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Gizmodo
19 hours ago
- Gizmodo
‘Stranger Things' Hellfire Club Catch-Up: Season One
Welcome to io9's summer cram session for Stranger Things, the Duffer Brothers' Netflix phenomenon, which will return this November to Netflix for its final season. To honor the Hawkins gang's late, great, guitar-shredding Dungeon Master Eddie (Joseph Quinn), this rewatch shall be coined the Hellfire Club Catch-Up. With part one of season 5 a few months out, it seems fitting to get started now. Read on for io9's guide to everything you need to remember from the show's 2016 debut. Season one of Stranger Things was straightforward, a lean and mean horror binge. From the jump, the Amblin and Stephen King vibes by way of John Carpenter are all over the DNA of the '80s-era show. I would shy away from calling this gateway horror because season one in particular really went there in building up the horror with the Demogorgon hunting down Hawkins youth. Violence was not in short supply. At the center, we have the events unfolding around Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) when their friend Will (Noah Schnapp) goes missing and a mysterious girl turns up with telekinetic powers. Rewatching this made me feel so old because they were so little when the show started—and let me tell you, the show really hits different now that I'm a parent. Right off the bat, those are my biggest takeaways: the horror and story really hold up and are even more terrifying watching as a mom. Joyce (Winona Ryder), I get it now—I thought her extremes to find Will were a little off-kilter almost 10 years ago. I was so wrong, and everything she did for those kids with Hopper (David Harbour) was absolutely justified. And there are so many details that I completely forgot about, some of which we'll go over, like Will's fake body or the fact that Hawkins has a huge bully problem. For the purposes of our club, though, here are the main things that happened that we should keep in mind as we work our way to season five. When Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will end their campaign in episode one, it comes down to a big choice to save them all. Will has the option to either protect his crew or attack the Demogorgon (game version), but his move to fireball backfires. It's clear he should have made the move to protect his friends, and that makes us wonder if Will's story might come down to a similar choice—where he may need to make the ultimate sacrifice. Will is barely gone for the morning period of school, but that doesn't stop Joyce from taking matters into her own hands. While other parents err on the side of thinking Will ran away, his mother knows better. Her inclination to feel something sinister is afoot lays the groundwork for her and Hopper tuning into the suspicious presence of Hawkins Lab, located near to where Will disappeared. In Stranger Things: The First Shadow, the stage prequel to the events of Stranger Things the series, audience members have shared it's now established canon that back in high school, Joyce and Hopper investigated an unusual happening in their town involving Victor Creel (Henry Creel's father), the real truth of which was left unsolved. Hopper went on to leave to become a big city cop, and in his flashbacks we see his tragic backstory of having lost his daughter to cancer. Seeing Joyce's relentlessness to find out what happened to Will is something Hopper recognizes and shares—seeing finding Will as a path to do what he couldn't and save her kid. It seems that as things get worse, the rest of the grownups in town would just rather keep ignoring the bad things happening around them. Barb (Shannon Purser) goes missing, and there's no rush to look for her from anyone but Nancy (Natalia Dyer), who, like her brother Mike, gets the sense that something is off about her friend's disappearance after Will's. From the start, Hawkins feels like a small town where most people are miserable, and it could be by supernatural design, as the apathy from the adults rivals the meanness of the kids and teens as they all gawk at Joyce. There's no justice for Barb as her disappearance is dismissed as another runaway, with the added detail of her car being planted by a bus stop. Nancy begins to run her own investigation concurrent with Joyce and Hopper's, while the younger kids go on their main character storyline. Could the Upside Down already be feeding off the energy to expand beneath their feet? It seems likely that this is what leads to the fabric between both worlds getting ripped so the Demogorgon can feed on the most vulnerable. Eleven's (Millie Bobbie Brown) escape from Hawkins Lab as Will is taken sets her up as the hero the town needs. When El joins Mike, Lucas, and Dustin on their search for Will her powers quickly get revealed. It starts off simple enough, like Carrie meets E.T. El makes a kid who picks on her friends at their friend's fake funeral pee himself, and later makes other kids fly with the wave of her hand. As she learns to channel her powers to make contact with Will