Stage production Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical, a spoof on the Netflix hit drama, offers live streams of the show May 27 and May 28. Set in Hawkins, Indiana in 1983, the show ran off-Broadway in New York for nine months before it closed May 7. It was performed at Playhouse 46.  

Live stream access costs $19.99. The show happens at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET May 27, and 2 p.m. May 28. 

Jeffrey Laughrun plays Mike, Caroline Huerta plays Joyce and handles the Will puppet, Jamir Brown is Lucas, Jeremiah Garcia is Dustin, Garrett Poladian is Steve and Jonathan, Harley Seger portrays Eleven and Nancy, SLee plays Barb and Shawn W. Smith portrays Hopper. 

Jonathan Hogue created the show and Nick Flatto directed. 

Barb, who some Stranger Things superfans feel got short shrift in the series, is the star of the stage show. 

Season four of Stranger Things was released on Netflix May 27, 2022. The series centers around the residents of Hawkins. Experiments at a top-secret government facility in town open up access to a creepy other-world known as the Upside Down. Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown and Gaten Matarazzo are in the cast. 

We caught Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical, a stage production, at Playhouse 46 in Manhattan May 6. We are happy to review the off-Broadway show, which was a lot of fun, but must unfortunately note that Stranger Sings! closed as of May 7. 

Based, of course, on the Netflix smash Stranger Things, the Stranger Sings! set looks like Mike’s basement in the show, with board games on the shelves and Dungeons and Dragons figurines on a table in the middle. Attendees sit in four sections that encircle … ensquare? … the stage. Four people in the front row got bean-bag chairs to match the ‘80s theme. We had maybe 120 people in the theater the night we went. 

Eighties music — ”Beat It”, “Sunglasses at Night”, “Rock You Like a Hurricane” — plays before the show begins. 

Stranger Sings! takes small elements of the Netflix series and blows them out into bigger, funnier things, such as the age differential between pals Dustin and Steve, and Barb departing the show early in its run. 

Barb, Nancy’s nerdy best friend, is the star of Stranger Sings!, as if the producers are winking at the Stranger Things fans who felt her story — disappearing off the diving board of Steve’s pool as Steve and Nancy “study” upstairs, never to be seen again — got short shrift. Bold and brassy in the stage show, Barb ends up in an amorous tangle with the dreaded demogorgon. 

One Barb song goes:

Somebody's gonna remember Barb
Yes, someone's gonna bring justice for Barb
Now, I won't be ignored, soon I'll be adored
When the internet comes around

Stranger Sings!, as the name indicates, is full of humorous songs that parody the series. Eleven sings of the father she desires, not Papa from the lab, who she said tries to drown her in a tank, and has her collude with the Russians. Joyce, played by Winona Ryder in the series, slips into Winona mode at one point, with dancers representing Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice and other Ryder movies taking the stage as Joyce sings from the star actress’s perspective. 

There are numerous mentions of New Coke, and a running gag is police chief Hopper attempting, time and again, to bring up his deceased daughter, but he’s repeatedly cut off as everyone is focused on finding Will. 

The fourth wall came down a few times at the show we went to. Barb, played by an actress named Slee, quipped about the struggles of a working actor and Joyce, played by Caroline Huerta, saluted her beaming mother in the audience. 

The cast is first-rate. Nicolas Hermick plays Mike, Jeremiah Garcia is Dustin, Jamir Brown is Lucas, Nickolaus Colon is Hopper, Harley Seger is Nancy and Eleven, and Kyle Mangold is Steve and Jonathan. Besides playing Joyce, Huerta provides the hand inside the puppet that represents Will, and his voice as well. 

Indeed, Will is portrayed by a puppet, not a human. I’m not exactly sure why; maybe because the show is zany to the core, and puppets only add to the zaniness, or maybe the creators are making a statement about how Will doesn’t have all that large a role, at least compared to his best buds Mike, Lucas and Dustin. 

Will, Mike, Lucas and Dustin of course get around Hawkins on bicycles in the series, and the Stranger Sings! actors use bike handlebars, held in front of them, to simulate cycling. It worked just fine. 

The stage show is for Stranger Things superfans. The songs are offbeat, with clever lyrics that find humor in things you may not have thought to look for humor in. We thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Jonathan Hogue created the show and Nick Flatto directed. Where Stranger Sings! ends up next is not known as presstime. In the meantime, there are plenty of videos on YouTube and other platforms. Those, and the first four seasons of Stranger Things on Netflix, will have to hold the superfans over until the next season of the series eventually comes out. 

Netflix has ordered an untitled animated series set within the Stranger Things universe. Eric Robles is developing the series, and is executive producer on behalf of Flying Bark Productions. 

The Duffer Brothers are exec producing for Upside Down Pictures and Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen are doing so on behalf of 21 Laps. 

The Duffer Brothers, Matt and Ross, created Stranger Things, a mix of sci-fi, horror, supernatural and teen drama set in suburban Indiana in the ’80s. 

“We’ve always dreamed of an animated Stranger Things in the vein of the Saturday morning cartoons that we grew up loving, and to see this dream realized has been absolutely thrilling,” the brothers said. “We couldn’t be more blown away by what Eric Robles and his team have come up with — the scripts and artwork are incredible, and we can’t wait to share more with you! The adventure continues …”

Season four of Stranger Things came out last year. Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp and Sadie Sink are in the cast. 

Five seasons are planned for the live-action Stranger Things series. 

Robles is known for the animated series Fanboy & Chum Chum and Glitch Techs. 

Joe Keery, who plays demogorgon-battling dimwit Steve Harrington in Stranger Things, has joined the cast of Fargo on FX for season five. The fifth season of the anthology drama will be set in 2019. “When is a kidnapping not a kidnapping, and what if your wife isn’t yours?” goes the description on FX. 

Keery will play Gator Tillman. His movie work includes Marmalade and Free Guy.

Lamorne Morris, who played Winston in Fox comedy New Girl, is also on board for season five, as is Richa Moorjani, who plays Kamala in Netflix comedy-drama Never Have I Ever. 

The trio joins Jon Hamm, Juno Temple and Jennifer Jason Leigh in the Fargo cast. FX has not revealed when the new season will arrive. 

Season one had Billy Bob Thornton, Allison Tolman and Martin Freeman in the cast. Season two had Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons and Ted Danson. Season three featured Ewan McGregor, Carrie Coon and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The season four cast included Chris Rock, Jessie Buckley and Jason Schwartzman. 

Noah Hawley created the show, and executive produces with Warren Littlefield, Joel & Ethan Coen, Steve Stark, Kim Todd and Vincent Landay. 

MGM Television and FX Productions produce Fargo. ■ 

Noah Schnapp, who plays Will Byers on Stranger Things, hosts Stranger Sharks on Discovery July 25. Shark Week began on Discovery July 24. 

Schnapp teams with YouTube star Mark Rober on Stranger Sharks. The pair explores abandoned undersea ruins and artificial reefs, as they search for the most peculiar sharks in the ocean.

Rober, a former NASA engineer, hosts videos with a science theme on YouTube. He has over 22.2 million subscribers.  

Also on Discovery July 24 is Air Jaws: Top Guns, which sees Dickie Chivell and Andy Casagrande use high-tech cameras to catch great whites leaping out of the water; Great White Serial Kill: Fatal Christmas, where investigators look into the death of a surfer in California; Rise of the Monster Hammerheads, where Casagrande and Dr. Tristan Guttridge look into monster hammerheads off Florida; and Mega Predators of Oz, which sees experts investigate a half-eaten mako in South Australia. ■

Disney-Pixar's disappointing Lightyear and Universal's spry Minions: The Rise of Gru have been the big-ticket animated feature films at the box office this summer. 

But much more quietly, it's been Netflix's The Sea Beast that might have drawn the biggest CGI family-movie audience overall. 

Blessed with a 95% aggregated critics ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, The Sea Beast drew just over 68.1 million hours of streaming on Netflix's global platform for the week of July 11-17, making it the top film on Netflix for the week. 

Directed by Disney veteran Chris Williams (Bolt, Big Hero 6, Moana), The Sea Beast tracks the adventures of a young stowaway who joins forces with a legendary hunter of sea monsters. 

Our back-of-napkin math: Accounting for the film's nearly two-hour runtime, you end up with around 34 million Netflix accounts worldwide streaming the movie in just one week. Assuming at least two viewers for each stream for this family film ... you're at around 68 million watchers, juxtaposing bigger groups of viewers against bored individual kids watching it multiple times on their iPad to while away the dog days of summer. 

Multiply that total by the average price for a movie ticket (which is up to around $9.57 according to the MPAA) and you're at a weekly global box office of around $650 million. And that's not even accounting the more than 33 million streaming hours that The Sea Beast drew on Netflix the week before. (Netflix said in its Q2 letter to shareholders Tuesday that The Sea Beast, which dropped July 8, is up to 102 million streaming hours, while calling the title out as one of its recent programming highlights.)

To date, the latest Minions move has drawn over $534 million at the global box office. 

In other Netflix categories, Season 4 of Stranger Things continued to be Netflix's top overall draw, capturing just over 102.3 million viewing hours. And yes, the first three seasons also once again ranked in Netflix's English-language series top 10 last week. The debut of the Resident Evil series finished second with nearly 72.7 million watching hours. 

By the accounting rules Netflix has applied to its own metrics, Season 4 of Stranger Things will go down as the second most popular show on the platform ever, failing only to meet the bar of just over 1.65 billion streaming hours garnered last fall by Korean-language show Squid Game in its first 28 days on the platform. 

Stranger Things S:4 led Netflix once again last week, attracting nearly 188.2 million viewing hours from July 4-10. That's a marked deceleration from the nearly 301.3 million streaming hours Stranger Things S:4 generated the previous week, after the final two episodes of Season 4 dropped on July 1. 

Stranger Things S:4 is Netflix's all-time English-language series champ, usurping Bridgerton Season 2 weeks ago. But Season 1 of Squid Game, Netflix's all-time non-English language series champ, appears safe to keep its overall title, as well. 

However, the discussion becomes much more interesting when you ditch the rule that bisects shows by season and also abandon the notion that only viewership after the first 28 days of release matters. 

Just in the seven weeks since the first seven episodes of Stranger Things S:4 dropped on May 27, the four combined seasons of the show generated nearly 2.3 billion hours of streaming. This doesn't account for all the millions -- or billions -- of hours of streaming Stranger Things garnered between its July 2016 debut and late May of this year. 

With Stranger Things S:4 ranking as the No. 1 show on Netflix in 27 countries outside the U.S. last week, we think it's entirely safe to wonder, is this series, accounting for all episodes and seasons, the most popular show ever not just on Netflix, but on TV overall? Ever? 

Just a thought ... we like to think big like that. 

The Duffer Brothers, creators of Netflix smash Stranger Things, announced plans for a Stranger Things spinoff series, though they did not provide details. Matt and Ross Duffer also revealed plans for a stage play “set within the world and mythology of Stranger Things,” produced by Sonia Friedman, Stephen Daldry and Netflix, according to the streamer. 

The Duffer Brothers announced a new production company, Upside Down Pictures, for film and TV projects as part of their overall deal with Netflix. Hilary Leavitt will run the company. In Stranger Things, the grim underworld resting below Hawkins, Indiana, is known as the Upside Down. 

Upside Down Pictures will “aim to create the kind of stories that inspired the Duffers growing up — stories that take place at that beautiful crossroads where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, where big spectacle co-exists with intimate character work, where heart wins out over cynicism,” Netflix said. 

