
'Stranger Things' plays the too-long game in its super-sized season finale
CNN
"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.
This season has already turned the Kate Bush song "Running Up That Hill" into a chart-topping hit 37 years later, but the way the episodes unfold "running" isn't quite the word for it; rather, it's more like brisk walk with detours along the way.
In hindsight, the main innovation might have to do with scheduling, with this Volume 1 and 2 approach (timed first to Memorial Day, and now the Fourth of July) spreading the wealth for Netflix, which really should consider dropping episodes weekly for the finishing run to milk the media attention that much longer.

Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.

Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.

As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.










