was seen and heard in the previous two episodes. The story has a lot more momentum and advances, with it being at its best with everything with the monster. The acting is never less than very good and is actually more than that.

Concluding, good but not great. 7/10.