in the Upside Down, it raises the stakes of the mystery. And it's not so clean-cut because Lucas is the first to question her involvement with Hawkins Lab, while Mike's protectiveness over her shadows his doubts. Her superhuman strength is dangerous and something the bad men want her back for. They figure out it's to use as a weapon, but against what? The Hawkins Lab agents, led by Brenner (Matthew Modine), attempt to cover up Will's death by staging a fake dead body that gets all the way to the morgue. Hopper gets in and cuts it open to find it's stuffed. Joyce already knows, because by then she's been in touch with Will through Christmas lights from the Upside Down. The pain of her loss, you could argue, might be what begins to lure the Demogorgon through her walls. The blinking lights become the thread of how to know something is coming through. Hopper and Joyce uncover that the kid who was described as having a shaved head near the scene of a crime could have been the child of a pregnant woman who was experimented on during Brenner's time with MK Ultra. When El/Jane was born, Brenner took the child back to Hawkins Lab, presumably to see how the psychedelics affected her child. Her powers were developed and tested in the lab, as seen in flashbacks where she refers to Brenner as Papa. In season one, things are left very vague in regard to how much MK Ultra was truly involved with Eleven's origin. Stranger Things: The First Shadow, however, fills in canon for that lore, which will likely be revealed in season five. Nancy and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton) piece together that Barb's blood is what the Demogorgon caught the scent of to pull her into the Upside Down. In Jonathan's photography, they see its slender and misshapen face lurking behind Barb, and it matches Joyce's description of the creature coming through the walls. They know blood lures it and both teens decide to fight back against it. Nancy's interest in investigative journalism is born here, and it sets her up to be more than the small town girl who stays with her high school jock sweetheart. The jock in question, Steve (Joe Keery), surprisingly goes from leading the crowd of disaffected youth to abandoning it when he begins to listen to Nancy. His lines deliver clues to the idea that the town exists in this sort of fog and when he turns on his bully friends, it's because he realizes that Nancy cares about others—and he wants to, too. When the showdown at the Byers home is getting set up Steve shows up to make amends at Jonathan's doorstep for having thought that Nancy was cheating on him. Which, thanks to the timing and the blood on his face for making fun of the Byers family earlier, is exactly what makes the Demogorgon attack them all. It's very Nightmare on Elm Street and Nancy gets an Alien-style Ripley action hero moment while the two guys vying for her attention fend off the monster. They hear Joyce and Hopper on the other side looking for Will and realize the electromagnetic veil is thinning (the lights be blinking!). Joyce and Hopper find Will, and he's absorbed onto a wall by the tendrils of the Upside Down's alternate reality Hawkins. The consequences of Hopper's trade to be let into the Upside Down from the lab give up Eleven's location at the school. There the kids had helped her tap into the Upside Down to look for Will and Barb. Sadly, Barb was discovered mostly consumed by the nightmare realm. When the agents arrive and attack Eleven and her friends, she pops the brains of those who raised guns at them, and all that blood sets off the Demogorgon's hunger. Here we see Brenner get dragged away, indicating that the Demogorgon is collecting as many people alive for the hive walls of the Upside Down. In order to close the seal, Eleven realizes she's the only one powerful enough to keep it where it belongs and goes in with it to save everyone. Hopper's guilt leads him to try to help through waffle drops , hoping the Eggo scent will lead her back. Will's recovery after his ordeal seemingly goes well for a few months after his rescue. He gets caught up on everything he's missed and seems like a normal boy. Jonathan goes over to Mike and Nancy's to escort him home, but things aren't what they appear. Will hacks out a small slug and keeps it secret that he's still somehow tethered to the Upside Down through his mind. The cliffhanger is just a tease of the places the show eventually goes—the drama of season one centered Will's disappearance and raised Eleven to main character status going forward, but the Upside Down may have sown a seed that may finally pay off in the final season. Are there any details we missed that you think will come back around in season five? Let us know in the comments below. In a month we'll be back with the next Hellfire Club Catch-Up, digging into Stranger Things season two. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what's next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
Cosmopolitan
20 hours ago
- Cosmopolitan
The Sandman Season 2 Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out?
