Peculiar Occurrences

Peculiar Occurrences
Genre	Science fiction; Drama; Horror;
Created by	Matt Ross; Mark Wallace;
Starring	Leoda Stagg; Andrew Cross; William Barton; Ariana Garcia; Justin Hopper; Grayson Jones; Mark Brown; Dylan Jack Grazer; Jonathan Sergeant; Frederick Dawes; Bryan Moore; Grayson Danvers; Elizabeth Turner; Rosie McGanne;
Theme music composer	Amelia Eagans; Henry McGolden;
Country of origin	Sierra ; United Commonwealth
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	42
Production
Executive producer(s)	Matt Ross; Mark Wallace;
Producer(s)	Alice Stone; Mark Walker; Reginald Stevens Jr.;
Running time	42-77 minutes
Production company(s)	Webbox Studios; Arlington Media;
Distributor	Webbox Streaming Services
Release
Original network	Webbox
Picture format	4K (Ultra HD) ; High dynamic range
Audio format	Milton Digital
Original release	July 3, 2016

Peculiar Occurrences is a Sierran-Continental science fiction horror drama television series created by Matt Ross and Mark Wallace and streaming on Webbox. Premiering in 2015, the show takes place in fictionalized versions of both New Madrid in the United Commonwealth and Burns in Astoria. The show is set during the 1980s and documents a group of teenage friends from both towns who experience a number of supernatural events seemingly caused by the opening of dimensional portal connecting their two towns. Due to the joint production of the show, the series stars an ensemble cast of actors and actress from both the United Commonwealth and Sierra, including Leoda Stagg, Andrew Cross, William Barton, Ariana Garcia, Justin Hopper, Grayson Jones, Mark Brown, and Dylan Jack Grazer.

Ross and Wallace, who met and befriended each other after the latter visited Sierra, would first develop the idea of a science fiction horror drama after viewing and comparing a number of science fiction and horror movies from both Sierra and the United Commonwealth, becoming infatuated with the idea of a supernatural horror series. Setting the series in the 1980s, Ross and Wallace infused references to both Sierran and Continental pop culture of the time and styled their directing after prominent movie directors of the time. The two also took inspiration from the number of supposed "supernatural experiments" conducted by both western and Continental governments at the time and also infused eliminated of the political situations and hysteria of the late Cold War into the show.

Peculiar Occurrences has attracted some of the largest viewership on Webbox, and has a broad, active, and international fanbase. The show has received critical acclaim for its characters, its accurate and somewhat nostalgic representation of the 1980s, its acting, pacing, writing, and soundtrack, which pays homage to 1980s film. The series has received a number of awards and nominations including 39 Anglo-American Primetime Emmy Awards (and six wins), four Golden Globes, a British Academy Award, two Director Guilds of Sierra awards, and three Continental Guild of Directors and Writers awards. Since its creation, the series has been claimed as "Webbox's most recognizable shows". In 2019, the show was renewed for a fourth season, with both Ross and Wallace hoping to continue the show up until its sixth season.

Overview

Set in New Madrid, Missouri and Burns, Oregon during the Cold War the show utilizes sets, visuals and sound to highlight the division between ideologically opposed Conference of American States aligned state of Astoria and the United Commonwealth. During the first season begins in 1982 as campaign signs for the 1982 secretarial election are visible, with an approximate timeline date starting in mid August as the characters have already enrolled into their courses.

Much of the events in the United Commonwealth surround the ominous setting of Kentucky Bend, specifically Camp 14, where experiments into the paranormal and supernatural are being conducted. Throughout the experiments, the Continental scientists have accidentally created a portal into a alternate dimension, which they seek to harness. Throughout the show the portal starts to adversely affect the citizens of New Madrid.

Heightened tensions with the assassination of Rupert Gardner has created an atmosphere of paranoia within the United Commonwealth. Jaesa, Marcus and Jake observe the nation's paranoia through the actions of their parents who are depicted as cautious and unsure of their own actions. Topics regarding nuclear warfare are discussed by some of the older children as the Greenlandic Missile Crisis remains the closest point during the Cold War that the two superpowers have deployed nuclear weapons.

