Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET
SEASON PREMIERE: Now that HBO’s Game of Thrones is gone, Netflix’s Stranger Things probably holds the crown right now as the TV offering most anticipated, and most rabidly consumed, by today’s genre enthusiasts, especially of the younger generation. Season 3 is unveiled today, in a full-season burst of episodes that the show’s most fervent fans might well consume in toto before the arrival of tonight’s fireworks. And anyone else sampling the first show of 2019 might be just as tempted to binge, because this year’s episodes are consumed as easily as potato chips. A year has gone by in the small Indiana town of Hawkins, which means it’s the summer of 1985. You can tell it’s set in that long-ago time, because the mall is bursting with shoppers, the leotards at the dance classes are pure Jane Fonda, the soundtrack is Huey Lewis and Madonna, and the boys are still playing Dungeons & Dragons in the basement. But amid all this early MTV fun, there are new mysteries lurking in Hawkins – and new interdimensional monsters, too, that turn the town upside down even without the alternate reality known as the Upside Down. And just so you don’t tune in expecting total escapism, there are Russians infiltrating here, too, and there’s a local mayor aiming to use the 4thof July holiday festivities for political gain. But the Duffer brothers, Ross and Matt Duffer, have gotten more playful as well as more confident as their series has mushroomed in popularity, and Stranger Things now cruises like a finely tuned machine. The laughs are solid, the characters are endearing, the references to 1980s movies and TV shows are delightful, the surprises are plentiful – and the scares, when they arrive, are really, truly creepy.
TCM, 8:00 p.m. ET
Tonight at 8 p.m. ET, TCM presents a triple feature of patently patriotic movies – all of them glorifying, in various degrees, the flag, the country, and small-town America. First up is James Cagney’s portrayal of showman George M. Cohan in this 1942 musical biography, where Cagney steamrolls through every scene with a crackling overdose of energy. The 1972 musical 1776, starring William Daniels as John Adams (pictured) in a tuneful exploration of the writing of our country’s founding document, arrives next at 10:15 p.m. ET. And finally, at 1:15 a.m. ET, TCM presents 1962’s The Music Man, culminating in a number as patriotic as anything in Yankee Doodle Dandy or 1776 – which, trust me, is saying something.