“It didn’t take long into our first meeting with Hilary, where we bonded over films like Jaws, Home Alone and Speed, to know we had found a kindred spirit,” said the Duffer brothers. “Hilary’s passion for storytelling is perhaps matched only by her passion for the storytellers themselves, for whom she is fiercely protective. No wonder so many writers and directors are drawn to working with her. She is a rare talent indeed, and we feel extremely grateful to have her at our side as we build Upside Down Pictures.” 

The brothers and Netflix are also at work on a TV adaptation of anime series Death Note, an original series from Jeffrey Addiss and Will Matthews and a series based on the Stephen King-Peter Straub novel The Talisman. 

In the season four finale of Stranger Things, Lucas reads The Talisman to Max when she’s in the hospital. 

Season four of Stranger Things came out last month. It is No. 1 on Netflix’s all-time “Most Popular English TV list,” the network said. 

“Matt and Ross are an exceptionally unique talent with a vision so crisp and clear,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said. “They are all about the details — it’s no accident that Stranger Things has pierced the zeitgeist to become the epic pop-culture phenomenon it is today. We’re excited to continue telling new stories with them as they grow Upside Down Pictures and to welcome Hilary as creative partner.”

Before Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers directed the horror film Hidden and were executive producers on Wayward Pines. Stranger Things premiered in 2016. ■

With the final two episodes of Stranger Things Season 4 dropping on Netflix Friday, the show's most recent campaign drew more than 301 million viewing hours on the platform last week. 

Netflix benchmarks the all-time audience greatness of its shows based on individual seasons and how they perform based on hours viewed in the first 28 days after their release. 

Stranger Things' fourth season has now surpassed 1.15 billion viewing hours, with Netflix resetting its 28-day "shot clock" to account for those final two installments. Stranger Things "Season 4, Volume 1" had gathered 930 million viewing hours through the first 28 days after the release of seven episodes on May 27. With the release of the season's two "Volume 2" episodes, Netflix is giving the show another 28-day clock through July 29. 

Initially last month, when Netflix revealed this tweak in its accounting methodology, it appeared that Stranger Things Season 4 might overtake the platform's all-time ratings champ, the Korean-language sensation Squid Game, which garnered a global audience of over 1.8 billion streaming hours in its first four weeks, but that calculus now appears unlikely.  

For the week of June 27 - July 3, Stranger Things overshadowed another strong performance by Season 3 of The Umbrella Academy, which drew nearly 88 million hours of streaming in its second week on the platform. 

Also strong was hitman-themed buddy comedy The Man From Toronto starring Kevin Hart and Woody Harrelson, which led Netflix's movie charts with more than 62.6 million viewing hours in its second week on Netflix. 

The final two episodes in season four of hit drama Stranger Things were released on Netflix July 1. Seven episodes, known as Vol. 1, debuted May 27, and two more July 1. The two episodes that conclude season four, Vol. 2, are long. Episode “Papa” runs 85 minutes and episode “The Piggyback” goes for an hour and 50 minutes. 

The Duffer brothers created the show, a mix of sci fi, horror, supernatural and teen drama set in the ’80s. Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Noah Schnapp and Matthew Modine are in the cast. 

The plan is for Stranger Things to go for five seasons. 

Vol. 1 was a legitimate smash for Netflix.

A CNN review said: “Stranger Things has taken the idea of playing the long game to heart a bit too literally, capping its super-sized fourth season with two sprawling episodes that total nearly four hours. Whether that's a reward to fans or self-indulgence by the producers rests in the eye of the beholder, but after this, it's hard to imagine many concluding that ending things with season five qualifies as premature.”

A review in The Guardian was more positive: “Stranger Things season four was already bigger and better than anything the show had done before. It was clearly more expensively produced, with a larger cast and a surer sense of why all the monsters, heroes and hangers-on were there. The double-bill denouement — held back for a month by Netflix to allow hype to build — is more-expansive still. It’s crazily, luxuriously sprawling, running to nearly four hours, and does everything fans could have expected plus several dollops more. But if it hasn’t quite overstretched itself yet, you do wonder where Stranger Things can possibly go from here.” ■

Set the clock for 12 a.m. PST on July 1 because that’s when Netflix is dropping Stranger Things - Season 4: Volume 2. While the second volume of the fourth season of the series is only two episodes, those installments will provide you with three hours and fifty-five minutes of viewing. 

Stranger Things co-creators, Matt and Ross Duffer decided to break up their nine-episode season into two volumes because they felt that Episode 7 served as the ending to a first act, but not to the season. 

SPOILER ALERT - Don't read further if you haven't seen the first seven installments of Season 4. 

The last image of Episode 7 was the “001" tattoo seen on Vecna/One/ Henry Creel (Jamie Campbell Bower). So despite Eleven’s (Millie Bobby Brown) best efforts, Vecna’s still around. So now what? In the preview Vecna tells Eleven, “It is over. You have freed me.” That would mean Hawkins is over too, but it can’t be because there is one more season left in the series. Seems like the last two episodes of Season 4 will end like any war does. Someone wins. In this case will it be Vecna or Eleven.

Stranger Things - Season 4: Volume 2 (Netflix, July 1)

The first seven episodes of Season 4, which were released in May, became Netflix’s most watched English-language television series ever with nearly 930 million hours viewed through four weeks on Netflix. By the looks of the trailer, by the end of Season 4, we will know if Hawkins and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) survive or if the new super villain Vecna (Jamie Campbell Bower) wins. Since the fifth season is the last, I'm guessing Hawkins survives, but you never know! 

Stranger Things became an instant success when it began streaming on Netflix in 2016. Since then, the show has been nominated for 31 Emmy awards and won six in the creative arts categories. 

While the impressive ensemble cast of kids are now adults, critics still adore them. “Stranger Things is bigger, older, somewhat sadder – and as lovable as ever,” The Guardian’s Jack Seale wrote about Season 4.

The Terminal List – (Amazon Prime, July 1)

Does Chris Pratt sleep? It’s a serious question given the fact that The Terminal List -- an eight episode action-thriller series -- is the actor’s third project to be released in less than 30 days. 

On June 10, Jurassic World Dominion, which Pratt stars in, hit theaters. Then on June 23 another Pratt flick, Thor: Love and Thunder, was released. Conclusion: He spent a lot of time in production trailers last year. 

In The Terminal List, the actor plays James Reece, a Navy SEAL who returns home after his platoon was killed in a catastrophic ambush during a covert mission. Based on the eponymous best-selling novel by Jack Carr, the series follows Reece, who questions his culpability in the ordeal, while also discovering a conspiracy. Turns out dark forces are working against Reece and those closest to him. 

“(Amazon Prime) has invested heavily into a specific type of action show targeted at the middle-aged suburban male demographic with Bosch, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, and Reacher… They're also three of the service's most popular and successful shows. Prime Video's latest series, The Terminal List, fits that dad-friendly bill to a T. By the humble standards of the genre, The Terminal List is a smashing success,” wrote TV Guide’s Liam Mathews.

Last Night in Soho (July 1, HBO Max)

This 2021 psychological thriller directed by Edgar Wright (Baby Driver) is making its subscription streaming premiere on HBO Max after a theatrical debut last year. 

In the film, Thomasin McKenzie (Jojo Rabbit) stars as Eloise, an aspiring fashion designer who is able to time travel to London's swingin' 1960s. But the glamour is not all it appears to be and Eloise’s world starts getting really dark. The film debuted at the 2021 Venice Film Festival. 

“Last Night in Soho is an immensely pleasurable film that delights in playing with genre, morphing from time-travel fantasy to dark fairy tale, from mystery to nightmarish horror in a climax that owes as much to ’60s Brit fright fare as to more contemporary mind-benders,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney. 

The Princess (Hulu, July 1)

Fear not. This is not your typical boy-saves-girl fairytale movie. Instead, this 20th Century Studios film has been described as Rapunzel meets The Raid. 

Joey King (The Act) stars as a strong-willed princess who, after refusing to wed a sociopath, is kidnapped, and locked in a remote tower of her father's castle. When the scorned suitor, intent on taking her father’s throne, tries to force the princess to marry him things get action-packed. Blood, guts and plenty of bad-assery ensues.

The Princess isn’t breaking new ground by having a woman take control (think Disney's Frozen). That said, it’s always fun to see “happily ever after” achieved minus a marriage. It will be interesting to see if King garners the same attention for The Princess as she did when she co-starred in Hulu’s 2019 crime drama series The Act (2019), for which the actress was nominated for an Emmy and Golden Globe.

America the Beautiful (Disney Plus, July 4)

This six-episode docuseries narrated by Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther, Creed) focuses on North America’s diverse landscapes and the unique creatures that inhabit them. 

To capture the raw geographical beauty of the country, cameras were placed on fighter jets and producers worked directly with indigenous tribes to gain access to America’s most spectacular regions. 

Each episode of the series showcases an animal, which include grizzlies, bald eagles, mountain lions and honeypot ants. 

The series stems from Emmy winning producers Mark Linfield and Vanessa Berlowitz. (Planet Earth, Frozen Planet). Per Disney Plus, “The goal is to inspire audiences to conserve the precious habitats and inhabitants found in our own backyards.”

Girl In The Picture (July 6, Netflix)

If you liked Skye Borgman’s bizarre, jaw dropping true-crime documentary Abducted in Plain Sight (2017), then chances are you'll also dig Girl in the Picture. 

The doc attempts to explain the mysterious death of a young mother who went by the name Sharon Marshall. Turns out Sharon's father was a murderous, fugitive who trapped his daughter into lifetime of deception that included multiple identities and plenty of dark secrets. 

The doc is based on Matt Birkbeck’s international bestselling book A Beautiful Child.

Maggie (Hulu, July 6)

This single-camera comedy was originally ordered to series by ABC last year, but is now streaming entirely on Hulu. 

Starring Rebecca Rittenhouse, the series follows the titular psychic as she navigates the dating world and begins to see glimpses of her own destiny after meeting an unexpected stranger. 

Per Hulu, “Can you let yourself fall in love when you think you know how it ends? She probably should have seen this coming.” 

Sounds like someone over at ABC wrote that given the hokey, broadcast network primetime-feeling marketing lingo, but if you are into female-driven comedies like Hulu’s How I Met Your Father and Life & Beth, then Maggie is worth a peek.

Three decades into a prolific, largely profitable yet uneven film career, marked by lazy comedies and sometimes self-indulgent feeling dramas, Adam Sandler finds himself in a bit of a roll on Netflix. 

His latest real-feeling but fictional film, Hustle, focused on end-of-his-rope NBA scout who stumbles onto the next Luka Dončić (or Nikola Jokić?) while grinding his way through Spain, just added 57.2 million hours of streaming last week, according to Netflix, making it once again the platform's top movie for the week of June 13-19. 

Granted, we're not talking about the kind of boffo numbers that have been put up recently by, say, Ryan Reynolds comedy-action titles Red Notice and The Adam Project. 

But Sandler, whose Happy Madison production outfit signed an output deal with Netflix in 2014 and extended it in 2017, has a solid performer in Hustle. The film co-stars Queen Latifah and former NBA star turned TNT studio analyst Kenny "The Jet" Smith, along with a cavalcade of cameos from current-day and yesteryear NBA stars. The movie also led all Netflix films the previous week with 84.6 million streaming hours. 

Hustle comes with a 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, which far outstrips the 52% rating received by Sandler's 2019 awards darling Uncut Gems, for what that's worth. 

Meanwhile, the first volume of Season 4 episodes for Stranger Things continued to lead all four measured programming categories in Netflix's Global Top 10 last week, adding another 101.3 million viewing hours. 

That was followed by Season 6 of Peaky Blinders, which exceeded 61 million viewing hours. 

Netflix original series Stranger Things is on its way to being to being the most watched program on the global streaming service ever. No matter how you slice the lentil. 

