Horror

Stranger Things: David Harbour Calls Episode Eight “A Masterpiece”

The highly anticipated new season of Stranger Things is already teasing some dramatic changes for […]

The highly anticipated new season of Stranger Things is already teasing some dramatic changes for the nostalgia-inducing horror series, focusing on the core cast of young characters as they inevitably grow up. But after the second season ended on a happy ending, fans should expect Stranger Things 3 to get bigger and, perhaps, bolder.

Series mainstay David Harbour has played police chief Jim Hopper for every season on the show, so fans should trust him when he says Stranger Things 3 surpasses the first two seasons. Harbour teased some major developments in an exclusive interview with ComicBook.

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“It just does, and I don’t say that lightly. I didn’t think they could outdo themselves, and I didn’t have the highest of expectations going into shooting it, and it is the biggest … I guess the big question for me has always been like, okay, we killed the monster in season one, and then we closed the gate in season two. Are you really just going to repeat that?” Harbour explained.

He added, “Are you really just going to have another monster come into Hawkins? How are you going to do that, guys? And they managed to do it in such an inventive way, in such a beautiful way. And this season is just … The only words I can really think of are epic.”

“Especially when you get around episode eight, there are moments where you’re laughing and crying at the same time. Where I was yelling at the television screen, and I’m not that type of guy, but I think it really has outdone itself. And I would be very surprised if this wasn’t your favorite season, and I’d certainly be very surprised if you didn’t think that episode eight was the best thing we’ve ever shot, because I’m convinced that that episode is so, so unexpected, so beautiful, so big, so tight. Not a second of downtime, not a second where you’re waiting for anything. To me, it’s a masterpiece. Episode eight is a masterpiece.”

The character ended the last season as the official caretaker for Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), embracing the life of a father after suffering the death of his biological daughter before the series began. And now he might even be pursuing a romance with Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder), though that’s not exactly clear yet.

“And he goes on a huge journey this season. It’s bigger than anything, and there’s a lot of comedy in that journey, and there’s a lot of silliness, and then of course there is that epic Hopper heart that I feel like is in all of these seasons,” Harbour said. “Whatever he’s doing, if he’s angry or he’s being silly or whatever, being chaotic, there is this very decent man at the core who makes tons of mistakes, but who really wants to do well by the people that he loves. And that journey is huge this season.”

We’ll see what weirdness Hawkins, Indiana has in store for their resident police chief when Stranger Things 3 premieres on Netflix on July 4th.