It was with trepidation I approached the return of Party Down. On one hand, as a devotee of the original series, I was hankering for a return of the motley crew of chaotic caterers and their cringe comedy shenanigans, which remorselessly skewered Hollywood, fame, and artistic ambition. On the other hand, not all of this crackling OG cast came back. And — more concernedly — I remember the “be careful what you wish for” fable that was the return of Arrested Development.  
Party Down Season 2 ended with the perfect mix of heartbreak, humor, and hope. Would Season 3 of this cutting STARZ sitcom be a mesmerizing new chapter? Or a reunion we’d wish we could forget? Essentially, are we having fun…still? 
It’s with great joy (and even greater relief) that I report Party Down Season 3, much like its wacky waitstaff, overcomes incredible obstacles to offer up something sweet and salty that’s totally worth savoring. 
Who returns for Season 3 of Party Down? 

Credit: STARZ

The new season kicks off with an episode called “Kyle Bradway is Nitromancer.” As the title suggests, Party Down’s resident himbo (Ryan Hansen) has hooked a role that’s got him riding high on the massive superhero movie wave. Naturally, he wants to celebrate his success — and rub it in the noses of his old co-workers. 
With a big smile and too much zeal, Ron Donald (Ken Marino) leads his team of pink bow-tied staff, which still includes ornery sci-fi writer Roman DeBeers (Martin Starr), who has only grown more bitter with age. Former starlet turned wealthy trophy wife Constance Carmell (Jane Lynch) is happy to toast alongside stage mom turned momager Lydia Dunfree (Megan Mullally). But both lament that actor turned teacher Henry Pollard (Adam Scott) is robbed of the chance to reconnect with his will-they-won’t-they work crush Casey Klein (as Lizzy Caplan has not returned). 
Fret not for Henry. He’s got a new love interest lined up in the form of a smart but self-doubting movie exec played by Jennifer Garner. An actress most known for rom-com whimsy, she’s an unexpected pick for this famously sarcastic comedy show. And admittedly, Garner and Scott don’t possess the level of chaotic sexual chemistry that he and Caplan did. Perhaps it’s unfair to assume anyone could really compete with dirty talk that involves pancakes and Mrs. Butterworth roleplay. Still, there’s something there. Garner brings a hint of sweetness while Scott brings a sharp edge, bolstered by a complicated meet-cute and a fractured flirtation. Garner makes for a sparkling addition to the cast, leaning into the show’s ruthless humor and earnest hope for Henry to finally get a win, be it in romance or in Hollywood. 
Who is new to Party Down in Season 3? 