Cast and characters

Main cast

Leoda Stagg as Johanna Strange, the mother of Garrett and Jaesa Strange. She is heavily involved with the local Continentalist Party politics and is protective of her children.
Andrew Cross as Dustin Whitter, the sheriff of Burns, Astoria. After the death of his family, Whitter would become a serious no-nonsense man dealing with a alcohol problem. During the duration of the show, he grows to become more responsible.
William Barton as Wilson Maersk, one of the three Astorian teens. The intelligent and quick thinking member of the Astorian group, Maersk is skeptical of the relationships made with the Continental group, being a staunch anti-Landonist. Though he eventual grows to trust his Continental friends.
Ariana Garcia as Jaesa Strange, one of the three Continental teens. Quiet and reserved, Jaesa is accidently is sent through the dimensional portal and is trapped in the Upside Down, an alternate dimension. She is later rescued by her friends. She forms a romantic relationship with Jordan Maine.
Justin Hopper as Jordan Maine, one of the three Astorian teens. Soft spoken and kind, Jordan is also accidently sent through the dimensional portal and is trapped in the Upside Down. Working with Jaesa, the two would eventually be freed at the end of Season 1. In Season 2, Jordan forms an romantic relationship with Jaesa.
Grayson Jones as Aaron Jones, one of the three Astorian teens. A loudmouth, Grayson is considered to the goofball of the Astorian group.
Mark Brown as Marcus Black, one of the three Continental teens. A proud member of the Continentalist Youth of America, Marcus is considered the rule follower of the Continental group. Like Wilson, Marcus is at first skeptical of his Astorian friends, but later grows to trust them.
Dylan Jack Grazer as Jake Reed, one of the three Continental teens. Though his family has a history of law enforcement, Jake is both rebellious and stubborn. Constantly getting on the nerves of Marcus, Jake always seems to lead the group into trouble.
Jonathan Sergeant as Garrett Strange, older brother of Jaesa. Like his sister, Garrett is quiet and reserved. Though on the surface, Garrett portrays himself dutiful member of Continental society and a loyal member of the Continentalist Youth of America, he personally is opposed to the ideology and the United Commonwealth, though keeps his beliefs a secret from both his mother and Continental authorities.
Frederick Dawes as Henry Golding (Season 1), a Astorian government official. A agent of the Ministry of Internal Security, Golding is sent to investigate rumors of a supernatural occurrence in Burns.
Bryan Moore as Josiah Wells (Season 1), a Continental government official and scientist. A notable Continental scientist, Wells is head of the secret facility known as Camp 14, where the dimensional portal was opened.
Grayson Danvers as Dr. Alan Waters (Season 2-present), a Astorian scientist who becomes infatuated with the paranormal activity in Burns.
Elizabeth Turner as Meghan (Season 2-present; Season 1 recurring), a girl seemingly created in the Upside Down. Possibly mute, Meghan has supernatural abilities seemingly gifted by her time in the Upside Down.
Rosie McGanne as Commissioner Barbara Walters (Season 3-present), a Continental official and is a head officer at the Kentucky Bend, specifically its supernatural department. She is dedicated to weaponizing the Upside Down and using the dimension portal to invade and occupy the West.

Recurring

Aaron Barnes as Sgt. Marcus Strange, the husband of Johanna and father of Garrett and Jaesa. Dying years before the start of the show, Strange appears in hallucinations had by Jaesa. It is alluded that his death was possibly caused by the Upside Down.
Janice Hyde-Parker as The Entity (Season 2-present), a mysterious creature from the Upside Down, who seems to control the monsters that originate from the dark alternate dimension. The Entity exclusively speaks telepathically to Jaesa, Jordan, and Meghan.