Last week, the first seven episodes of Stranger Things Season 4 generated just over 335 million hours of streaming across 170 countries measured by Netflix. That ranks as the biggest week for a single season of an English-language show ever on Netflix, surpassing Stranger Things Season 4's boffo 286.8 million-hour debut a week prior. 

The youth-driven sci-fi series actually drew more than 515 million hours of streaming from May 30 - June across all four volumes of the show. Only one show has ever had a bigger week -- Season 1 of Korean horror/sci-fi sensation Squid Game drew over 571 million streaming hours from September 27 - October 3 last year. 

In its weekly "Top 10" report, Netflix benchmarks its shows by seasons. And its "all-time" lists are determined by performance in the first 28 days on the platform. 

Also read: Netflix Metrics Change Will Likely Make 'Stranger Things' the Platform's Biggest Hit Ever

By this accounting, Squid Game Season 1 is Netflix's all-time most popular show, with over 1.7 billion viewing hours in four weeks last fall. 

However, Netflix recently changed a rule for shows like Stranger Things, which release seasons in segments. With the final two episodes of Stranger Things: Season 4 debuting July 1, the fourth season will get another 28-day shot clock this summer. 

That should vault Stranger Things past Squid Game as Netflix's all-time most popular series, using the service's coin of the realm. 

The massive performance of Stranger Things has blotted out the sun for a somewhat successful debut of Michael Connelly adaptation The Lincoln Lawyer, which technically finished in fifth place behind all four volumes of Stranger Things with over 42.5 million streaming hours from May 30 - June 5. 

The Lincoln Lawyer drew nearly 65 million streaming hours the prior week. 

Meanwhile, Interceptor, which stars Elsa Pataky as an Army Captain trying to save the world from nuclear apocalypse, led the English-language film category with a very middling 35.6 million hour debut. 

Stranger Things: The Experience, an exhibit offering fans of the Netflix show an immersive, interactive experience, including a virtual venture to the frightful Upside Down, is under way in New York and San Francisco, and premieres in London in August. 

The Experience offers a visit to Hawkins, Indiana, the fictional setting for Stranger Things, in 1986. Greg Lombardo, head of experience at Netflix, called it “an immersive, narrative-based adventure.” 

The visit starts at Hawkins Lab, where attendees step into various lab rooms to take part in a sleep study. On a screen, Dr. Brenner, played by Matthew Modine, welcomes them to the study. Scientists instruct them on how to harness their unknown superpowers. Demogorgons lurk behind closed doors. 

“Spoiler alert–something goes terribly wrong,” said Lombardo. 

The lab visit leads way to the show’s frightful alternative universe, the Upside Down, a 3D experience in the woods, with an array of demogorgons looking to devour humans. Video images of cast members urge the attendees to help close the portal to the creepy netherworld.  

“Visitors have to help Eleven and the gang escape from the menace within the Upside Down,” said Lombardo. 

Attendees then move on to Mix-Tape, the lighter part of the visit. They can grab ice cream from Scoops Ahoy, pizza from Surfer Boy, try a Stranger Things-themed cocktail, shoot some photos, play old-school video games, groove to ‘80s music (think “Footloose” and Huey Lewis and the News) and share thoughts about their harrowing trip to the Upside Down. 

“It’s a fun place to hang out as long as you like,” said Lombardo. “Take photos, eat and drink, and enjoy and celebrate the experience of surviving the lab.”

Produced by Netflix and Fever, Stranger Things: The Experience began in Brooklyn, New York in May, arrived in San Francisco June 4, and sets up in London in late August. Lombardo called those three cities “lead-offs, hopefully, to a global tour.”

Season four of Stranger Things began on Netflix May 27. Set in the ‘80s, the show, created by the Duffer Brothers, is a mix of sci fi, horror and teen drama. Dustin, Mike, Lucas and Will enjoy a good game of Dungeons and Dragons in the basement, and get around Hawkins on their bikes. When Will goes missing, the boys look for their friend, and get help from Eleven, a girl their age who has escaped from the clandestine government lab located in Hawkins, where she learned to fine-tune some unique superpowers. 

Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp are in the cast. 

Two more season four episodes are released July 1. 

A ‘Bridge’ to 1800s England 

Netflix offers experiential exhibitions for its most popular shows. Stranger Things had a drive-through event in a massive parking garage in Los Angeles, starting in late 2020 and ending in June 2021. Stranger Things pop-up shops, featuring merch and interactive elements, were in New York and Los Angeles, and recently opened in Chicago and Dallas. 

The Queen’s Ball event celebrating Bridgerton is set up in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago and Montreal, and will visit San Francisco this summer. Money Heist has offered immersive exhibitions in Paris, Miami, New York, London and Mexico City, with more cities to follow. 

Sarah Unger, co-founder of media consultancy firm Cultique, said big-budget networks such as Netflix “have the dollars to fund the type of epic, role-playing immersive experiences that consumers gravitate to.” For people in New York or San Francisco or London, she added, “hopping to midwestern Hawkins, Indiana may feel exotic–especially with the ‘80s nostalgia factor woven in.”

While the superfans adore watching Stranger Things at home, Lombardo said The Experience offers a different, and more interactive, experience. “We’re really excited to bring this experience, our most ambitious yet,” to the select cities, he said. “We look forward to seeing fans go into the Upside Down and coming out on the other side.” ■

Netflix quietly made a change in its "Top 10" rankings last week that should ultimately result in Season 4 of original series hit Stranger Things becoming the streaming service's most popular show ever. 

Netflix ranks popularity of its programs based on total hours viewed per account globally in the first 28 days after premiere. Currently, Season 1 of Korean-language sci-fi horror series Squid Game ranks No. 1 all time overall on Netflix, capturing more nearly 1.7 billion viewing hours in the four weeks following its September debut. Bridgerton Season 2 is the most popular English-language series, with more than 656 million viewing hours in its first 28 days on platform. 

Also read: Who's No. 1 in Subscription Streaming? Muddled Metrics Methodologies Make Matters Murky

However, for shows like Stranger Things, which stagger the release of their campaigns, Netflix has adopted a new rule that provides an additional 28 days of accounting after the release of the season's second leg. 

That means that Netflix will tally viewing hours for the first seven episodes of Stranger Things for the 28-day period following their premiere in each country. (In the U.S., the season started last Friday, May 27.) 

The change: Stranger Things Season 4 will get another 28-day shot clock starting July 1, when the final two episodes of Season 4 debut. 

Hat tip to CNET for first spotting this. 

For its part, Stranger Things Season 4, Vol. 1 captured nearly 287 million viewing hours just in its first three days on Netflix last week. As CNET noted, the show's current trajectory over a 56-day window should move it past Squid Game at some point. 

Certainly, ranking Stranger Things by the cumulative total of its four seasons would render it the platform's most popular show of all time. But that's not how Netflix, which debuted its publicly effacing "Top 10" rankings in September, does things. 

Sure, call this all arcane vanity data -- a "fantastic promotional tool for Netflix," as one research company executive told Next TV last week. 

But as Netflix -- and the broader video business -- pivot to ad-supported business models, the evolution of metrics matters. This is particularly true at a time when outside measurement sources like Nielsen -- which doesn't even account for cross-platform usage in its rankings -- offer deeply flawed alternatives. 

The premiere last Friday of seven of the nine Season 4 episodes of Stranger Things shattered viewership records on Netflix, capturing just over 286.8 million hours of streaming on its global network. 

Correction: An earlier version of this story called Season 4 the final one for Stranger Things, resulting in several cardiac events among our rabid and perhaps overly trusting readership. Obviously, we regret that error. 

Stranger Things 4 Vol. 1 ranked first in 83 of the 93 countries tracked by network. The performance bested the Season 2 debut of Bridgerton back in March, which premiered to 193 million viewing hours. 

The third week of Korean-language sci-fi drama Squid Game still holds the record as having the biggest viewership week ever on Netflix, recording nearly 571.8 million viewing hours during its third week on platform back on September 27 - October 3. And Squid Game is still the most watched Netflix show of all time after 28 days in rotation, capturing over 1.65 billion hours of viewing in its first four weeks. 

But man, for the week of May 23-29, Stranger Things was big. Netflix's "Global Top 10 ranks its series by season, but  Seasons 1-3 of Stranger Things all ranked in the top 10 for English language original series, with catchup viewing adding another 84.6 million hours to the shows total weekly viewership. 

Netflix only measures streaming time on individual subscriber accounts and doesn't factor in co-viewing, meaning the actual watching time as probably much greater. 

The final two Season 4 episodes of Stranger Things debut July 1

Season four of Stranger Things arrived on Netflix May 27, almost three years after season three premiered. For a series built on kids riding bikes and trying to escape the bad guys in Hawkins, one wonders to what degree viewers will still root for the characters if they are now steering Subarus instead of Schwinns. 

Industry watchers believe the demand for Eleven, Mike, Dustin and the gang remains strong. “For a piece of IP as strong as Stranger Things, long hiatuses serve to build appetite,” said Sarah Unger, partner and co-founder at consultancy Cultique. “Risk of low awareness is fairly minimal, especially as the series is one of Netflix’s most communal, intergenerational, year-over-year successes.”

Set in the 1980s, Stranger Things is a mix of science fiction, horror, teen drama and nostalgia. Based in fictional Hawkins, Indiana, where a government lab conducts clandestine supernatural experiments, a boy named Will disappears. A girl named Eleven, who has psychokinetic powers, escapes from the lab and befriends Will’s pals as they search for their friend. 

The Duffer Brothers created the show. The cast includes Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp and Caleb McLaughlin.

Myles McNutt, associate professor of communication at Old Dominion University, called Stranger Things “the first big fan show on Netflix.” Squid Game and Bridgerton may have been watched by more viewers, but McNutt said Stranger Things has long possessed a unique connection with its viewers.  “It’s the first Netflix show that became a real cultural touchpoint,” he said. 

Season three amassed 582 million hours viewed, per Netflix,  for second on the list of English-language series on the service behind Bridgerton. 

While season four premiered May 27, the second part of the season will be available July 1. Season four takes place six months after the battle of Starcourt, which caused serious destruction in formerly sleepy Hawkins. “Struggling with the aftermath, our group of friends are separated for the first time — and navigating the complexities of high school hasn’t made things any easier,” according to Netflix. 

Season five will be the final one. 

Netflix has a knack for building excitement around a Stranger Things season, McNutt said. The show is adept at “going from zero to 60,” he said. “You forget it exists for two or three years, and it comes back and feels like an event.”

The two premiere dates are a first for Stranger Things. Netflix offered an uncharacteristically gloomy earnings report April 19, and the strategy may prevent fans of the show from watching the entire new season across Memorial Day weekend, then cancelling Netflix. Zak Shaikh, Magid VP of programming, global media & entertainment, said streaming standout series with weekly releases, such as The Mandalorian on Disney Plus and Hacks on HBO Max, enjoy a more sustained buzz than an all-at-once release. “It allows the shows to stay part of the conversation longer,” he said. “With Stranger Things, it’s how does Netflix get it to be part of the conversation beyond that first weekend?”

Teen Titans

The kids in the Stranger Things cast are not really kids anymore. McLaughlin is 20, Wolfhard and Matarazzo are 19, Brown is 18 and Schnapp is 17. Does the audience lose their connection with the cute young cast as they grow up? McNutt said no, noting how viewers of series on The CW have grown accustomed to watching teen characters push into adulthood. “A lot of fans follow the actors on social media,” he said. “There’s an attachment to the performers as much as the characters, and viewers are willing to go on that journey with them.”

Unger too believes the viewer-character connection stays strong, citing the Harry Potter film franchise as an example of viewers enjoying watching child characters mature. “The ability to stick with a cast as they evolve is both engaging and comforting for audiences,” she said. 

