Previews: “Stranger Things” is the most anticipated series of the week




All the attention this Friday (1/7) is focused on the end of “Stranger Things”. How the season ends, who dies, how many times will you play Kate Bush? Fans are eager for answers to these and other questions, ready to run the last four hours of the show on Netflix before seeing what else is available this week.

And there are great options, like the new season of “Only Murders on the Building”, Star + ‘s biggest hit, and the premiere of “The Terminal List”, an action thriller starring Chris Pratt. Not forgetting we’re not listing “The Boys,” but the series continues to cringe weekly on Amazon.

Check out 9 tips below to watch after the first and absolute one this weekend.

| FOREIGN THINGS # 4/2 | NETFLIX

After breaking records and becoming the largest audience of any English-language series on Netflix, “Stranger Things” returns to the final moments of its season, throwing high expectations on the much anticipated confrontation between Eleven (or Eleven, in English) and Vecna. It will be the fight of the superheroine against the monster, as Eleven herself (Millie Bobby Brown) suggested at the beginning of the story.

With Kate Bush back on the soundtrack, the final episodes will bring together the young protagonists and usher in a new plunge into the Upside Down. But the details are deliberately vague. Among the advanced descriptions, director Shawn Levy (“The Adam Project”), producer and director of the series, called the outcome a “punch in the heart”, while the actor Joseph Quinn, interpreter of Eddie Munson, left. dropping the word “carnage” and the Duffer brothers, creators of the attraction, confirmed a “number of corpses” – leaving fans worried about the fate of their favorite characters, in a season that took a sharp turn towards horror.

While there are only two more chapters left to complete the story, they will be the size of a movie. The 8th chapter is about 1 hour and 25 minutes long, while the 9th and last one is almost 2 and a half hours long. It is, therefore, almost four hours of a lot of tension.

| ONLY MURDERS ON BUILDING No. 2 | STAR +

The comedy series features Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short as three neighbors obsessed with crime documentaries, who decide to create a podcast when they stumble upon their building in a mystery just like the ones they love to watch – which, unfortunately, also transforms they are the main suspects in the crime.

The plot continues into the second season, when the three find themselves confronted with a mysterious person interested in framing them and having them arrested, at the same time a rival podcast appears and everyone in the building begins to look at them with suspicion. To top it off, the storyline also features new and varied cameos, including award-winning actress Shirley MacLaine (Oscar winner for “Tender Bonds”), comedian Amy Schumer (“Uncompensated”) and model / actress Cara Delevingne (“Suicide Squad “). “).

Created by Steve Martin and John Robert Hoffman (writer of “Grace and Frankie”), the attraction is the first series of the veteran comedian’s career and marks Selena Gomez’s return to the format, a decade after “The Wizards of Waverly Place” . – closed in 2012 on Disney Channel.

| ATLANTA # 3 | STAR +

Donald Glover’s award-winning creation returns after a four-year hiatus with a significant change of location, following the confusion of its characters across Europe.

The plot revolves around Earn (Donald Glover) and his cousin Paper Boy (Brian Tyree Henry), an emerging rapper, as they navigate the world of music. In the new episodes, they will embark on a European tour, alongside friends Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) and Van (Zazie Beetz), trying to adapt to their unexpected success.

Interestingly, real life mirrors the success of fiction, as the cast became quite popular after debuting in 2016. Since then, Danny Glover has been busy with film, music and other projects, while Brian Tyree Henry made “The children’s game “. and “Run!”, Zazie Beetz appeared in “Deadpool 2” and “Joker”, and Lakeith Stanfield was even nominated for an Oscar in 2021 for “Judas and the Black Messiah”.

The season is the penultimate of the series. Glover has decided to enter into its overall deal with pay channel FX to sign a new multi-million dollar deal with Amazon. For this the two final seasons were recorded simultaneously, in order to give a correct closure to the production and make life easier for fans, who will not have to wait years for the final chapters.

| THE LIST OF TERMINALS No. 1 | AMAZON VIDEO FIRST

The production that marks the return of Chris Pratt (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) to the universe of the series – seven years after the end of “Parks and Recreation” and the beginning of his successful film career – is an old-fashioned thriller. , in which a gunman does justice against the system.

“The Terminal List” is based on Jack Carr’s book of the same name, was developed as a series by David DiGilio (creator of “Traveler”) and is directed by director Antoine Fuqua, who previously worked with Pratt on “Seven Men. and a destiny “(2016). In the plot, the actor plays James Reece, a Navy SEAL who returns home after a traumatic mission: his platoon is ambushed by an enemy and everyone but him has been murdered. As he tries to readjust into normal life, he realizes that his memories of the incident are mixed and begins looking for evidence of an alleged government conspiracy that could try to frame him for the massacre. Soon, his goal turns into revenge.