Joining Garner as a newly minted regular are Tyrel Jackson Williams and Zoe Chao (The After Party) as a pair of Party Down employees with contemporary quirks. 
Forget movie stardom — that’s an ambition for millennials. As Sackson, Williams represents the Gen Z dream to be a big Content Creator. His craft is TikTok vids and memes, and he’ll crash celebrity bathrooms and take ill-advised drug trips to chase the dopamine high of going viral. Williams has a breezy charm that plays perfectly here, as well as shaming reaction shots that scored a scream-laugh from me. His character allows the Party Down writers to dig into a new branch of Hollywood bullshit, as well as providing a mirror to Kyle’s ambition that’s often not flattering. Kyle is no longer the hot young stud. The rivalry that brews between the two dips into hilarious competitions and occasionally fraught bonding, much like Kyle and Roman had in the OG series. 
Roman has a potential new buddy in Lucy Dang (Chao), a chef whose concept of cutting edge is making a cake that reminds the eater of death. (She’d fit in well with The Menu.) As she explains with a wickedly funny intensity, it is birthday cake. Mortality personified by a filling of stinky cheese is precisely the point! Whether Roman is attracted to her rebelliousness or her distaste for Ron (or both!), the two spark an intriguing chemistry that isn’t exactly romantic…but maybe could be? 
Also on board for Season 3 are a selection of celebrity guest stars, which include Abbott Elementary’s Quinta Brunson as a predictably opportunistic agent, Dead to Me’s James Marsden as a cocky mega-star, The Last of Us’s Nick Offerman as a deeply problematic foodie, and Yellowjackets’ Liv Hewson as a former child star under pressure. 
As with the first two seasons, each episode centers on a new catering gig, ushering audiences behind the scenes of a star-studded party, a eyebrow-raising political rally, and a promotional event modeled after a prom. Within each celebration, the Party Down crew finds new ways to make a fool of themselves, and they have us cringing and cackling along the way. 
How does Party Down Season 3 compare to the original series? 
It’s a tricky question I asked myself throughout watching the five (out of six) episodes released to critics. As a fan, it’s undoubtedly a thrill, not only to see these characters again but also to see this astounding ensemble reunited. None of the returning cast misses a beat at falling back into the stride of these lovable losers. Actually, Ken Marino throws himself so entirely into the embarrassments and pratfalls of the perpetually failing Ron that I hope he got hazard pay. 
However, picking up this show 12 years later means that to stay true to its tone and message, its heroes can’t have had big wins in the interim. Broken dreams, divorce, regrets, and public apologies all come into play as Season 3 re-establishes its world. There’s just something sadder about forty-somethings still grasping for the brass ring. Maybe we’d like to think they’d either have made it by now or moved on. While most of these dreamers look up so intensely that they can’t acknowledge they’re on the edge of abject failure, Henry Pollard knows it. And Scott makes us feel it. 
Scott, who’s steadily built a solid career as a quirky leading man with roles on Parks and Recreation and Severance, is once more Party Down’s dark soul and hopeful heart. In Henry’s new romance with a woman who is way out of his league, there’s ever the threat that he’ll be dumped and worse off than before. But for all his proclaimed cynicism — and that of the show’s — there’s a glimmer that maybe this time (I’ll be lucky!). Scott initially grounds us in Henry’s resignation, then his fragile hope, and even moments of vulnerable joy. And all of this is where Season 3 feels vital. Also, John Enbom’s writing team is still delivering twists that are wickedly, darkly, deeply funny. The final reveal of episode one is gold, pitching audiences right back into the sick swoon of this bittersweet comedy series. 
Want more about the latest in entertainment? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter today.
Sure, I miss Caplan’s snarling smirk and electric screen presence. But the show addresses her absence with a whip-smart condemnation from Roman pointed directly at the shippers who can’t let go. It’s me. And it stings. But he’s right. In the world of Party Down, there’s never just one shot at the dream. The problem is that the second, third, and 18th shots may also be misses, and with each one, it’s harder to pick yourself up. Season 3 recognizes this too, nodding along with us as we cringe over another crushing defeat, before offering us a minor victory as a little treat. Or maybe as a lure? Like the characters who can’t stop dreaming big no matter how often they face a rude awakening, we can’t help but hope their fates will change — and that this show will abruptly give us a happily ever after. 
As I haven’t seen the finale, I can’t assure you what may come for Henry and the Party Down crew. But I can promise you that if you loved the original series, you’ll relish every twisted episode of Season 3, death cake and all. 
Party Down Season 3 debuts on on STARZ on Feb. 24 at 9:00 PM ET/PT and will be available on the STARZ app.  

It was with trepidation I approached the return of Party Down. On one hand, as a devotee of the original series, I was hankering for a return of the motley crew of chaotic caterers and their cringe comedy shenanigans, which remorselessly skewered Hollywood, fame, and artistic ambition. On the other hand, not all of this crackling OG cast came back. And — more concernedly — I remember the “be careful what you wish for” fable that was the return of Arrested Development.  

Party Down Season 2 ended with the perfect mix of heartbreak, humor, and hope. Would Season 3 of this cutting STARZ sitcom be a mesmerizing new chapter? Or a reunion we’d wish we could forget? Essentially, are we having fun…still? 

It’s with great joy (and even greater relief) that I report Party Down Season 3, much like its wacky waitstaff, overcomes incredible obstacles to offer up something sweet and salty that’s totally worth savoring. 

Who returns for Season 3 of Party Down? 

The new season kicks off with an episode called “Kyle Bradway is Nitromancer.” As the title suggests, Party Down‘s resident himbo (Ryan Hansen) has hooked a role that’s got him riding high on the massive superhero movie wave. Naturally, he wants to celebrate his success — and rub it in the noses of his old co-workers. 