Netflix’s Stranger Things hype machine has been at full throttle for months. Stranger Things – The Experience, featuring a mock-up Hawkins Lab as well as a Mix Tape Area for superfans to enjoy a “medley” of “fan-favorite moments,” opened in New York May 7 and debuts in San Francisco in early June. T-shirts, socks and other Stranger Things merch can be bought at Target, Old Navy and a host of other retail chains. 

In terms of marketing and licensing, “I’m not sure any other Netflix show comes close,” McNutt said. “Stranger Things lives outside of Netflix more than any Netflix show.” ▪️

Theatrical exhibitors reportedly cried tears of joy after Paramount's Cinemacon screening of Top Gun: Maverick in Las Vegas a month back. The theatrical experience, losing ground to Snapchat, Spotify, Netflix and other innumerable digital habits even before COVID, will be back this Memorial Day weekend. Or so they joyfully expect, based on Paramount's boffo screening of the sequel, which features a 60-year-old Tom Cruise reprising a Navy F-18 pilot role he first made famous back in the first term of the Reagan Administration. Quietly being overlooked, however, are some other big "tentpole" releases in streaming this year, also coming on Friday. Disney Plus has slated its most anticipated series premiere yet, Star Wars prequel series Obi-Wan Kenobi, with the Jedi Master thespian himself, Ewan McGregor, reprising the titular role ... and Hayden Christensen back for more heavy breathing, too. And Netflix is bowing the final season of one of its most popular original series ever, Stranger Things, the same day. Granted, these shows will be ready to stream when consumers get back from the multiplex this weekend. But if they go, er, maverick and stay home to stream, look for exhibitors to be cry different kinds of tears. Here's what's upstream this week:

Navalny (HBO Max, May 26)

As a challenger to Vladimir Putin's presidential throne, Alexi Navalny was poisoned with nerve gas in 2020. And although Putin denied it, the poisoning was later linked to the Kremlin. In this fly-on-the-wall documentary, director Daniel Roher follows the Russian dissident from fall 2020 until he was detained in Russia in January 2021. It’s an eye opening look at the anti-corruption activist and his inner circle. In January, the doc won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition section as well as the Festival Favorite Award. The film scored an aggregated 99% on Rotten Tomatoes. “The attitude of Mr. Navalny and his colleagues is fearless, in a country governed by fear. Thrillers are rarely so inspiring,” wrote The Wall Street Journal’s John Anderson.

That Damn Michael Che – Season 2 (HBO Max, May 26)

This sketch comedy series starring Saturday Night Live's Michael Che tackles timely themes such as like religion, race, cancel culture and reproductive rights. This second six-episode season's guests include Wayne Brady, Reggie Conquest, Ziwe Fumudoh, Heidi Gardner, Charlamagne tha God, David Alan Grier, Sam Jay, Colin Jost, Lori Laing, Tim Meadows, Questlove, Sam Richardson, Amy Schumer and Kenan Thompson. The first season of thean aggregated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. The Chicago Sun Times Richard Roeper wrote that the series was “smart, insightful, topical and intended to make you uncomfortable from time to time — which it succeeds in doing, and that’s just the kind of comedy we could use right about now.”

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney Plus, May 27)

The latest -- and certainly most anticipated -- Disney Plus Star Wars Universe series features Ewan McGregor reprising his titular role. Also back from the Star Wars prequel films is the erstwhile Anakin Skywalker himself, Hayden Christensen. This six-episode series is set 10 years after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, when Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat— the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, young Skywalker, now Sith Lord Darth Vader -- and was subsequently cast into exile on desert plant Tatooine. It's a pivotal premiere for Disney Plus, which initially built its brand on the strength of The Mandalorian, but faltered in December with the awkwardly similar Book of Boba Fett. 

Stranger Things - Season 4, Volume 1 (Netflix, May 27)

It’s been almost three years since Upside Down has threatened the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, but now the supernatural phenom is back. Although the Byers family and Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) have moved to California, they team up with the Hawkins crew to fight back –--yet again. The first seven of Season Four will be released Friday. The remaining two episodes of the season -- and the series -- will be released July 1. The Stranger Things finale will get super-sized as it goes. Episodes average approximately 75 minutes, with Episode 7 running for 98 minutes and Episode 8 running 85 minutes. The past three seasons of the sci-fi horror show have garnered six Primetime Emmy awards and 39 nominations. Season three of the series scored an aggregated score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. “If I went into Season 3 wondering how long Stranger Things can possibly keep this up, I left it assured that as long as the series keeps pushing beyond what initially made it work, it will have more story left in the tank yet,” wrote Variety’s Caroline Framke.

We Feed People (Disney Plus, May 27)

From Director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer, this documentary examines the 10-year evolution of Michelin-starred celebrity chef José Andrés and his nonprofit organization World Central Kitchen, which makes and delivers food to people in need around the world following disasters, natural and otherwise. Andres’ fight to feed people in need doesn’t involve political red tape and bureaucracy, which has often allowed World Health Kitchen to respond to catastrophes more rapidly than government run agencies delivering aid. To date, the nonprofit has served over 60 million people in crisis. So far the film, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March, has scored an aggregated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. “This divided country desperately needs someone to play the hero, and José Andrés is the right man for the job,” wrote The Washington Post’s Tim Carman.

Kick Like Tayla (Amazon Prime Video, May 27)

This one-hour documentary about Australian star athlete Tayla Harris follows the football player and boxing champion as she navigates her career. Issues explored are Harris’s success in junior football, her relocation to the state of Victoria to play for Carlton and then Melbourne, and the off-field scrutiny she has faced along the way including the aftermath of a 2019 photo of her infamous kick for goal that drew sexist and sexually violent abuse online after the image was published. At 25, Harris is not only a force to be reckoned with, she is also the definition of trailblazer.

Pistol (Hulu, May 31)

Based on Sex Pistols’ founding member and guitarist Steve Jones’ memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From a Sex Pistol, this six-episode series stars Toby Wallace as Jones, Anson Boon as John Lyndon, Christian Lees as Glen Matlock, Louis Partridge as Sid Vicious, and Jacob Slater as Paul Cook. Academy Award-winner Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) directed the series, which follows the 1970s British punk band’s brief but influential career. A story about working-class kids with "no future" who ended up changing music and culture is hard to resist.

The Greatest Mixtape Ever (ESPN Plus, May 31)

This latest installment of ESPN’s 30 For 30 docuseries is a behind-the-scenes look at the origins of the And1 mixtape, a traveling basketball competition and exhibition tour. The doc explains how the tour, which began in 1998, along with the rise of streetball, transformed basketball culture as a whole. The film features interviews and conversations with Fat Joe, Funk Master Flex, Iman Shumpert, Isiah Thomas, Kemba Walker, Lou Williams, Rafer Alston and Scoop Jackson. The doc’s co-director Chris Robinson knows a thing or two about basketball. He is currently directing the LeBron James biopic Shooting Stars, a film based on James' early life and high school career at St. Vincent–St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio.

Broadcasting + Cable's Kent Gibbons and Michael Malone chat about upfront week, Stranger Things' return to Netflix, Amazon Freevee's Troppo, and more.

Netflix has shared the first eight minutes of the Stranger Things season four premiere on YouTube. The clip shows Dr. Brenner, who runs Hawkins National Laboratories, in 1979, four years before season one of the series was set. 

A room in the lab facility is filled with children in hospital gowns, similar to what Eleven wears in her flashbacks set at the lab, practicing their supernatural powers on a variety of games. 

Brenner then takes a boy known as Ten to a private room to experiment on him. The child can close his eyes and see what is happening elsewhere in the building, and what he sees troubles him deeply. Dr. Ellis and the child Six are dead, he says. 

Brenner gets on the building intercom and is told, “Sir, we’ve got a situation.”

Children and workers alike appear to be dead throughout the facility, with blood everywhere. 

As the trailer winds down, Brenner, played by Matthew Modine, is face to face with Eleven. 

“What have you done?” he asks. 

Season four begins on Netflix May 27. 

Millie Bobby Brown plays Eleven. Finn Wolfhard, Charlie Heaton, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, David Harbour, Winona Ryder and Noah Schnapp are also in the cast.  

The Duffer Brothers created Stranger Things. ■

 The Memorial Day holiday weekend features a number of highly-profile premieres, including the highly-anticipated debut of Disney Plus’ Star Wars spinoff Obi-Wan Kenobi and the return of Netflix’s horror series Stranger Things.

Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts May 27 and takes place10 years after after the events of the 2005 film Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith film in which the Jedi master suffers his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader.) Ewan McGregor reprises his film role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the six-part series.

Also on May 27, Netflix debuts the fourth season of its Emmy-winning horror/drama series Stranger Things, in which the series’ stars must battle a new supernatural threat. Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, FinnWolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp all reprise their roles in the first of two parts slated for season four.  The second half of the season premieres in July. 

History will mark Memorial Day with the May 30 premiere of documentary series Theodore Roosevelt, while A&E debuts Biography: Bobby Brown.

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for multiple shows debuting the week of May 23 to May 30 on cable networks and streaming services (for some videos, viewer discretion is advised):

May 23 – Prehistoric Planet (documentary) – Apple TV Plus

May 24 – Yo! MTV Raps (music programming) – Paramount Plus

May 26 – Look At Me: XXXTENTACION (music documentary) – Hulu

May 27 – Emergency (comedy movie) – Prime Video

May 27 – Shoresy (comedy) – Hulu

May 27 – We Feed People (documentary) – Disney Plus

May 30 – Origins Of Hip Hop (music documentary) – A&E

Stranger Things – The Experience, an exhibit tied to the Netflix drama, begins in New York May 7. The show starts in San Francisco June 4 and London beginning in August. 

Season four of Stranger Things is on Netflix May 27. 

The event description reads, “Things are getting strange again in Hawkins and rumor has it that the Hawkins Lab is back in the research business. Your favorite intrepid heroes might need some help getting to the bottom of this latest supernatural mystery. Explore a medley of Stranger Things locations and fan-favorite moments. Enjoy immersive photo ops, engaging interactivity, and delicious food and drink themed to the show.”

Set in the 1980s, Stranger Things is set in fictional Hawkins, Indiana, where a government lab conducts clandestine experiments. A boy named Will disappears and a girl named Eleven, who has supernatural powers, escapes from the lab.

The exhibit features Hawkins Lab and a Mix-Tape Area that offers a “medley” of “locations and fan-favorite moments,” along with photo ops, food and drink from the show, and a bar. 

The New York event is at Duggal Greenhouse in Brooklyn, in between the DUMBO and Navy Yard neighborhoods. Tickets start at $44 and the experience lasts over an hour. ■

The long awaited fourth season of Stranger Things begins on Netflix May 27. The season is split in two, with the second part being released July 1. 

Season five will be the final one. 

Stranger Things was created by The Duffer Brothers and is produced by Monkey Massacre Productions & 21 Laps Entertainment. The Duffer Brothers executive produce, alongside Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps Entertainment, and Iain Paterson.

The Duffer Brothers, Matt and Ross, issued a release to fans. “With nine scripts, over eight-hundred pages, almost two years of filming, thousands of visual effects shots, and a runtime nearly twice the length of any previous season, Stranger Things 4 was the most challenging season yet, but also the most rewarding one. Everyone involved is incredibly proud of the results, and we can’t wait to share it with you,” the brothers said. 

The Duffers called season four “the beginning of the end.”

Netflix said of the upcoming season, "It’s been six months since the Battle of Starcourt, which brought terror and destruction to Hawkins. Struggling with the aftermath, our group of friends are separated for the first time--and navigating the complexities of high school hasn't made things any easier. In this most vulnerable time, a new and horrifying supernatural threat surfaces, presenting a gruesome mystery that, if solved, might finally put an end to the horrors of the Upside Down."