Episodes

	Episodes	Originally released
1	13	July 3, 2016 (2016-07-03)
2	13	October 31, 2017 (2017-10-31)
3	15	December 24, 2019 (2019-12-24)
4	15	May 1, 2022 (2022-05-01)

Season 1 (2016)

Season 2 (2017)

Season 3 (2019)

Season 4 (2022)

Production

Development

Matt Ross (left) and Mark Wallace (right), the creators of the series

Peculiar Occurrences was created by Sierran director and producer Matt Ross and Continental screenwriter Mark Wallace. The two met at a horror film convention in 2006. The two would quickly bond over their love of Sierran and Continental horror, and began to develop ideas of a horror movie of their own. The two would pitch an early idea of Peculiar Occurrences, called Fearville, to both Warner Bros. Studios and Westfield Pictures in 2008, but would be turned down, largely because of its confusing plot. After being rejected by some of Sierra's major studios, Wallace would attempt to sell Fearville to Continental movie studios, most notably NBC Films, but would be turned away, mainly worried about Continental censorship over supernatural films at the time. Determined to create their horror film, Ross and Wallace would rewrite the script for Fearville a total of seven times from 2009 to 2013 before making the decision to switch to a television format, dividing the large script into separate episodes.

After several other story changes, Fearville would be renamed, and both Ross and Wallace felt confident enough to pitch the show once again. The two would present the script to a total of thirteen networks, both in Sierra and the United Commonwealth, but would be rejected by all of them. Although reasons varied, the possibility of collaborating with another foreign network would be non-negotiable for many of the networks and would typically result in a rejection. In Sierra, many of the networks believed that the show being centered around children would cause older audiences to ignore the show, and pushed for Ross and Wallace to either age the kids into their late teens or have the show focus on the adults while leaving the children as minor side characters. In the United Commonwealth, there were fears that the supernatural nature of the show, along with negative references to controversial parts of the nation's history, would result in censorship by the Continental, or any of the continental republic, governments. In 2013, Ross and Wallace would pitched the show to the newly-created Webbox Studios. Believing that they would be denied again, Ross and Wallace both planned to focus on a new project. However, executives at Webbox Studios would greenlight the project, with Webbox Studios head Marcus Kennedy believing the show had the potential to greatly benefit Webbox Studios.

The series was originally known as Strange Events. The setting was the fictional towns of West and East Kings, which was divided by the Continental-Superior border. Both West and East Kings would be centers of supernatural activity, government secrets, and untold Cold War experiments. Although both Ross and Wallace liked the idea of the story being divided between Continental and western children, they would begin to experience problems with the fictional city, with both men believing the existence of such a city would be highly irregular and inaccurate, which could put the rest of the show in jeopardy. After a second script change, the two settled on setting the show in two separate cities, New Madrid in the United Commonwealth and Burns in Astoria. In the real world, both cities are known for their supernatural legends and history.

Writing

The idea of Peculiar Occurrences, or just the general idea of a horror film set in the 1980s, began shortly after Ross work on the 2006 film Captive. Captive details the story and struggles of a father as he searches for his supernaturally gifted son after he was kidnapped. Inspired by both the supernatural plot and the length of the film (which was over 4 hours), Ross would pitch the idea of a supernatural film to Wallace, who agreed to co-produce and write. While writing the script for Fearville, Peculiar Occurrence's film predecessor, Wallace incorporated ideas from a number of early Sierran and Continental horror films. Wallace would center around the idea of the film being based around a child, and would later expand it to multiple children. In Fearville, the story was set in a small town in the Congregationalist States, but Wallace would eventually scrap the idea of the show being centered around only Continental characters, as he felt it would isolate international viewers. Along with the setting, Wallace would spend a considerable amount of time on the time period. Ross and Wallace both wanted Fearville to take place in the past, both for nostalgic and logistical purposes, as they wouldn't have to worry about the film becoming outdated in the future. Originally, Wallace was planning on setting the show in the early 1920s or 1930s, which he considered the "peak" of horror. However, Ross would object to this, believing that if they sent it too far into the past, it would become "cheesy". In 2010, both men agreed that the film would take place in the late 1970s to early 1980s.

Ross and Wallace both reportedly developed the character of Sheriff Dustin Whitter for Sierran actor Andrew Cross.