With a big smile and too much zeal, Ron Donald (Ken Marino) leads his team of pink bow-tied staff, which still includes ornery sci-fi writer Roman DeBeers (Martin Starr), who has only grown more bitter with age. Former starlet turned wealthy trophy wife Constance Carmell (Jane Lynch) is happy to toast alongside stage mom turned momager Lydia Dunfree (Megan Mullally). But both lament that actor turned teacher Henry Pollard (Adam Scott) is robbed of the chance to reconnect with his will-they-won’t-they work crush Casey Klein (as Lizzy Caplan has not returned). 

Fret not for Henry. He’s got a new love interest lined up in the form of a smart but self-doubting movie exec played by Jennifer Garner. An actress most known for rom-com whimsy, she’s an unexpected pick for this famously sarcastic comedy show. And admittedly, Garner and Scott don’t possess the level of chaotic sexual chemistry that he and Caplan did. Perhaps it’s unfair to assume anyone could really compete with dirty talk that involves pancakes and Mrs. Butterworth roleplay. Still, there’s something there. Garner brings a hint of sweetness while Scott brings a sharp edge, bolstered by a complicated meet-cute and a fractured flirtation. Garner makes for a sparkling addition to the cast, leaning into the show’s ruthless humor and earnest hope for Henry to finally get a win, be it in romance or in Hollywood. 

Who is new to Party Down in Season 3? 

Joining Garner as a newly minted regular are Tyrel Jackson Williams and Zoe Chao (The After Party) as a pair of Party Down employees with contemporary quirks. 

Forget movie stardom — that’s an ambition for millennials. As Sackson, Williams represents the Gen Z dream to be a big Content Creator. His craft is TikTok vids and memes, and he’ll crash celebrity bathrooms and take ill-advised drug trips to chase the dopamine high of going viral. Williams has a breezy charm that plays perfectly here, as well as shaming reaction shots that scored a scream-laugh from me. His character allows the Party Down writers to dig into a new branch of Hollywood bullshit, as well as providing a mirror to Kyle’s ambition that’s often not flattering. Kyle is no longer the hot young stud. The rivalry that brews between the two dips into hilarious competitions and occasionally fraught bonding, much like Kyle and Roman had in the OG series. 

Roman has a potential new buddy in Lucy Dang (Chao), a chef whose concept of cutting edge is making a cake that reminds the eater of death. (She’d fit in well with The Menu.) As she explains with a wickedly funny intensity, it is birthday cake. Mortality personified by a filling of stinky cheese is precisely the point! Whether Roman is attracted to her rebelliousness or her distaste for Ron (or both!), the two spark an intriguing chemistry that isn’t exactly romantic…but maybe could be? 

Also on board for Season 3 are a selection of celebrity guest stars, which include Abbott Elementary‘s Quinta Brunson as a predictably opportunistic agent, Dead to Me‘s James Marsden as a cocky mega-star, The Last of Us‘s Nick Offerman as a deeply problematic foodie, and Yellowjackets‘ Liv Hewson as a former child star under pressure. 

As with the first two seasons, each episode centers on a new catering gig, ushering audiences behind the scenes of a star-studded party, a eyebrow-raising political rally, and a promotional event modeled after a prom. Within each celebration, the Party Down crew finds new ways to make a fool of themselves, and they have us cringing and cackling along the way. 

How does Party Down Season 3 compare to the original series? 

It’s a tricky question I asked myself throughout watching the five (out of six) episodes released to critics. As a fan, it’s undoubtedly a thrill, not only to see these characters again but also to see this astounding ensemble reunited. None of the returning cast misses a beat at falling back into the stride of these lovable losers. Actually, Ken Marino throws himself so entirely into the embarrassments and pratfalls of the perpetually failing Ron that I hope he got hazard pay. 