The Duffers added, “There are still many more exciting stories to tell within the world of Stranger Things; new mysteries, new adventures, new unexpected heroes." ■ 

The long, long awaited fourth season of Stranger Things will arrive on Netflix next summer. Netflix held Stranger Things Day Nov. 6, and shared that the season arrives in summer 2022. 

“And that’s a wrap on Stranger Things Day 2021,” went a summary of the event. “Same time next year, nerds! To stay updated on all things Stranger Things, follow our official social channels and tune in Summer 2022 for Stranger Things 4, only on Netflix.”

According to Stranger Things mythology, Will Byers went missing in Hawkins, Indiana on Nov. 6, 1983. As his friends searched for him, they discovered a mysterious girl known as Eleven. 

Season three came out in 2019. The show was renewed for season four in fall 2019. 

The cast includes Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Millie Bobby Brown, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo and Caleb McLaughlin. 

One season four trailer shows Eleven living in California. A second one sets the action in spring 1986. Episode titles are The Hellfire Club, Vecna’s Curse, The Monster and the Superhero, Dear Billy, The Nina Project, The Dive, The Massacre At Hawkins Lab, Papa and The Piggyback. 

The Duffer Brothers created Stranger Things. 

Netflix’s popular sci-fi series Stranger Things will return four its fourth season in 2022, marking nearly three years since its last season ended, the streaming service announced in a recent tweet. 

Netflix released a tweet Aug 6 alerting viewers that “in 2022 The Global Phenomenon Returns” amid scenes from both previous seasons and early clips from season four. Netflix did not provide a specific premiere date. 

The third season of  Stranger Things debuted on July 4, 2019. The series stars Millie Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Finn Wolfhard and Noah Schnapp. 

Read Also: Most Consumers Still Prefer to Stream, J.D. Power Report Says

Netflix could more than double its total subscriber additions in the second half of 2021 as its original content slate expands, while Q2 growth, fueled by children’s programming and international series, should be in line with guidance, according to Canaccord Genuity media analysts Maria Ripps and Michael Graham.

In a note to clients issued Wednesday (July 14), the analysts estimated that Netflix would report about 1.1 million customer additions in Q2, slightly above company guidance of about 1 million additions. But Ripps and Graham expect bigger gains in the second half of the year — about 14 million customer additions (more than twice the five million added in the first half of the year) — fueled by the return of several popular series and a slew of new originals.

Netflix is scheduled to report its Q2 results on July 20. 

Ripps and Graham expect Netflix to end 2021 with almost 223 million total paying subscribers, up 19.2 million from the prior year, but still behind the 36 million it added in 2020. In 2022, the analysts predict Netflix will have nearly 250 million global customers, up 26.6 million.

After a sluggish first half in 2021, Canaccord expects Netflix’s second half content lineup to have “significantly more firepower,” with the July return of series Atypical, Virgin River, Never Have I Ever, and one of its most popular shows of 2020, teen drama Outer Banks.    

Reality dating show Sexy Beasts debuts on July 21 and similarly themed reality hit Love Is Blind comes back a week later for a three-episode reunion. On the film side, the third installment of teen drama The Kissing Booth premieres on Aug. 11 followed by He’s All That (featuring the acting debut of Tik Tok star Addison Rae) on Aug. 27, and action comedy Red Notice, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Gal Godot and Ryan Reynolds on Nov. 12. Lin-Manuel Miranda musical Tick, Tick … Boom!, season two of The Witcher, and Don’t Look Up are also slated for fourth quarter release.

New episodes of past hits after a COVID-induced hiatus should goose next year’s subscriber rolls even further, according to the analysts. 

“The content pipeline for 1H22 and beyond is also robust as COVID-driven production delays pushed out new seasons of some of the biggest titles like Stranger Things, The Crown and Ozark into next year, and Netflix continues to invest in unique content both in the U.S. and around the world which is helping to strengthen its competitive positioning and differentiate its library from those of rivals,” Ripps and  Graham wrote. 

Netflix has been shaking up its content mix of late, which is reflected in Canaccord’s own top 10 rankings. Animated children’s fare like The Mitchells vs. The Machines, Dog Gone Trouble and Wish Dragon have dominated Canaccord’s TV Power Rankings, while at the same time strengthening Netflix’s position against rival Disney Plus, the analysts wrote.

Original content is still a core growth engine for Netflix, and despite a lighter than usual slate in the past few months, about 64% of the SVOD service’s top ten shows in Canaccord’s power rankings were originals, compared to 63% in Q1 and 59% in Q4. 

As production for its tentpole titles was on hold, Netflix boosted its commitment to children’s content, licensing The Mitchells vs. The Machines from Sony Pictures, which stayed in the top ten rankings for each day of the quarter after rights were purchased. Kids movies also made up six of the top ten films in Canaccord’s power rankings  during the quarter, including Netflix-produced Dog Gone Trouble and Wish Dragon joining licensed fare like Home, Madagascar 3 and The Secret Life of Pets 2. 

Ripps and Graham expect that trend to continue, adding that Netflix already has a handful of kids series in the pipeline — A Tale Dark & Grimm and Dogs in Space slated for fall 2021 and Super Giant Robot Brothers expected in 2022.

Investments in local language content also are showing results across the board, with the popularity of series like Mexican mystery Who Killed Sara? placing second during the quarter in Canaccord Genuity’s TV Power Rankings and French thriller Lupin, Norwegian fantasy drama Ragnarok and Spanish teen drama Elite spending significant time in the top ten.

Netflix began producing local language series back in 2015 with the Colombian Cartel-themed Narcos, and followed that somewhat surprising hit with shows like Money Heist (Spain), Dark (Germany) and others. Now such shows are regular hits with viewers.

“...This segment of Netflix’s library serves not just as a tool to drive subscriber acquisition and engagement in international markets, but also as a key differentiating factor compared to other streaming services,” Ripps and Graham wrote. 

The analysts noted that Netflix plans to step up its already impressive local language output on several fronts.

In South Korea, where it has about 3.5 million subscribers, Netflix has invested about $700 million in two product facilities and local language content, and plans to spend another $500 million on movies and TV series produced in the country. The SVOD pioneer has spent about $420 million in India on content over the past two years and said that it plans to spend more than that on 41 new shows and movies it will release in 2021. 

Other countries will see similar investment. Netflix is opening a new office in Italy in the second half and plans to double the number of Italian original series next year; in the Nordic region, where it has 4.5 million subscribers, Netflix has already produced more than 70 original series and plans to open an office there in the second half of 2021. 

Netflix already has spent about $175 million producing shows in Colombia over seven years and plans 30 new projects before the end of the year. In Spain, where it has produced more than 50 titles and opened its first European production hub in Madrid in 2019, plans are to double the number of sound stages from five to 10 in addition to building new post-production facilities, a film lab and high-tech editing suites. In Russia, Netflix has announced plans to produce its first Russian original series — Anna K — a retelling of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, while in Mexico it plans a remake of hit comedy movie Nosotros Los Nobles.

The 2010’s ushered in a new era of original scripted television series created and distributed by an unprecedented number of distribution outlets, all looking to attract viewers anxious to watch content at their leisure across numerous platforms. Heading into 2019 nearly 500 scripted series could be accessed on broadcast, cable and digital streaming platforms.

Here’s a look at five shows on cable and streaming services that helped define the decade though a mix of excellence via ratings, industry awards and cultural influence.

Game of Thrones -- HBO (2011-2019)

HBO’s titanic fantasy series arguably drew more combined viewership, media coverage and social media activity --both positive and negative -- than any other show during the decade. What is not in dispute is the record 59 Emmy Awards the show won over its eight-season run.

Related: HBO, Amazon Prime Rule Emmy Awards Telecast 

Atlanta -- FX (2016 to present) 

Comedian/rapper/musician/producer in Donald Glover created a show that presents a sometimes complex but most times comedic slice of African-American life that had never existed on TV before. The result is a groundbreaking show that has earned critical acclaim and several Emmy Awards, including Glover’s Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series statuette -- the first awarded to an African-American.

Stranger Things -- Netflix (2016 to Present) 

While streaming service Netflix’s ambitious run at producing original scripted series began in earnest with such critically-acclaimed hits as House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black, it was a 1980’s-based, sci-fi thriller full of monsters and young, teen protagonists that gave Netflix a pop culture hit perfectly suited for binge viewing. 

Power -- Starz (2014-2020) 

Starz’s provocative series from executive producers Courtney Kemp and 50 Cent about a drug dealer looking to escape the world of crime and go legit found a fervent and loyal audience early and helped to dismiss the myth that a show with a predominantly African-American cast couldn't draw solid ratings numbers on premium cable television.

American Horror Story -- FX (2011 to Present) 

The series became the poster child for the resurrection of the anthology series genre with its creative ability to scare up a new story each season. American Horror Story paved the way for the success of other anthology series including HBO’s True Detective, AMC’s The Terror, Nat Geo's Genius and FX’s own American Crime Story, Fargo and Feud.

Honorable Mention:

The Walking Dead -- AMC (2010 to Present) -- The most-watched show on cable during the first half of the decade, the zombie-themed series drew a basic cable record 17.3 million viewers for its season five premiere in 2014.

Veep -- HBO (2012-2019) -- Among the most celebrated TV comedies of the decade, the series won 11 Emmy awards, including a record six straight best comedy actress statuettes for series star Julia Louis-Dreyfus from 2012 to 2017.

The Handmaid’s Tale -- Hulu (2017 to Present) -- The dark drama series arguably put the nascent streaming services on equal footing with broadcast networks and cable services by winning the digital platform's first drama series Emmy in 2017. 

Mirroring cable years earlier, where the TV shows considered “cool” and “trendy” were housed on cable, the digital streamers have become a haven for the crème of the crop, so to speak. As with cable (excluding exceptions like Game of Thrones, American Horror Story, The Sopranos and Sex and the City), original streamed content does not necessarily attract a wide audience. But when you think of the top TV shows today, quality matters, not audience size. And the quality content, those “cool” and “trendy” shows being streamed, include dramedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Fleabag on Amazon Prime; Stranger Things, Russian Doll and GLOW on Netflix; and The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu.

The first streamed shows that demonstrated why subscription-based streaming was a force to reckon with, both in 2013, were political drama House of Cards and prison dramedy Orange Is the New Black. House of Cards drew immediate attention for signing then A-list actor Kevin Spacey in the lead role, which opened the floodgates to other big names jumping on the digital bandwagon. And Orange Is the New Black, set at a minimum-security federal prison, demonstrated why digital could take creative risks and dare to be different. There were fewer restrictions.

Then there is the example of an acclaimed entry like Netflix comedy The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, which was originally planned for NBC but shifted to the streamer after it got a better offer.

While the assumption is an outlet like Netflix might attract fewer proverbial eyeballs than a broadcast network (there are no audience metrics available to support any of the current streamers, after all), the two immediate advantages of streaming are the potential critical acclaim and the unrestricted storytelling. With accolades comes attention, at least via the critics who write about original content and the viewers who are commenting on social media. And that begs the question…just how do these shows on the digital streamers break out of the pack in an era flooded with original content? 

“The obvious answer is concept and execution of each individual series,” said Robert Russo, president of consulting firm RNR Media. “Original content on the streamers also produce far fewer episodes per season than broadcast and can run at any length per episode, which is more conducive to quality and creativity. Casting big names can make all the difference.”

Recently launched Apple TV+ created early buzz for new drama The Morning Show from the casting of Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carell and Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon. 

“It’s finding great ideas, great content; things that will ignite us and make us want to watch it; make us want to talk about it; and make us want to be those people and be in those situations,” said Mike Tankel, partner/optimist at marketing and development firm To Be Continued.  “But too many people rush to production and without adequately thinking about how to get the audience talking about it. What do we need to do to stand out? How do we market and brand it?” 