After being denied a number of times, Ross and Wallace would agree to reformat Fearville into a television show, and would eventually be greenlit by the newly-formed Webbox Studios. With Webbox as a the platform, Ross and Wallace were not limited to a typical 22-epsiode format, instead opting for a thirteen-episode approach. With thirteen episodes, Ross and Wallace believed that they would have enough time to develop characterization and their story. Ross also enjoyed choosing thirteen episodes, mainly because of the superstitions around the number 13. During the early stages of writing, both Ross and Wallace constantly feared being cancelled or put on hold by studio executives, owing to their experiences in film and with other studios. Despite their fears, there was never any plan on pausing the show, with Webbox executives relying on the show's sucess to propel their studio into the "mainstream". Worried that production would be too long, Ross and Wallace made plans to potentially scrap characterization for the show's characters in order to promote its supernatural elements. Along with that, Wallace would purposely write the show's final episode as both a "cliffhanger" and a "finale", just in case in the event the show does not get a proper ending.

Regarding writing for the children characters of the series, Ross and Wallace wanted a mix of social outcasts and popular socialites, which would be an ode to the stereotypical movie tropes of the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, while rewriting the Fearville into Peculiar Occurrences, both men decided on focusing on "normal kids", with some characters being able to be interpreted as social outcasts. In order to create realistic characters, Ross would develop the Astorian kids, while Wallace would work on the Continental kids, using their experiences of their childhood in the 1980s. According to Ross, many of the Astorian kids were based on his friends from middle school, while Wallace, who considered himself a loner during his childhood, based the Continental kids off of many of his peers he observed during his time in high school. Ross and Wallace also injected a number of 1980s pop culture while developing the characters, most notably with Wilson Maersk's love of Star Wars and Jack Reed's addiction to Landonaide, a popular beverage among Continental teens in the 80s.

Casting

While looking for a cast, both Ross and Wallace focused on hiring "small-time" actors, while only looking for well-known actors for small roles or cameos. In late 2014, it was announced that Sierran actor Andrew Cross and Continental actress Leoda Stagg would be casted as the show's main adult characters, whose names were revealed as Sheriff Dustin Whitter and Johanna Strange a few days later. Wallace reportedly wrote the character of Johanna Strange for Stagg, who was a prominent actress in the United Commonwealth for her role in a number of horror films. Cross, who worked with Ross previously, was selected for his ability to both portray the "tiredness of a forty-year old dad" and the "determination of a toddler". Cross would express his excitement for working on the show publicly on Bubbler. Stagg, who had just recently returned to acting after a decade-long hiatus, was also excited to work on the show, expressing her relief that her character wasn't a "dumb blonde", a stereotype she had played on a number of occasions.

In early 2015, William Barton, Ariana Garcia, and Justin Hopper would be casted as Wilson Maersk, Jaesa Strange, and Jordan Maine respectively. Wallace would push for Garcia's casting, as the two had experience with each other during Wallace's stint as a theatrical stage manager, while both Barton and Hopper would audition for the role. In the same period, Grayson Jones, Mark Brown, and Dylan Jack Grazter would all be casted. All of their characters would be revealed at the Peculiar Occurrences panel at San Diego Comic Con in 2015. For the main anatagonists of the show, Ross and Wallace initially casted Continental actor Nicholas Cage in the role of Henry Golding, but would have to re-cast the role after a conflict of schedules forced Cage to leave the show before production. Instead, Superian actor Frederick Dawes would be casted as Golding. Dawes previously wored with Ross on an episode of Queen of the Slope.

Release

The first season of Peculiar Occurrences consisted of thirteen episodes, primarily fifty to sixty minutes in length, which were released worldwide on Webbox on July 3, 2016 in Ultra HD 4K. The second season consisted of thirteen episodes, with each being over sixty minutes long. The second season would be released internationally on October 31, 2017 on Webbox. The third season consisted of fifteen episodes, with the finale being split into two, and was released on December 24, 2019 on Webbox internationally. Following the release of the third season, a fourth season would be announced by Webbox, which is expected to be released in two volumes, with an undisclosed amount of episodes being released on May 5, 2022, while an equal amount of episodes will be released at an undisclosed date in late 2022.