However, picking up this show 12 years later means that to stay true to its tone and message, its heroes can’t have had big wins in the interim. Broken dreams, divorce, regrets, and public apologies all come into play as Season 3 re-establishes its world. There’s just something sadder about forty-somethings still grasping for the brass ring. Maybe we’d like to think they’d either have made it by now or moved on. While most of these dreamers look up so intensely that they can’t acknowledge they’re on the edge of abject failure, Henry Pollard knows it. And Scott makes us feel it. 

Scott, who’s steadily built a solid career as a quirky leading man with roles on Parks and Recreation and Severance, is once more Party Down’s dark soul and hopeful heart. In Henry’s new romance with a woman who is way out of his league, there’s ever the threat that he’ll be dumped and worse off than before. But for all his proclaimed cynicism — and that of the show’s — there’s a glimmer that maybe this time (I’ll be lucky!). Scott initially grounds us in Henry’s resignation, then his fragile hope, and even moments of vulnerable joy. And all of this is where Season 3 feels vital. Also, John Enbom’s writing team is still delivering twists that are wickedly, darkly, deeply funny. The final reveal of episode one is gold, pitching audiences right back into the sick swoon of this bittersweet comedy series. 

Want more about the latest in entertainment? Sign up for Mashable’s Top Stories newsletter today.

Sure, I miss Caplan’s snarling smirk and electric screen presence. But the show addresses her absence with a whip-smart condemnation from Roman pointed directly at the shippers who can’t let go. It’s me. And it stings. But he’s right. In the world of Party Down, there’s never just one shot at the dream. The problem is that the second, third, and 18th shots may also be misses, and with each one, it’s harder to pick yourself up. Season 3 recognizes this too, nodding along with us as we cringe over another crushing defeat, before offering us a minor victory as a little treat. Or maybe as a lure? Like the characters who can’t stop dreaming big no matter how often they face a rude awakening, we can’t help but hope their fates will change — and that this show will abruptly give us a happily ever after. 

As I haven’t seen the finale, I can’t assure you what may come for Henry and the Party Down crew. But I can promise you that if you loved the original series, you’ll relish every twisted episode of Season 3, death cake and all. 

Party Down Season 3 debuts on on STARZ on Feb. 24 at 9:00 PM ET/PT and will be available on the STARZ app.  

Read More 

You might see the final moment of The Strays coming, but you’ll still try to convince yourself you’re wrong, right up until that UberEats driver’s engine starts.
Writer/director Nathaniel Martello-White’s four-act social thriller examines race, class, and generational trauma, pivoting between perspectives and leading to the film’s tense finale that’s less family reunion, more home invasion. Streaming on Netflix, The Strays is the feature-length directorial debut of the British actor and playwright, whose celebrated plays including Blackta and Torn have examined racial politics, mixed-race families, and the deep effects of trauma. 

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Expanding on these themes for The Strays, Martello-White takes cues from Jordan Peele’s thrillers Get Out and Us, but also counts influences as wide ranging as Michael Haneke’s Funny Games and Hidden, David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, and Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
“I’ve always loved suburban thrillers, when crazy shit goes down in white picket fence neighbourhoods, I just love that. I don’t know why,” said Martello-White while onstage at The Strays preview at the British Film Institute in London. “There’s something about that perfection and that order that brings us closer to the characters before the drama takes off.”
What is The Strays about?

Ashley Madekwe as Neve. And Cheryl.
Credit: Chris Harris/Netflix

The protagonist, Neve, is a complex character played by County Lines star Ashley Madekwe. Living in an upper middle class, predominantly white, country neighbourhood with her husband Ian (Justin Salinger) and her teen children Sebastian and Mary (Samuel Small and Maria Almeida), Neve is the deputy head of a fancy private school. Ready to throw her first gala as a “graduation” into the community and daily practising her posh British accent, Neve prioritises code-switching and doing anything she can to blend in. She internalises racist microaggressions from her peers and remains determined to keep “anything Black off limits,” as her son Sebastian explains it. 
However, we’ve already met Neve in the prologue and in another life as Cheryl, a woman who flees an abusive relationship, systemic inequality, and economic instability in the city. Literal cracks start to form in her facade when two strangers named Abigail and Marvin (the incredibly talented Bukky Bakray and Jorden Myrie, respectively) show up in their small town.
Who are the “strangers” in The Strays?

