The new trailer for Netflix’s highly-anticipated third season of Stranger Things has been greeted warmly by fans but called out on social media and other websites for being inappropriate and slightly pointless.

It’s “too hot for school” according to gaming website Update Gaming Tips.

“Really gross,” said one unimpressed fan on Twitter.

All the trailer shows, said Pedestrian TV, is a high schooler “strutting his year 11 gym class rig around a public pool, overtly hitting on The Toey Housewives of Hawkins”.

Certainly the video doesn’t dive into obvious plot twists, but with Stranger Things it’s hard to tell what’s fun and what’s a significant piece of information hiding in plain sight.

Ahead of the science-fiction horror hit’s July 4 return, the streaming platform released the new teaser clip that suggests it could be a long hot summer in the fictional hamlet of Hawkins, Indiana.

All the action takes place at the town’s pool.

Viewers are plunged back to ’80s, with a pumping sound track, cans of New Coke and ladies who lounge while wearing chunky earrings, pastel shimmer eyeshadow and leopard print visors with their spiral perms.

High school bully Billy Hargrove is the focus of the trailer, and certainly the focus of the Hawkins’ mums thanks to his summer job as a lifeguard at the pool.

“And … showtime,” says one of the women, when a female lifeguard climbs down from the guard’s chair and Billy appears in slow motion.

Played by Dacre Montgomery, he’s topless and rocking his own body-waved mullet while blowing firmly on a whistle and taking up a poolside position of power.

“I like the new suit, Mrs Wheeler,” Billy says after disciplining a running kid.

The overtly lustful vibe sparked the outcry against Stranger Things.

The scene “where all the moms are thirsting after him is really gross”, wrote one Twitter user.

“He’s playing a high school student in the show. You know, a minor.”

Most other fans were unconcerned.

For fans, it’s been 10 long months since the first trailer for the new season of Stranger Things was released.

The 86-second clip lacked obvious menace but showcased the mega 1980s locations and vibe.

Dripping with latent creepiness – especially for anyone who lived through the real thing – it showed water fountains, food courts and white o’er the calf socks with coloured hoops at the Starcourt Mall.

The second trailer, all 2.49 of it, was like being inside a giant pinball machine, with requisite menace, cheesiness, cool lines and the declaration that the kids “aren’t kids anymore.”

Since its March release the clip has become the highest viewed video on Netflix’s YouTube channel, with over 27.5 million views.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEG3bmU_WaI

Among the new additions to the Stranger Things cast are The Princess Bride’s Cary Elwes as slimy Mayor Kline, Jake Busey as a Hawkins Post reporter and Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke’s daughter Maya Hawke as Steve’s Scoops Ahoy coworker Robin.