Home releases

Following the success of the first season, the entire season would be released on a Blue Ray/DVD combo pack in a number of prominent retail chains, such as Target. Both the second and third seasons would be similarly released through DVD format, and all three of the Blue Ray cases had vintage VHS case inspired packaging.

Possible television release

Following the release of the third season, it was reported that Webbox and the Sierran Broadcasting Company were in talks in allowing Peculiar Occurrences to air on SBC-affiliated channels. A similar deal was reportedly also being discussed with the Superian National Associative Broadcasting Network and the Continental NBC. In 2020, Sierran Broadcasting Company president Craig Erwich announced his excitement over the possibility of the show airing on SBC channels. As of 2022, there has yet to be a deal announced between Webbox and any of the reportedly interested networks.

Reception

Critical response

Season		Critical response
Season		Bad Apples	SigmaReviewer
	1	98% (101 reviews)	80 (31 reviews)
	2	96% (189 reviews)	76 (42 reviews)
	3	90% (116 reviews)	79 (31 reviews)
	4	92% (110 reviews)	80 (3 reviews)

Since its release, Peculiar Occurrences has received significant praise. Review aggregator Bad Apples gave the first season an approval rating of 98%, with the site's critical consensus stating: "An ode to the 80s, Peculiar Occurrences is exciting, heartbreaking, and sometimes downright scary." The Porciúncula Times has compared the show to Jon Rainier's Sit with Me, relating their nostalgic feelings towards the 1980s, while also noting societal problems in both Astoria and the United Commonwealth at the time. Review aggregator SigmaReviewer gave a general rating of 80/100 based on site reviews, praising the plot of the show, but criticizing the "nostalgic feel the show generates over the period of post-Gardner paranoia" in the United Commonwealth.

For the second season, Bad Apples gave an approval rating of 96%, with the site's critical consensus stating: "'The sophomore season of Peculiar Occurrences perfectly balances the sweetness of nostalgia and the horrors of an alternate reality where creatures of another dimension attempt to enter our own". On SigmaReviewer, the site would give the season a general rating of 76/100 based on over a 100 reviews by critics and viewers. The season would be received more negatively by prominent film review site Robin Egberts.com, who gave the season 2/5 stars, with reviewer John Patterson saying that the show "abandoned" the horrors of the first season "in an attempt to cater to the growing youth popularity of supernatural action flicks", and argued that the "constant nostalgia" towards 1980s culture was "greatly overused in an attempt to hide the show's flaws".

On Bad Apples, the third season received a general approval of 90%, with the site consensus stating: "Peculiar Occurrences continues to amaze audiences with its beautiful, yet albeit fast-paced, storytelling and perfect attention to detail". SigmaReviewer would reach a general approval of 79%, with most reviews on the platform believing that its was a "general improvement" from the second season. The same sentiment would be shared by Porciúncula Times entertainment reviewer Alyssa Bronx, who believed that the third season "returned to the show's horror roots" while also "carefully continuing the action and adventure seen in the second season".

The fourth season received a general approval of 92% on Bad Apples, with the reviewers praising the story-telling and attention to detail, while criticizing "action movie aspects" in the season finale. New Hamburg Journal Sentinel entertainment reviewer Dave Castello praised the fourth season as "the best [Peculiar Occurrences] season yet" for its visual effects and storytelling, while San Francisco Examiner reviewer Ilhan Moussa praised the season's storytelling, but criticized the "constant splitting-up" of the main characters and warned against "consistently sidelining" certain main characters. A day after the season release, SigmaReviewer barred unverified accounts from reviewing the season after it had been subjected to a review bombing campaign organized by alt-right troll Trevor XI.

Peculiar Occurrences was ranked the best television show in 2016 and 2017 by the Porciúncula Times and the Chicago Labor-Tribune.

Peculiar Occurrences

Contents

Overview