Bukky Bakray as Abigail/Dione.
Credit: Chris Harris/Netflix

Told from a constantly shifting perspective, The Strays eventually reveals the true identity of the pair: They’re Carl and Dione, Neve’s children from her abusive relationship who were left behind with their aunt 20 years ago. They’re curious to meet their replacements, Sebastian and Mary, and are keen to demand answers from their mother for their abandonment and erasure. It’s here The Strays goes beyond the Jordan Peele tense horror of it all to create unique, nuanced, highly complicated characters in Neve/Cheryl, Marvin/Carl, and Abigail/Dione. 
In the production notes, Martello-White explained he came up with the idea for the film from a real story he’d heard about a biracial woman who’d had two sets of children, one Black and one white-passing. Like the twist of The Strays, she had refused to acknowledge her first pair of kids. “When I was told that story, it really stayed with me. The idea of this woman who was so caught up in shame that she would deny the existence of her Black children,” he said.
Rocks star Bakray takes on the childlike Abigail, who curiously meets, befriends, and interrogates her replacement, Mary.
“I think I resonated with Abigail’s rage — or Dione’s rage,” Bakray told the BFI audience. “A synonym for rage is passion, and being someone whose passion has been translated as rage, it was an interesting and empathetic process getting into Abigail…having to mould yourself into a rageful self, and understanding that that rage is going to be translated as this kind of barbaric anger when it stems from trauma.”

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Abigail/Dione and Marvin/Carl are both processing deep trauma and abandonment in The Strays, having been left by their mother and replaced with a whole new family. It’s this motivation that complicates the film as a thriller, as the trailer, marketing, and events of the film present the siblings as menacing threats to Neve’s controlled life. But is it that straightforward?
“Everyone sees it as a thriller, and it’s like [Dione and Carl] are crazy,” says Bakray. “But the word ‘crazy’ was never used when we were approaching these characters. It really made me realise that everyone that we see today who can look really barbaric and translated as they’ve ‘lost their mind’ and their actions don’t make sense to everyday, made me realise that maybe with those people, we just haven’t seen the build-up. Becoming the character, I felt the build-up, I understood the build-up…It was more about an understanding of empathy, extending my empathy, and extending my understanding.”

Jorden Myrie as Marvin/Carl.
Credit: Chris Harris/Netflix

Myrie takes on the other stranger, Carl, with a performance of staggering range, desperately wanting to understand his mother’s actions while not letting her off the hook for the pain she’s caused.
“The interesting thing between Marvin and Neve is that they’re the monsters in each other’s stories,” Myrie told the BFI. “He’s motivated by pain. He just wants answers, ultimately, but I think in the search for that he doesn’t know what he wants, really…When he meets Sebastian, that rocks his plan and his mentality towards what he’s about to do.
“With Marvin, it’s very easy to see him as just an angry person, but I definitely think it’s so much deeper than that. You can see he’s gone through so much trauma. It’s had a deep effect on him, his mother leaving. The difference between himself and Abigail is that he was old enough to take that in as a core memory. He has a memory of his mother, and he’s idealised that in a way.”
What happens at the end of The Strays?

The final act, “Family Reunion,” is technically that.
Credit: Chris Harris/Netflix

In the final chapter titled “Family Reunion,” Carl and Dione execute their plan: to get the whole gang together for quality family time. But it’s a little more forced than that, as the pair undertake a Funny Games-style home invasion sequence, flooding the house and demanding birthday activities for Dione, who’s donned a shiny party hat. Neve’s attempts to buy the pair off earlier in the film have landed as an insult, and the siblings instead force their way into the family, making them play Scrabble and order Chinese food for delivery — seizing the family life they’ve been denied. “We must have missed a fair few board games. On Christmases and birthdays,” Carl says in the scene. Truths come out about Cheryl’s actions, and it doesn’t end well for Ian, who meets a violent end in the home gym under Carl’s orders.
The final scene on the shooting schedule and the only one that involved the entire cast, the home invasion sequence involved long, continuous takes in a waterlogged set. At one point Neve vomits into the water, overwhelmed with the reality of her children’s presence.
“I don’t want you to think that was fresh water every take,” said Madekwe at the BFI preview. “We all were in my throw-up. Great bonding.”
Much like the plays Martello-White is used to, the cast ran the whole scene through for each take, performing it a total of 26 times.
“Every take that we shot was a full 18 minutes, so we had a lot of rehearsal,” said Madekwe. “I was really daunted by the idea of it, but when it came to it, when we were doing the rehearsal with everyone, with all of the crew, every department there, it became like this dance.”
The most shocking turn, however, is not Ian’s horrendous death. Seeing an opportunity for personal escape through the innocent UberEats delivery driver who comes to the door during the home invasion, Neve calmly retrieves her wallet and jacket from upstairs, feigning a tip for the driver, and leaves with him. The Strays ends with all four of her children standing aghast and abandoned with each other, listening to the sound of a motorbike driving away. 
Why does Neve leave at the end?