Tankel cites a recent event for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel in Los Angeles where chosen restaurants were offered deli sandwiches at prices comparable to the 1950s-set series. “It was brilliant from a marketing strategy and the whole town was talking about it,” said Tankel. “I am sure that brought more people to check out the show.”

“A good writer knows how to find characters within the show that are not necessarily the talent,” he added. “So, the deli setting on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, where they have their little sessions and see all the agents, has basically became a character on the series.”

Amazon Prime, meanwhile, recently offered a private screening of the third season premiere of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, followed by a Q&A with series stars Rachel Brosnahan and Tony Shalhoub in New York City. And two recent live events capitalized on the growing ComicCon brand: BravoCon, which showcased the network’s top series in New York City; and SopranoCon in New Jersey, which was tailed to beloved HBO drama The Sopranos.

“What we try to do is take marketing and move it into the development phase so that you think about the audience, you think about the characters, you think about the places,” said Tankel. “The coffee shop on Friends is a character; the deli on Mrs. Maisel is a character. And giving these audiences these live experiences is an added incentive.”

The critics, of course, remain vital to getting a TV series noticed.

“With all this content out there, I would change the term critic to navigator,” said Tankel. “We don’t have a way of looking and seeing everything that is available without these navigators. We need someone to shed some light and say ‘check this out.’ It’s the take on the story, who it impacts, and how it makes us feel.”

“Then, of course, there is social media,” added Russo, ”which can give anyone a voice."

The Independence Day premiere of Netflix's horror-themed series Stranger Things leads a light schedule of show premieres over the July 4 week.

The third season of Stranger Things continues the exploits of five teenage friends on the cusp of adulthood trying to figure out how to grow up without growing apart who eventually come together to fight evil enemies, according to Netflix. 

Below are video trailers and premiere dates for several shows debuting this week on cable networks and streaming services:

July 1 -- Divorce (returning series) -- HBO

July 4 -- Into the Dark: Culture Shock (horror) -- Hulu

July 7 -- Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian (reality) -- E!

July 7 -- Saints & Sinners (drama) -- Bounce

Despite reporting its greatest quarterly subscriber growth ever in Q1, Netflix could have trouble maintaining that momentum as increasing free cash flow deficits weigh on the SVOD pioneer’s credit profile, ratings agency Fitch said Wednesday.

Netflix added 9.6 million new paying customers in Q1 -- 7.9 million internationally and 1.7 million in the U.S. -- ending the period with 148.8 million global paid subscribers. But domestic additions slowed during the period, from 2.3 million in Q1 2018, and Fitch director Patrice Cucinello wondered if the company can keep it up. That is especially concerning as new entrants -- Disney+ and Apple+ -- get ready to launch price-competitive OTT offerings later in the year.

“While Netflix plays largely in a league of its own, maintaining subscriber growth momentum in the face of competitive product launches remains a concern despite growth uninhibited by the largest price increase in its history,” Cucinello wrote.

Cucinello was mainly concerned about Netflix’s increased content investments which are funded by debt and continue to be a drag on its free cash flow. The SVOD giant raised its free cash flow deficit estimates for the year to $3.5 billion, up from expectations of about $3 billion. Fitch said it was encouraged by Netflix chief financial officer Spencer Neumann’s comments that the company is “committed to improve our cash flow profile meaningfully starting in 2020, and then each year thereafter.”

RELATED: Netflix Might Share More Viewing Data (B&C)

Fitch estimated that cash burn for 2018 was between $3 billion and $4 billion and Netflix spent more than $10 billion on content for the year. The company raised prices for new customers in January by 13% to 18% for its three tiers of service -- its biggest increase yet -- partly to fund bigger programming investments. Cucinello said that increase could be a sign of Netflix’s confidence in its position in the market: the $2 monthly increase for its most popular tier edges the company closer to rival HBO’s $15 monthly price point. 

Netflix said the price rise will be implemented more quickly this time around, by the May billing cycle all of its subscribers will pay the new prices -- again perhaps a testament to its industry dominance, but also a risk, according to Cucinello.

“The effect on Netflix's subscriber growth is uncertain, given the noticeable ramp up in high-quality, innovative original content,” Cucinello wrote. “Netflix's more modest increase in 2017 proved to be relatively uneventful in terms of subscriber growth. However, there is risk that yesterday's announcement increases churn and adversely affects the company's growth profile. Netflix's 2016 price increase resulted in a meaningful deceleration of domestic subscriber growth. Moreover, market dislocations can provide opportunities for competitors to take market share.”

Netflix continues to invest in original programming, but a key licensing deal with Disney expired this year. While Netflix has several other licensing deals in the mix, its library of licensed television shows and movies could shrink further, including from 20th Century Fox, which was purchased by Disney earlier this year.

“Large content providers such as Disney are likely to underprice Netflix as they build scale in their DTC strategies,” Cucinello wrote.

In a video call with clients and investors, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said the company has seen content leave the service before and has still managed to thrive by focusing on original programming.

“In the entire history of television, there are lots and lots of hours of programming that people watch fairly interchangeably,” Sarandos said. “But the shows that our members value us for, and the things we pay the most attention to -- if you look at our top 10 most-watched shows on Netflix, they ‘re all Netflix original brands.”

He added that in 2017 Fox let its second-window content library sunset with Netflix, and “you’ve seen how we’ve done since 2017.”

Netflix continues to have a strong slate of originals and returning series coming in the back half of the year like Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, Orange is the New Black, The Crown and Money Heist. 

Netflix gave more insight into viewership habits for the quarter, saying more than 52 million households watched its original movie Triple Frontier in the first four weeks. The Highwaymen, an original film starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson, was watched by more than 40 million households in that same time period and documentary FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened was watched by 20 million member households.

Netflix Tuesday announced the July return of its Emmy-nominated drama series, Stranger Things.

The sci-fi/fantasy series will debut its third season on July 4. according to the streaming service. Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Winona Ryder and David Harbour star in the series, which initially debuted on Netflix in 2016.

Black-ish Showrunner Kenya Barris Signs Deal With Netflix

TWIN: Add Black-ish showrunner Kenya Barris to the growing list of broadcast and cable writers and producers leaving for greener pastures at the SVOD pioneer. Barris’ deal with ABC is set to expire in August.

MCN Take: Barris is the third high-profile broadcast TV producer – and the second from ABC – to bolt for Netflix in recent months. Ryan Murphy left Fox and Shonda Rhimes parted ways with ABC for multi-million-dollar deals with Netflix. Barris, who had several projects in various stages with ABC, also was reportedly upset with the way how ABC handled a controversial episode last season around the practice of NFL players kneeling for the National Anthem. ABC pulled the episode at the last minute, which Barris said at the time was a mutual decision, but apparently set the stage for his departure.

See the full story from Deadline.com 

Stranger Things Season 3 Premiere Set for Summer 2019

TWIN: Netflix had hinted that it would wait until summer 2019 to air the premier the popular show, but made it officials at the Television Critics Association presentation.

MCN Take: During her TCA presentation, Netflix’s vice president of original content, Cindy Holland said the show’s creators, Matt and Ross Duffer and Shawn Levy, want to meet the high expectations of the show, and deliver something bigger and better than last year. The show also is expected to have more extensive special effects.

See the full story at Engadget 

Critics Say Netflix’s Insatiable Promotes Fat Shaming

TWIN: Twitter critics came out in force to denounce a new made-for-Netflix series starring former Disney Channel star Debbie Ryan – Insatiable – claiming it promotes fat-shaming in its depiction of an overweight high-schooler who slims down after suffering at the hands of bullies.

[embed]https://twitter.com/fabjamiefab/status/1021129946352291840[/embed]

MCN Take: More than 120,000 people signed a petition to cancel the show.  Netflix has called the show, in which Ryan seeks payback for the people who bullied her a “dark, twisted revenge comedy.”

See the full story at Mercury News 

Oscar Winner Octavia Spencer to Appear as Beauty Mogul C.J. Walker

TWIN: Octavia Spencer, who won the 2012 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for The Help, will star as hair-care products pioneer C.J. Walker in Madam C.J. Walker.

MCN Take: The eight episode series is based on the book On Her Own Ground by A’Lelia Bundles. Spencer and basketball star LeBron James will serve as producers. Walker, the first self-made black female millionaire, was the child of former slaves and devoted her life to philanthropy and social activism, counting among her friends icons like W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington.

See the full story at Variety 

UBS Securities is encouraged by what it believes is strong upside in Netflix’s Q4 subscriber guidance, adding that a recent price increase should have no impact on growth, according to a new research report.

According to a Jan.17 report conducted by its Evidence Lab, which provides UBS analysts with rigorous primary research, UBS estimated that year-over-year subscriber improvements at the SVOD pioneer were sustained through the fourth quarter, and that an October price increase appears to have had little effect on momentum. UBS estimated that Q4 domestic subscribers should reach 54.04 million (up 1.27 million) and international customers will reach 61.54 million (up 5.06 million), basically in line with management forecasts. Its 12-month price target on the stock -- $250 per share, a 30% premium to its $191.96 closing price on Dec. 29 – reflects that optimism.

Netflix is expected to release fourth quarter results officially on Jan. 22.

“We believe Netflix's core competencies in both content and technology will drive a virtuous circle of greater subs and increased viewing time, enabling higher ARPU and revenue, which will fuel content spending to attract even more subscribers, positioning Netflix to sustain its clear global leadership in the emerging online video subscription business,” UBS wrote in the report.

When Netflix announced in October that it would raise monthly rates for its standard service to $10.99 from $9.99 and for its premium tier to $13.99 from $11.99, some analysts feared it would lead to some subscriber erosion. But in a November consumer survey of about 2,000 people, the UBS evidence lab showed no signs of materially increased churn.  

Netflix had some of its strongest domestic and international subscriber growth ever in the third quarter, adding 5.3 million customers globally, far outpacing guidance of 4.4 million additions. The company predicted it would add about 6.3 million customers globally, 1.25 million in the U.S. and 5.05 million internationally.  

The emergence of additional OTT players also has had little impact on Netflix, according to the UBS survey, which reported a strong uptick in household penetration (50%) from its April survey (42%) and no discernible change with respect to the competitive landscape.

UBS also was encouraged by a strong content slate, adding that in 2017, season two of sci-fi hit Stranger Things had stronger Google search interest than HBO’s  Game of Thrones. Newer series like Ozark and Mindhunter attracted as much search interest as established series like House of Cards and Narcos. In 2018, a reboot of Bravo’s Queer Eye, dark comedy Maniac and a western anthogogy from the Coen Brothers -- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – are all expected to attract attention.

Netflix and HBO dominated the 2018 Screen Actors Guild Awards television nominations announced Wednesday morning.

Netflix garnered 19 SAG Awards nominations, with HBO finishing second with 12. NBC finished a distant third with three nominations, according to SAG-AFTRA. 

Three shows tied for the most nominations with four each, including HBO’s limited series Big Little Lies, Netflix’s sci-fi series Stranger Things and female wrestling-themed comedy GLOW. 

Netflix’s Stranger Things will look to repeat in the best drama series category as it competes with sister Netflix series The Crown, HBO’s Game Of Thrones, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale and NBC’s This is Us.

Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black will also look to defend last year’s win in the outstanding comedy series category against ABC’s Black-ish, HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, Netflix’s GLOW and HBO’s Veep.

The 24th annual SAG Awards will be presented live on TNT and TBS on Jan. 21.

