It’s ‘Stranger Things’ time … are you ready to go back into the Upside Down?

by Therese Odell, posted in Uncategorized

Everyone in Houston this weekend:

All Other TV News

Today is Stranger Things day — the final two episodes of season four became available early this morning. If you haven’t been part of the group that crashed Netflix earlier today by binging all four hours, here are some interesting links. NOTE: Some of these links are spoilery for the first seven episodes, but I am not posting anything that spoils the last two episodes–because that information is out there, so be careful:

If you’re a Spotify user, you can find the song that would save you from Vecna:

Here’s a look behind the scenes of how they created Vecna’s lair:

Apparently, Gaten Matarazzo guessed the backstory of Vecna some four years ago. (Very spoilery if you have not watched the first seven episodes of season four.)

This piece speculates about what song Eddie will play in the finale — and who will die.

Finally, this has nothing to do with Stranger Things, but here’s Maya Hawke talking on The Tonight Show about how proud she is of her mother (Uma Thurman) for writing an essay in which she defended abortion rights by revealing that she had one. Fuck the Supreme Court, indeed, Maya.

It’s also Friday, which means a new episode of The Boys is upon us. I’m not going to spoil today’s episode (which I have not yet watched) but I do want to talk about the last two episodes since I missed the last couple of weeks. BOY, DO WE HAVE SOME CATCHING UP TO DO.

This is fascinating to me, but sometime around the fifth episode, “The Last Time to Look on This World of Lies,” which aired two weeks ago, people started to realize that Homelander … is the bad guy? Yes, you read that correctly. There were people three seasons into this series who thought that the SPOILER ALERT!!! rapist, baby-killing, full-airplane-massacring, boyfriend of a Nazi was somehow … the hero? And when it became finally, fully evident that he was not, people began losing their damn minds:

LOL.

Also, that Paul Reiser cameo as “The Legend” — apparently, the character was supposed to be a spoof of Stan Lee, but I, as someone who has not read the comic books, read it to be Robert Evans. So I was pleased to see this interview with Reiser where he said he was playing it as Evans and didn’t even realize it was supposed to be Lee. You and me both, Paul.

And then of course last week was the infamous “Herogasm” episode — the episode no one thought would be filmable.

It did not disappoint.

While Amazon was pretty generous with what the show could do, Twitter was less agreeable:

They literally ran out of fake bodily fluids while filming it, y’all.

Showrunner Eric Kripke managed to sneak himself into that scene. As for Chace Crawford, he’s pretty sure he’s going to be banned for life from aquariums. Interestingly, his scene was the only one that upset Amazon! In fact, according to Kripke, it was because of The Boys that Amazon had to create a Standards and Practices division back in its first season.

Bodily fluids aside, people are freaking out over how good the “Herogasm” episode was, calling The Boys‘ cast — Antony Starr in particular — some of the best performers on TV right now. They are not wrong.

Season four will begin filming soon — August 22, to be specific. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan might make an appearance, setting up yet another Supernatural reunion if he can work out his Walking Dead schedule. ~fingers crossed~

The Television Critics Awards are up there with the Peabody Awards for me, in terms of getting its nominees correct, and celebrating actual excellence rather than what is popular. (IF YOU WANT MY RESPECT, EMMYS, YOU’LL NOMINATE LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS ALREADY.) This year is no exception, and the nominees are great. (I might have included Barry in Program of the Year, but that’s just a minor quibble.) The TCA will also honor Quinta Brunson, Giancarlo Esposito, the Prime Video series As We See It, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Friends creator Marta Kauffman has endowed Brandeis University $4 million to create the Marta F. Kauffman ‘78 Professorship in African and African American Studies to make amends for Friends being so white.

Kauffman said it was originally “difficult and frustrating” to have the show criticized for its lack of diverse characters, but she became critical herself after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

“It was after what happened to George Floyd that I began to wrestle with my having bought into systemic racism in ways I was never aware of,” Kauffman said. “That was really the moment that I began to examine the ways I had participated. I knew then I needed to course-correct.”

Netflix fired an additional 300 people last week.

CNN is also going through an interesting shakeup. A key talent and development executive has left the network, raising eyebrows. Additionally, new CNN head Chris Licht is trying to make the network less partisan. As part of that, he’s discouraged the use of the term “Big Lie” about Former President Big Lie’s election lies, because it’s Democratic “branding.” Hmmm.

NBC is killing The Olympic Channel.

Eurovision Song Contest is usually hosted in the country that won the year previous. But since Ukraine was this year’s big winner and things are … not exactly stable in Ukraine in the foreseeable future, it looks like the UK will host the contest in Ukraine’s stead.

This is a nice little piece praising the Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie as a camp classic, and a way to enjoy the Buffy universe without it being tainted by the Joss Whedon ickiness (while he wrote the movie, Whedon walked off as director over creative differences). I should note that I have a weird connection to the film: it’s the first one that my cousin worked on when he moved to Los Angeles to work in the movie business, and as a result, I’ve always had a soft spot for it.