The cast of the “movie” also includes Riley Keough (“Mad Max: Fury Road”) as Reece’s wife, Taylor Kitsch (“John Carter”) as a former SEAL, best friend and ally of the protagonist, Constance Wu. (“Hustlers”) as fearless war correspondent and Australian Jai Courtney (the Suicide Squad Boomerang) as main antagonist, as well as Jeanne Tripplehorn (“Criminal Minds”), JD Pardo (“Mayans MC”), LaMonica Garrett (“1883”), Stephen Bishop (“Run the World”), Sean Gunn (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) and Patrick Schwarzenegger (“Midnight Sun”), Pratt’s brother-in-law.

| THE WALKING DEAD: WORLD BEYOND # 2 | AMAZON VIDEO FIRST

The second and final season of The Walking Dead spin-off series accelerates the action and introduces the greatest threat ever seen in this shared universe: the Civic Republic Militia, capable of destroying fortified communities by posing as an ally, while seeking the cure for the epidemic zombie. The plot connects to the main series by revealing the return of Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), last seen taking Rick (Andrew Lincoln) by helicopter to an unknown location.

Although the episodes bring more questions than answers, the story has major consequences and opens the zombie universe to new plots. Additionally, their characters are expected to reappear in other series in the franchise.

The cast highlights Alexa Mansour (“Unfriended Friendship 2: Dark Web”), Aliyah Royale (from “The Red Line”), Nicolas Cantu (seen in “The Good Place”), Hal Cumpston (who starred and wrote the Australian indie drama “Bilched”), Annet Mahendru (Nina from “The Americans”), heartthrob Nico Tortorella (from “Younger”) and veteran Julia Ormond (“Mad Men”, “Incorporated”) as leader of the Civic Republic Militia (CRM, its acronym in English).

| EL REFUGE # 1 | STARZPLAY

A Chilean sci-fi series featuring Mexican stars and a production by award-winning director Pablo Larraín (“Spencer”), “El Refugio” enhances its small budget with a psychological thriller approach. When unexplained phenomena begin to occur, an isolated family on a farm becomes increasingly convinced that they are experiencing an apocalyptic event. The cause, however, is presented in a mysterious tone as in the films of M. Night Shyamalan.

Created by Julio Rojas (from the podcast “Patient 63”) and Enrique Videla (“La Jauría”), the series features Alberto Guerra (“Narcos: Mexico”), Ana Claudia Talancón (“The crime of Father Amaro”), Zuria Vega (“The Revenge of the Juanas”), Alfredo Castro (“The Club”) and Diego Escalona (“The Luck of Loli”), among others.

| THE CHRONICLES OF CUCUBA # 1 | HBO MAX

The family comedy series tells the story of immigrants from the Dominican Republic trying to settle in Miami in the 1980s following the new job of their father, an emerging executive of an airline serving Florida and the Caribbean. Everything is narrated by the youngest daughter as a flashback to her childhood, in the style of open television productions such as “The Wonder Years”, “Fresh Off the Boat”, “Everybody Hates Chris” and “The Goldbergs”.

But if the premise is known, the production makes up for the lack of innovation with endearing characters, especially the daughters, who discover the intricate world of school tribes – where everyone looks like Madonna, including the kids – when they move to the United States.

Created by Claudia Forestieri (author of “Selena: The Series”), the production has a much better English title: “Gordita Chronicles”, which deserved a more in-depth translation. The cast features Juan Javier Cardenas (Dante from “The Walking Dead”) and Diana Maria Riva (“Dial Amiga para Matar”) as parents, Savannah Nicole Ruiz (“Gentefied”) as a sister and newcomer Olivia Gonçalves as Cucu / Gordita of the title.

| QUEENS # 1 | STAR +

The music production “Queens” can be seen as a dramatic and African-American counterpoint to “Girls5eva,” but while the white singer’s comedy was renewed, the black women’s drama only lasted one season.

The production revolves around four former members of a female vocal group that had a short career after the outbreak in the 1990s. Invited to perform together again at a major event, they decide to resume the partnership, even if their lives are in the completely different times. .

Out of curiosity, at least two of the members actually had musical success in the 90s, rapper Eve and singer Brandy (now Brandy Norwood). The rest of the quartet includes Naturi Naughton (from the “Power” series) and Nadine Velazquez (“My Name Is Earl”), and the cast also highlights Pepi Sonuga (“Famous in Love”) as a rising young singer.

“Queens” was created by Zahir McGhee (writer of “Scandal”) and the pilot was directed by director Tim Story (“Tom & Jerry: The Movie”).

| TERROR GUARDIANS MANSION # 1 | NETFLIX

A sort of “queer Scooby-Doo”, the animated series is based on Hamish Steele’s “DeadEndia” comic, and revolves around two teenage employees of a haunted house of a theme park, which could be a portal to hell. . Accompanied by their talking dog, they take on zombies, witches, game presenters and other threats.

Despite the familiar premise, the content innovates by its openness to inclusion. Aimed at children, the series is the first American children’s show to feature a transgender boy as the main character. And with a detail: he cannot lose his job in the haunted park because he ran away from home, after the family’s lack of support for his passage.

| BAYMAX! # 1 | DISNEY +

The spin-off of the animated film “Operation Big Hero” (Oscar winner in 2015) leaves aside the teenage superheroes of the original film to focus on the daily life of the Baymax robot, working as a useful personal assistant on the streets. .

They are only six episodes and very short (10 minutes each), in which Baymax abandons its young owner Hiro, after hearing distant moans of pain, to look for people in need and help them with their injuries.

Source: Terra