Nope, this is not just a dream. The Sandman is truly back as Morpheus AKA Dream sets out to make things right once and for all. While it's big return also comes with some bittersweet news—the show's second season will also be its last—it is also changing some things up from what we're used to seeing from our favorite Netflix shows. Ready to step back into dream world? Here's everything you need to know about The Sandman season 2's release schedule. The Sandman officially returned for its second season on July 3, 2025! That's nearly three years after the first season came out. You might have noticed that Netflix only dropped six episodes of the season during the premiere day. Like some of our bigger faves (hey, Stranger Things!) this series is being released in parts. The Sandman season 2 will consist of 12 episodes that are split into three different parts. Episodes 1-6 were all released on July 3. Fans will then have to wait until July 24, 2025 for episodes 7-11. But that still leaves episode 12, AKA the big finale, which will be released on its own on July 31, 2025.
Time Magazine
2 days ago
- Time Magazine
TIME Studios and Eyes ‘n' Sound LLC Partner to Produce Stevie Wonder Documentary Chronicling His Pivotal Role in the Fight for Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Produced in collaboration with legendary artist Stevie Wonder, the untitled feature-length documentary provides unprecedented access, including rare, personal, and never-before-seen archival footage in Wonder's first authorized on-screen exploration of his own legacy. TIME Studios, the Emmy Award-winning television, film, audio and immersive division of TIME, and Eyes 'n' Sound LLC have partnered to produce a landmark feature documentary that chronicles the cultural, political, and musical journey to make Martin Luther King Jr's birthday a federal holiday. The film explores Stevie Wonder's personal connection to the efforts to get a national law recognizing the birthday of Dr. King. It highlights the inspiration that fueled a years-long campaign culminating in President Ronald Reagan signing the bill that established Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday in 1983. Central to the film is the story behind 'Happy Birthday,' the iconic song released on Wonder's 1980 album Hotter Than July. While now a staple at global celebrations, few realize its original purpose: to drive national momentum behind honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a federal holiday. The film will feature rare and never-before-seen archival footage, as well as Wonder himself on screen, offering personal insights into this pivotal chapter of American history. 'I'm excited to tell the story of the making of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday,' said Wonder. 'More importantly, I want us to learn and remember this story with today's eye and understanding. If we truly understood how this bill came to be, then we will really appreciate the power of the people.' 'We are honored to help bring this important chapter of history to light and to work with Stevie Wonder in telling the story of how his artistry and activism helped shape a national movement. We believe this film will spark meaningful conversations about the profound impact one person's voice and vision can have on our culture and world,' said Lynne Benioff, Co-owner and Co-Chair of TIME and Executive Producer. 'This is a story of art as activism, and Stevie Wonder as an artist whose music has truly changed the world,' said Loren Hammonds, Head of Documentary for TIME Studios. 'It's also a fun cinematic glimpse into the creation of an iconic song that we know will surprise and move audiences.' The film will be directed by Academy Award nominee Traci Curry (ATTICA) who recently helmed National Geographic's documentary series Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time. 'What's most exciting about the opportunity to look deeper into Stevie Wonder's 'Happy Birthday' and the creation of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday is how this story might offer insight and guidance for the political moment we're in now,' said Curry. 'In exploring the making of the holiday and the conviction behind Stevie's creativity, I've discovered there is so much more to the work, the song, and this iconic artist than most people realize. I am profoundly honored to help bring that deeper story to life in this film.' The untitled film is currently in production and marks the first time Stevie Wonder has participated in a documentary focused on his own career and activism. The film will be a production of Eyes 'n' Sound LLC, a Stevie Wonder production company and TIME Studios. Stevie Wonder is producing on behalf of Eyes 'n' Sound LLC in conjunction with Theresa Cropper. Stevie Wonder and TIME Studios are both represented by CAA. Traci Curry is represented by WME. TIME Studios has established itself as a leading force in music and cultural icon documentaries, producing critically acclaimed projects such as Frida, Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words, the Aretha Franklin concert film Amazing Grace, and John Lewis: Good Trouble, which chronicles the life and legacy of the civil rights leader and congressman.