SAG Awards nominees in the television category are as follows:

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

LAURA DERN / Renata Klein – “BIG LITTLE LIES” (HBO)

NICOLE KIDMAN / Celeste Wright – “BIG LITTLE LIES” (HBO)

JESSICA LANGE / Joan Crawford – “FEUD: BETTE AND JOAN” (FX Networks)

SUSAN SARANDON / Bette Davis – “FEUD: BETTE AND JOAN” (FX Networks)

REESE WITHERSPOON / Madeline MacKenzie – “BIG LITTLE LIES” (HBO) 

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH / Sherlock Holmes – “SHERLOCK: THE LYING DETECTIVE” (WGBH/Masterpiece)

JEFF DANIELS / Frank Griffin – “GODLESS” (Netflix)

ROBERT DE NIRO / Bernie Madoff – “THE WIZARD OF LIES” (HBO)

GEOFFREY RUSH / Albert Einstein – “GENIUS” (National Geographic)

ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD / Perry Wright – “BIG LITTLE LIES” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

MILLIE BOBBY BROWN / Eleven – “STRANGER THINGS” (Netflix)

CLAIRE FOY / Queen Elizabeth II – “THE CROWN” (Netflix)

LAURA LINNEY / Wendy Byrde – “OZARK” (Netflix)

ELISABETH MOSS / Offred/June – “THE HANDMAID’S TALE” (Hulu)

ROBIN WRIGHT / Claire Underwood – “HOUSE OF CARDS” (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

JASON BATEMAN / Martin “Marty” Byrde – “OZARK” (Netflix)

STERLING K. BROWN / Randall Pearson – “THIS IS US” (NBC)

PETER DINKLAGE / Tyrion Lannister – “GAME OF THRONES” (HBO)

DAVID HARBOUR / Jim Hopper – “STRANGER THINGS” (Netflix)

BOB ODENKIRK / Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman – “BETTER CALL SAUL” (AMC)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

UZO ADUBA / Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren – “ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK” (Netflix)

ALISON BRIE / Ruth Wilder – “GLOW” (Netflix)

JANE FONDA / Grace Hanson – “GRACE AND FRANKIE” (Netflix)

JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS / Selina Meyer – “VEEP” (HBO)

LILY TOMLIN / Frankie Bergstein – “GRACE AND FRANKIE” (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

ANTHONY ANDERSON / Andre “Dre” Johnson – “BLACK-ISH” (ABC)

AZIZ ANSARI / Dev – “MASTER OF NONE” (Netflix)

LARRY DAVID / Himself – “CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM” (HBO)

SEAN HAYES / Jack McFarland – “WILL & GRACE” (NBC)

WILLIAM H. MACY / Frank Gallagher – “SHAMELESS” (Showtime)

MARC MARON / Sam Sylvia – “GLOW” (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

THE CROWN (Netflix)

GAME OF THRONES (HBO)

THE HANDMAID’S TALE (Hulu)

STRANGER THINGS (Netflix)

THIS IS US (NBC)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

BLACK-ISH (ABC)

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (HBO)

GLOW (Netflix)

ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (Netflix)

VEEP (HBO)

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series

GAME OF THRONES (HBO)

GLOW (Netflix)

HOMELAND (Showtime)

STRANGER THINGS (Netflix)

THE WALKING DEAD (AMC)

LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

54th SAG Life Achievement Award

MORGAN FREEMAN

On April 26, 2017, America woke up to news of whether national security adviser Michael Flynn was lying about business dealings with Russia, President Donald Trump threatening a federal government shutdown tied to Mexico border-wall funding and the United States moving a controversial missile defense system to South Korea to protect us from North Korea’s burgeoning nuclear threat.

That same evening, the images a wide swath of Americans saw before bed came from the premiere of the Hulu series The Handmaid’s Tale, about a young wife and mother (Elisabeth Moss) captured and separated from her family, and forced to be a part of a dystopian world where women have no rights and are forced to bear children for the country’s leaders. That’s what they watched — and binged — by choice.

The desire to experience the things that will frighten us is a longstanding, profitable phenomenon that goes back to radio. But why does it not abate when life itself is as scary as what we’re watching?

Related: Millennials Troubled by Trump, GOP

In the months since The Handmaid’s Tale premiered, we’ve experienced deadly wildfires, deadly hurricanes, a deadly shooting in Las Vegas, a deadly white supremacist rally in Virginia and antics in Washington that make one’s head spin. And in that time, while Hulu doesn’t publish viewing totals, The Handmaid’s Talewon Outstanding Drama Series at this year’s Emmys, becoming the first streaming series to do so.

The practice of watching stalwart fright-fests when the world feels on shaky ground gets an even greater test now as Halloween spells new seasons of TV’s most popular series, The Walking Dead(which premiered Sun., Oct. 22 on AMC, to 11.4 million viewers), and one of last year’s true breakout hits, Stranger Things, which premiered Oct. 27 on Netflix. (For more on Halloween programming plans, read Digital Platforms Are Feeling the Fear.)

They’re hardly alone: American Horror Story: Cult, running on FX, directly relates to the country’s political climate, and Netflix’s new Mindhunter explores the mind of a serial killer in the 1970s in ways that seems strangely prescient. We’re also still watching the uncomfortably realistic scares on Westworld (HBO) and House of Cards (Netflix), and this in a year when Get Out was the most talked-about film of the summer, and It, Stephen King’s tale of a murderous clown that lives in a gutter, swept up at the box office.

In most cases, there is a strange safety net that comes with experiencing these scares and knowing they’re not real. It’s a feeling even more in demand right now, when a number of Americans are seeking a level of control and a greater degree of hope about the world around them.

“We’re all looking for escape, especially these days,” media consultant Bill Carroll said. “Things are so uncertain; every day there are new issues and television provides that escape. I guess to a degree it’s fiction-scary vs. fact-scary. A lot of things are concerning in everyday life and the circumstances we’re dealing with, but this is a way to deal with that in a safe environment.”

The Fright Stuff
The power of scary content to provoke a reaction, especially at this time of year, hearkens back to media’s most infamous script, Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds radio drama, which took place exactly 79 years ago, on Oct. 30, 1938.

The Mercury Theatre on the Air Halloween episode was so realistic — much of it presented as a series of news bulletins interrupting a radio show — that a number of Americans fled from their homes to escape an attack from Mars.

Its prescience in today’s age is uncanny; with 20/20 hindsight that drama was both the very essence of so-called fake news, and the seed of how word-of-mouth, hearsay and rumor — so prevalent on social media — can inspire a terrifying reaction.

“There’s the suggestion that if only there had been better communication then — but no! People would have just found the rumors faster,” said Walter Podrazik, television curator at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago and co-author of Watching TV, a book on the history of television. “Social media, and the ability to instantly communicate with someone, now puts the echo chamber effect in.”

The “widespread panic attack” plot line, especially right there on the street where you live, has long been a television staple. One can argue that the famed Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” is something of a sequel to Welles’s program, this time with the aliens actually landing and talking about how easy it is to control earthlings.

In a sense, it doesn’t even matter what the evil is or how it came to be; it’s more about how we react, and how the horror reflects the times, much as the original Night of the Living Dead is about as perfect a reflection of the year it came out — 1968 — as any other living document.

And now, in an age of unease where nobody can be entirely sure of anything, other than that all your personal information was probably stolen in the Equifax hack, it’s easy enough to believe danger may be imminent. Somehow that makes watching people just like us go through these situations on a screen large or small both cathartic and instructive.

The enticement of watching horror that “hits too close to home” is certainly part of the reason fans were so eager for last Friday’s return of Stranger Things. Even though 12-year-old Will Byers has returned from the “Upside Down” dimension where he’d been held after meeting up with the Demogorgon monster, all is clearly not well. But the seed of the appeal for fans of big scares comes courtesy of watching Will, his three best friends and their new E.T.-like telekinetic friend, Eleven.

Related: 'Stranger Things' Caps Dramatic Night for Netflix at SAG Awards

In a world where our news feed gives us constant updates on threats of nuclear war, election interference and real-life uncertainty about health care and taxes, there’s a certain odd comfort in watching the most vulnerable among us gain courage and prevail in small-town America — especially when they’re battling evil-minded adults concocting mysterious things in the local laboratory.

“Kids and young teens are usually powerless. They do not control the leaders of government or school, so if they know something, trying to convince the powers that be is infinitely challenging,” Podrazik said. “They’re usually greeted with, ‘Go away, kid; come back when you grow up.’ We look to horror to be reminded of how frightening a situation can be, even in the relative safety of the mall or your own neighborhood — where that safety is a little bit of an illusion.”

Added Carroll: “There’s so much we don’t have control over in the political realm or now in the physical realm with California wildfires, trouble down South, and there’s so much in our environment we have no control over and nothing to do with, and there’s a certain catharsis that can happen in experiencing these scary things but then knowing in the end, in this case, we’re actually safe.”

Living To Tell the ‘Tale’
There are probably some Americans who believe we’re on a path to some dystopian nightmare society a la The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s hard to blame them, one year after the popular rallying cry for many women has tragically shifted from “I’m With Her” to #MeToo. But among the positives of watching June/Offred (Elisabeth Moss, herself an Emmy winner) on the series is her embodiment of courage and the never-lost idea that her single objective, come what may, is to reunite with her husband and her daughter, against a frightening collection of odds.

And while the trappings of the totalitarian Christian Gilead state, established after a fictitious U.S. civil war, may produce an “It could happen!” outcry on Facebook, the truth is, it hasn’t. And so when we watch June make every move possible to ultimately get her wish, as bad as things get, we’re inspired to be following a script on this side of the screen.

“Drama is therapy,” Podrazik said. “It’s an opportunity to help us collectively better articulate what we’re grappling with and that’s one of the things I love about TV. It’s happening right in your personal space and that sometimes makes the fright go a little deeper and lets the opportunity for thoughtful reflection and catharsis play out more.”

‘Dead’ Set on Hope
The Walking Dead, meanwhile, faced a real, unintended conundrum. On Oct. 23, 2016, with Election Day only two weeks away and the country in a state of impossible tension, TV’s most popular series premiered season 7, concluding a cliffhanger in perhaps the most awful, gruesome method possible. The cunning and evil Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) ultimately kills Glenn (Steven Yeun), the moral center of the entire series. And though it garnered 17.03 million viewers, it’s second-highest viewing total ever, the one-two punch of an ugly presidential campaign and an even uglier skull-breaking killing could only be termed a case of overkill.

Related: AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ Return Slays Social Media

Did the election results and the malaise and outrage in many quarters that followed somehow contribute to the series posting viewing totals that ultimately slipped to a little more than 10 million per episode? It couldn’t have helped; neither did the plot lines, which showed a kind of shock and hopelessness.

But a funny thing happened on the way to season eight of the series. Rick (Andrew Lincoln) and the forces of Alexandria have gotten their mojo back, fueled by a greater purpose, deeper strategy and, yes, a thirst for revenge that would rival the appetites of the walkers themselves.

And more than that, there’s a return to hope, much like in a country that is a little tired of waiting for something to happen — good or bad — and has resolved to both deal with natural tragedies and get out the vote in some crucial off-year elections. On The Walking Dead, people of very different backgrounds and races are coming together with a sense of purpose to deliver hope. As Rick puts it in the season premiere, “This is our land, by right, and anyone else who would find common ground, it’s their right, too. Keep our faith in each other, and if we can hold onto that, the future is ours; the world is ours.” And that’s something worth watching play out, even while wincing as thousands of walkers clamor for more blood.

“These tales, scary as they might be, demand that individuals rise to the occasion and not only fight off the hordes, but keep their own humanity — as best as they can — while facing off against others who have exploited the situation for their own power grab,” Podrazik said. “Why do we fight? Because that’s what elevates our own personal situations. And if we’re using horror as a departure from everyday life, part of the reason that works is, at least in these situations, there are moments of hope. And individuals can make a difference.”