Get better soon, Bret Michaels.

Renewals

  • Magnum P.I. has, in fact, been saved and renewed at NBC for a fifth and sixth season.

Cancellations

  • Tom Swift has been canceled at The CW after one season.
  • Duncanville has been canceled by Fox after three seasons.
  • Why Women Kill has been canceled by Paramount+ after two seasons.

In Development

Casting News

Mark Your Calendar

  • What We Do in the Shadows returns on FX on July 12.
  • La Brea returns on NBC on September 27.
  • Everything’s Trash will debut on Freeform on July 13.
  • Password will debut on NBC on August 9.
  • FBoy Island returns on HBO Max on July 21.
  • The Jennifer Hudson Show will premiere in syndication on September 12.
  • Keep Breathing premieres on Netflix on July 28.
  • Zombies 3 will premiere on Disney+ on July 15.
  • Vice returns on Showtime on July 31.
  • Honor Society will premiere on Paramount+ on July 29.
  • Love Island USA premieres on Peacock on July 19.
  • Parking Lot Payday will debut on AXS TV on July 12.
  • James May: Our Man In Italy debuts on Prime Video on July 15.
  • The Longest Night will debut on Netflix on July 8.
  • Fanatico premieres on Netflix on July 29.
  • Oddballs will debut on Netflix this year.

R.I.P.

Sonny Barger, Founder of the Hell’s Angels and occasional Sons of Anarchy actor

Everett Peck, Creator of Duckman and Squirrel Boy

Robert Katz, Emmy-nominated producer

Duncan Henderson, Oscar-nominated producer

Barry Garron, Former TV critic for The Hollywood Reporter

Technoblade, A popular Minecrafter YouTuber

WATCH THIS

FRIDAY

Stranger Things: The final two episodes are movie-length and reportedly an emotional roller coaster. Season finale. Netflix

The Bad Guys: A group of villains pretends to be reformed so as to pull off a new heist in this animated film. Streaming premiere. Peacock

SATURDAY

The Contractor: Chris Pine stars in this action film as a mercenary who finds himself caught in a dangerous conspiracy. This is not the same thing as The Terminal List, though I understand the confusion. 8 p.m., Showtime

House of Gucci: Please please please watch this amazing piece of camp if only for Jared Leto’s amazing impersonation of Nintendo’s Mario. 7 p.m., Epix

SUNDAY

The Goonies & Ghostbusters: It’s an 80s mini-marathon, to get you in that Stranger Things kinda mood. 6:30 p.m., CMT

We Hunt Together: Season two of this British detective series. 6:30 p.m., Showtime

 

FRI. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC Shark Tank
(repeat)		 20/20
CBS S.W.A.T.
(repeat)		 Magnum P.I.
(repeat)		 Blue Bloods
(repeat)
CW Penn & Teller: Fool Us
(repeat)		 Dynasty
(new)		 Local
FOX Friday Night Smackdown Local
NBC American Ninja Warrior
(repeat)		 Dateline

—

SAT. 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30
ABC UFC 276 Prelims: Adesanya vs. Cannonier
(live)		 The Rookie
(repeat)		 News/Local
CBS Superstar Racing Experience
(live)		 48 Hours News/Local
CW Whose Line Is It Anyway?
(repeat)		 Would I Lie to You?
(repeat)		 Masters of Illusion
(repeat)		 Masters of Illusion
(repeat)		 Local
FOX MLB Baseball
(live)		 News/Local
NBC Transplant
(new)		 Dateline
(new)		 News/
Local		 Saturday Night Live
(repeat)

—

SUN. 6:00 6:30 7:00 7:30 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30
ABC America’s Funniest Home Videos
(repeat)		 Celebrity Family Feud
(repeat)		 Celebrity Family Feud
(repeat)		 The $100,000 Pyramid
(repeat)
CBS 60 Minutes 60 Minutes The Equalizer
(repeat)		 NCIS: Los Angeles
(repeat)
The CW Local World’s Funniest Animals
(repeat)		 World’s Funniest Animals
(repeat)		 Penn & Teller: Fool Us
(repeat)		 Local
FOX USFL Football Playoff
(live)		 Local/News
NBC Ukraine: Answering the Call Dancing with Myself
(repeat)		 America’s Got Talent
(repeat)

3 thoughts on “It’s ‘Stranger Things’ time … are you ready to go back into the Upside Down?”

  1. Herogasm was somehow simultaneously more bonkers and less than I expected at the same time. That being said the story and acting of the last two episodes have been phenomenal.

    Reply

  2. “… two weeks ago, people started to realize that Homelander … is the bad guy?”

    Still? Back during the 2020 election some pro-Trump group posted an image of Homelander in full hero pose with Trump’s face superimposed. This was supposed to be a good thing.

    Actually, there are some similarities.

    Reply

    1. Have you been watching this season? Because the writers have dropped all subtlety regarding their similarities.

      -T

      Reply

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