“It’s Neve versus everyone else, and she always picks herself.”
Credit: Chris Harris/Netflix

As a character study, Neve’s leaving makes sense, as chilling as it is to watch. Desperately trying to maintain control, Neve has spent decades burying her emotions, playing along, and finding the best way to personally come out on top — including in this final sequence. Without checking, Neve knows her husband Ian is dead, and instead goes to the table where her children are sitting, offering an apology: “I’m sorry for the way this has turned out. I hope one day you can forgive me.” It’s left ambiguous who she’s speaking to, whether to Dione or Sebastian and Mary, but it’s clear she’s about to cut and run.
For the character motivation of Neve/Cheryl, Madekwe and Martello-White had a slogan: “Me versus you.” 
“It’s Neve versus everyone else, and she always picks herself,” Madekwe said onstage. The Strays preempts this decision with Cheryl’s initial decision to leave her children behind to save herself, reinforcing flight over fight as the character’s key motivation.
“That ending was always going to be really tricky,” said Martello-White. “It’s quite a bold way to end the movie, but it feels like some people just are what they are, and they just return to that. She leaves at the beginning of the movie, and she leaves at the end.”
“You wanted it to be more ambiguous at [one] point, didn’t you?” said Madekwe. “You were playing around with different versions of it. But I think in my heart, when I read it, I thought, she is gone.”
“She’s gone,” agreed said Martello-White. “I think she realises in that home invasion, that it’s just beyond repair.”
The Strays is now streaming on Netflix.

You might see the final moment of The Strays coming, but you’ll still try to convince yourself you’re wrong, right up until that UberEats driver’s engine starts.

Writer/director Nathaniel Martello-White’s four-act social thriller examines race, class, and generational trauma, pivoting between perspectives and leading to the film’s tense finale that’s less family reunion, more home invasion. Streaming on Netflix, The Strays is the feature-length directorial debut of the British actor and playwright, whose celebrated plays including Blackta and Torn have examined racial politics, mixed-race families, and the deep effects of trauma. 

Expanding on these themes for The Strays, Martello-White takes cues from Jordan Peele’s thrillers Get Out and Us, but also counts influences as wide ranging as Michael Haneke’s Funny Games and Hidden, David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, and Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

“I’ve always loved suburban thrillers, when crazy shit goes down in white picket fence neighbourhoods, I just love that. I don’t know why,” said Martello-White while onstage at The Strays preview at the British Film Institute in London. “There’s something about that perfection and that order that brings us closer to the characters before the drama takes off.”

What is The Strays about?

The protagonist, Neve, is a complex character played by County Lines star Ashley Madekwe. Living in an upper middle class, predominantly white, country neighbourhood with her husband Ian (Justin Salinger) and her teen children Sebastian and Mary (Samuel Small and Maria Almeida), Neve is the deputy head of a fancy private school. Ready to throw her first gala as a “graduation” into the community and daily practising her posh British accent, Neve prioritises code-switching and doing anything she can to blend in. She internalises racist microaggressions from her peers and remains determined to keep “anything Black off limits,” as her son Sebastian explains it. 

However, we’ve already met Neve in the prologue and in another life as Cheryl, a woman who flees an abusive relationship, systemic inequality, and economic instability in the city. Literal cracks start to form in her facade when two strangers named Abigail and Marvin (the incredibly talented Bukky Bakray and Jorden Myrie, respectively) show up in their small town.