Cable networks have scared up some original horror-themed digital projects, now streaming online in time for Halloween.

Alongside original zombie-themed series The Walking Dead — which drew 11.4 million viewers to its Oct. 22 season-eight premiere episode — AMC has also launched several new original documentaries and specials through Shudder, its horror, thriller and suspense-themed subscription streaming service.

Related: What Are We So Afraid of?

The service premiered The Core: Halloween Special on Oct. 26. It takes a behind the scenes look at the popular Halloween theatrical film franchise, Shudder general manager Linda Pan said.

Shudder, which launched in 2016, had earlier debuted its first documentary series, Primal Screen, about how people are simultaneously attracted to and repelled by what scares them the most. Shudder is also developing several scripted series expected to debut in 2018, including Riprore, which follows a brutal homicide investigation in Los Angeles that uncovers a darkness that leads to the end of days; and The Blondes, in which blonde women afflicted with an unexplained disease turn into rabid monsters at any moment.

“For us original programming is super important as part of our programming strategy,” Pan said. “We know that our target audience is interested in getting programming from creators that they know and respect, so really look to develop original programming that isn’t going to be available anywhere else for this fan base.”

BET has tapped the horror genre to launch its first digital scripted series, The Last One. The five-episode BET.com series, which fittingly debuted this month on Friday the 13th, follows four friends who meet up with a mysterious stranger after getting stranded on the road, according to network officials.

BET.com vice president of editorial Jermaine Hall said the success of horror-based content, including Jordan Peele’s breakout theatrical film Get Out, convinced the network that the horror genre was perfect to facilitate its initial play into original digital series.

“We saw with the success of Get Out, that our audiences were clamoring for that kind of content,” he said. “We really wanted to capitalize on the film and the genre’s popularity, and the script that we came up with is inherent to the black experience.”

While admitting the viewership for The Last One has been a “slow build” since its debut, Hall said he expects the numbers to increase this week with the attention given to Halloween.

The Last One, though, faces stiff competition from other streaming services offering horror-themed content heading into Halloween. Netflix this past Friday launched the second season of Emmy-nominated series Stranger Things, while Hulu has debuted the second season of its zombie-themed original horror series Freakish. Amazon on Friday, Oct. 13, launched its original anthology series Lore, based on Aaron Mahnke’s popular podcast.

Shudder’s Pan said the horror genre’s appeal — which draws in men and women across age demographics — will extend well beyond Halloween.

“Ultimately the best horror and thriller entertainment are ones that are visceral dramas that really tap into an audience’s need to be provoked and excited and to have a cathartic experience,” she said.

Canaccord Genuity media and technology analyst Michael Graham expects Netflix to beat its third quarter subscriber growth expectations, adding that growth should continue into the fourth quarter despite plans for a November price increase.

Netflix said earlier this month it would increase the monthly price of its premium tier to $13.99 from $11.99 and for its standard plan to $10.99 from $9.99 beginning in November. Pricing for its $7.99 basic plan will remain the same.

In the past, price increases have spurred a flurry of hand wringing from analysts who predicted it would result in slower subscriber growth.  And in Q2 2016, after it had decided to “un-grandfather” earlier subscribers who had been paying between $7.99 and $8.99 monthly for standard service to the current $9.99 rate – subscriber growth was impacted. Netflix added 1.7 million subscribers in Q2 2016, short of the 2.5 million it expected.

But Wall Street and investors applauded the latest increase – Netflix stock rose about 5% on the day it said it would implement the new rate card. And analysts are encouraged that a strong content pipeline will offset any churn.

In a research report, Graham noted that a slate of fairly strong original releases in the quarter like Narcos and high profile returns in the latter part of Q2, like Orange is the New Black, should carry additions into Q3.

Graham estimates that Netflix will add 850,000 domestic subscribers in the quarter, 50,000 more than analysts’ consensus of 796,000 additions and 100,000 above the company’s own expectations of 749,000 additions. He believes that with the second season of 2016 surprise hit Stranger Things slated for the fourth quarter, should help push that growth ahead.

“We still believe there are enough draws this quarter to drive a domestic sub beat,” Graham wrote.

The return of first-run broadcast network series continues to generate the lion’s share of headlines during the first few weeks of the fall television season.

But as the autumn leaves begin to fall, and Halloween pumpkins and Thanksgiving turkeys become more prevalent in viewers’ homes, so will the premieres of new and returning scripted series from cable networks and streaming services.

Once upon a time, competitors to the broadcast networks refrained from launching their best and strongest shows during the fall for fear of getting lost in the sheer noise of popular over-the-air shows premiering after a long summer hiatus. But in a world of 450-plus scripted series, cable and streaming services don’t have the luxury of ignoring any days on the calendar.

So viewers should expect to see a cavalcade of new as well as popular returning shows such as USA Network’s Emmy Award-winning series Mr. Robot on Oct. 11 and cable’s most-watched series, AMC’s The Walking Dead, on Oct. 22. New debuts such as Showtime’s drama White Famous, Audience Network’s Loudermilk and TBS’s The Last O.G. will undoubtedly draw their fair share of water-cooler buzz.

Streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu aren’t shying away from competing during the fall season. Netflix will look to scare up audiences with the October launch of Emmy-nominated series Stranger Things while offering a Thanksgiving Day serving of Spike Lee’s much-talked-about reboot of his 1986 film She’s Gotta Have It. Hulu will beam viewers forward in time Nov. 14 with the Seth Rogen-produced sci-fi comedy Future Man(pictured) while delivering its slice of the Marvel Comics franchise with the Nov. 21 debut of Marvel’s Runaways.

The fall is no longer the purview of the broadcast networks, and that only benefits viewers.

The primetime Emmy Awards ceremony is this Sunday, but this past weekend’s Creative Emmy Awards gave us a sneak peek into which shows and networks could be the big winners once all the Emmy envelopes are opened.

Not surprisingly, HBO led the pack with 19 Creative Emmy wins during ceremonies held this past Saturday and Sunday night, with Netflix’s 16 wins and NBC nine wins following close behind. HBO (111 nominations), Netflix (91) and NBC (64) were also the top three Emmy-nominated networks.

The top three Emmy-nominated shows also garnered the most creative Emmy wins. NBC’s venerable Saturday Night Live and HBO’s Westworld, which drew an industry-high 22 Emmy nominations --as well as Stranger Things, which drew a second-best 18 nominations –- each took home five Creative Emmy statuettes over the weekend.

Also among the big Creative Emmy award winners over the weekend were Adult Swim’s animated series Samurai Jack, Netflix’s Ava DuVernay-produced documentary 13thand HBO’s mini-series The Night Of, each with four Creative Emmy Award wins.

Of course, anything can and will most likely happen during CBS' primetime Emmys telecast Sunday, and it‘ll be interesting to see whether the frontrunners can retain their favored status and walk away with the lion’s share of primetime Emmy awards, or whether an underdog can pull off a major upset.

Networks With Multiple Creative Emmy Award Wins

NetworkTotal Awards

HBO                                                                          19

Netflix                                                                       16

NBC                                                                            9

ABC                                                                            7

Fox                                                                             5

Hulu                                                                           5

Adult Swim                                                                  4

CBS                                                                            4

FX Networks                                                                4

A&E                                                                            3

VH1                                                                            3

Amazon                                                                      2

BBC America                                                               2

ESPN                                                                          2

National Geographic                                                    2

A bevy of cable networks and streaming video services gravitated to San Diego this past week to showcase the TV industry's top shows during the annual Comic-Con International show.

Networks such as AMC, History, HBO and TNT, as well as streaming services like CBS All Access and Netflix, presented to an estimated 100,000 Comic-Con attendees numerous panels featuring writers, directors and stars of major hit shows such as The Walking Dead, Vikings, Westworld, The Last Ship, Star Trek Discovery and Stranger Things.

Along with the panels, content providers also released video trailers from several series and specials, a sample of which appears below.


Twice Upon A Time (Doctor Who) -- BBC America 

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency -- BBC America 

Stranger Things – Netflix

The Last Ship – TNT

Star Trek Discovery – CBS All Access

Vikings – History

The Defenders – Netflix

American Horror Story – FX

Westworld – HBO

Stargate – MGM

Krypton -- Syfy

Ads for shows from cable networks and streaming services were among the bevy of commercials that aired during last night’s thrilling Super Bowl LI game on Fox.

AMC’s The Walking Dead, Netflix’s Stranger Things, National Geographic’s Genius and Hulu/MGM Television's The Handmaid's Tale were among the commercials running during the big game, in which the New England Patriots defeated the Atlanta Falcons in the first overtime game in Super Bowl history.

The overtime period allowed Fox to air four additional in-game spots, according to BroadcastingCable.com. Fox generated revenue of $509.6 million during the game, according to research company iSpot.TV.

Here were some of the cable show ads that aired during the Super Bowl:

AMC’s The Walking Dead

Netflix’s Stranger Things

National Geographic’s Genius

Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Streaming service Netflix and HBO were the big TV network winners during the Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night.

Netflix won four awards including both the best drama series for Stranger Things and best comedy for Orange Is The New Black. HBO took home three SAG Awards statuettes, including a best actress in a comedy series award for Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ performance in Veep.

The SAG Awards were peppered with political statements from the winners. On winning the Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor In A TV Movie/Limited Series, All The Way star Bryan Cranston – who plays President Lyndon B. Johnson in the HBO original film -- said if Johnson were alive he would wish current President Donald Trump well, but would warn him: “Just don’t piss in the soup that all of us gotta eat.”

The TV category winners of the 23rd annual Screen Actors Guild Awards are as follows:

Outstanding Performance by and Ensemble In a Drama Series

Stranger Things -- (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by A Male Actor In A Drama Series

John Lithgow – The Crown (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor In a Drama Series

Claire Foy – The Crown (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance By a Male Actor In A TV Movie/Limited Series

Bryan Cranston -- All the Way (HBO)

Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A TV Movie/Limited Series

Sarah Paulson – People v. O.J. Simpson (FX)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble In A Comedy Series

Orange Is The New Black – (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by A Male Actor In A Comedy Series

William Macy – Shameless (Showtime)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actress In A Comedy Series

Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Veep (HBO)

Outstanding Action Performance by A Stunt Ensemble In A Comedy Or Drama Series

Game Of Thrones – (HBO)

Netflix swept the Screen Actor Awards in the major drama categories with wins for Stranger Things and The Crown.  

The streaming service's freshman fantasy drama series Stranger Things won for the Outstanding Performance by an Ensamble in a Drama Series. Another freshman series, The Crown, took home awards for Outstanding Perfrormance By A Male Actor In A Drama Series (John Lithgow) and Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Drama Series (Claire Foy).

Netflix's Orange Is The New Black also took home top honors in the Outstanding Performance by an Esemble In A Comedy Series.  

Netflix has released its first virtual reality/360 video content in the form of a two-minute clip to promote Stranger Things, the new eight-part supernatural mystery that also serves as a homage of sorts to ‘80s-era horror flicks.

Netflix confirmed to TechCrunch that this marks the first time the OTT giant has used Google Cardboard and VR to promote a specific show. Netflix entered the VR realm last year via the development of an app for the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR that features a digitized living room and a virtualized screen that display shows and movies from Netflix’s substantial library. While Netflix is among those taking an early stab at VR, company CEO has held that the format will be a bigger hit with gamers than with consumers who are looking for an immersive way to view TV shows and movies.

Stranger Things stars Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, who lives in a small Indiana town in 1983, and launches an investigation when her 12-year-old son, Will, goes missing.

While getting the full effect of the clip – and its startling conclusion – requires the Google Cardboard or Gear VR headset component, anyone can still view the clip (and move around the 360-degree environment) via the YouTube video below: