Welcome to Mandatory Streamers, our latest column covering the best new streaming content coming your way every week! For the week of July 1, Stranger Things 3 kicks off the Fourth of July celebrations and a summer of change when the hit Netflix series returns. Growing pains, awkward teen romances, and unimaginable danger will mark this as the darkest, most emotional season yet. Check out the best shows debuting and returning online this week as well as the latest renewal announcements below, and be sure to visit our mother site Mandatory by clicking here!
Netflix
Stranger Things, Season 3 Premiere: It’s 1985 in Hawkins, Indiana, and summer’s heating up. School’s out, there’s a brand new mall in town, and the Hawkins crew are on the cusp of adulthood. Romance blossoms and complicates the group’s dynamic, and they’ll have to figure out how to grow up without growing apart. Meanwhile, danger looms. When the town’s threatened by enemies old and new, Eleven and her friends are reminded that evil never ends; it evolves. Now they’ll have to band together to survive and remember that friendship is always stronger than fear. The new season will begin streaming on Thursday, July 4.
DC Universe
Young Justice: Outsiders, Part Two: In the animated series, the teenage Super Heroes of the DC Universe come of age in an animated world of super-powers, Super-Villains and super secrets. In the highly anticipated new season, the team faces its greatest challenge yet as it takes on meta-human trafficking and the terrifying threat it creates for a society caught in the crossfire of a genetic arms race spanning the globe and the galaxy. Part Two will launch on Tuesday, July 2.
Hulu
Into the Dark, Episode 10: “Culture Shock,” is the latest episode of the streamer’s monthly horror event series from Blumhouse Television. Told in Spanish and English, this installment follows a young Mexican woman in pursuit of the American Dream, who crosses illegally into the United States, only to find herself in an American nightmare. The feature-length episode premieres on July 4.
Acorn TV
The Simple Heist, Series 2 Premiere: After pulling off a bank robbery in Series 1, pensioner best friends Jenny (Lotta Tejle) and Cecilia (Sissela Kyle) decide to tackle another classic heist: art theft. Where banks were the target in Series 1, their focus has now shifted to the rich, tax-evading men earning big money at the taxpayers’ expense. This is Kalmar’s local aristocracy, who play bridge at the gentlemen’s club and only watch out for each other. Once again, we find ourselves rooting for the most unlikely of criminals. The exclusive U.S. premiere will begin streaming on Monday, July 1.
Renewals
One Day At a Time, Season 4: Following its cancelation at Netflix, One Day At a Time has been picked up by Pop TV for a fourth season! The comedy-drama follows the life of Penelope Alvarez (Justina Machado), a newly single Army veteran, and her Cuban-American family, as they navigate the ups and downs of life. Now a nurse practitioner, Penelope is raising two strong-willed children. When faced with challenges, Penelope turns to her “old-school” mother Lydia (Rita Moreno), and her building manager Schneider (Todd Grinnell), who has become an invaluable confidant. The first three seasons are available to stream on Netflix. The 13-episode fourth season will launch on Pop TV in 2020.
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, Season 2: Netflix has renewed the critically-acclaimed sketch comedy series for a second season. The series pokes fun at life’s most bizarre and mundane situations. The first season saw Robinson and a few of his famous friends navigate awkward workplace drama, give some tips at a vehicular focus group, host an intervention in a Garfield themed house, talk their way out of a babysitter’s fake hit and run, the Baby of the Year pageant, a time-traveling Ebenezer Scrooge and much more. You can stream the first season now. Season 2 will launch in 2020.