Who are the “strangers” in The Strays?

Told from a constantly shifting perspective, The Strays eventually reveals the true identity of the pair: They’re Carl and Dione, Neve’s children from her abusive relationship who were left behind with their aunt 20 years ago. They’re curious to meet their replacements, Sebastian and Mary, and are keen to demand answers from their mother for their abandonment and erasure. It’s here The Strays goes beyond the Jordan Peele tense horror of it all to create unique, nuanced, highly complicated characters in Neve/Cheryl, Marvin/Carl, and Abigail/Dione. 

In the production notes, Martello-White explained he came up with the idea for the film from a real story he’d heard about a biracial woman who’d had two sets of children, one Black and one white-passing. Like the twist of The Strays, she had refused to acknowledge her first pair of kids. “When I was told that story, it really stayed with me. The idea of this woman who was so caught up in shame that she would deny the existence of her Black children,” he said.

Rocks star Bakray takes on the childlike Abigail, who curiously meets, befriends, and interrogates her replacement, Mary.

“I think I resonated with Abigail’s rage — or Dione’s rage,” Bakray told the BFI audience. “A synonym for rage is passion, and being someone whose passion has been translated as rage, it was an interesting and empathetic process getting into Abigail…having to mould yourself into a rageful self, and understanding that that rage is going to be translated as this kind of barbaric anger when it stems from trauma.”

Abigail/Dione and Marvin/Carl are both processing deep trauma and abandonment in The Strays, having been left by their mother and replaced with a whole new family. It’s this motivation that complicates the film as a thriller, as the trailer, marketing, and events of the film present the siblings as menacing threats to Neve’s controlled life. But is it that straightforward?

“Everyone sees it as a thriller, and it’s like [Dione and Carl] are crazy,” says Bakray. “But the word ‘crazy’ was never used when we were approaching these characters. It really made me realise that everyone that we see today who can look really barbaric and translated as they’ve ‘lost their mind’ and their actions don’t make sense to everyday, made me realise that maybe with those people, we just haven’t seen the build-up. Becoming the character, I felt the build-up, I understood the build-up…It was more about an understanding of empathy, extending my empathy, and extending my understanding.”

Myrie takes on the other stranger, Carl, with a performance of staggering range, desperately wanting to understand his mother’s actions while not letting her off the hook for the pain she’s caused.

“The interesting thing between Marvin and Neve is that they’re the monsters in each other’s stories,” Myrie told the BFI. “He’s motivated by pain. He just wants answers, ultimately, but I think in the search for that he doesn’t know what he wants, really…When he meets Sebastian, that rocks his plan and his mentality towards what he’s about to do.

“With Marvin, it’s very easy to see him as just an angry person, but I definitely think it’s so much deeper than that. You can see he’s gone through so much trauma. It’s had a deep effect on him, his mother leaving. The difference between himself and Abigail is that he was old enough to take that in as a core memory. He has a memory of his mother, and he’s idealised that in a way.”

What happens at the end of The Strays?

In the final chapter titled “Family Reunion,” Carl and Dione execute their plan: to get the whole gang together for quality family time. But it’s a little more forced than that, as the pair undertake a Funny Games-style home invasion sequence, flooding the house and demanding birthday activities for Dione, who’s donned a shiny party hat. Neve’s attempts to buy the pair off earlier in the film have landed as an insult, and the siblings instead force their way into the family, making them play Scrabble and order Chinese food for delivery — seizing the family life they’ve been denied. “We must have missed a fair few board games. On Christmases and birthdays,” Carl says in the scene. Truths come out about Cheryl’s actions, and it doesn’t end well for Ian, who meets a violent end in the home gym under Carl’s orders.

The final scene on the shooting schedule and the only one that involved the entire cast, the home invasion sequence involved long, continuous takes in a waterlogged set. At one point Neve vomits into the water, overwhelmed with the reality of her children’s presence.

“I don’t want you to think that was fresh water every take,” said Madekwe at the BFI preview. “We all were in my throw-up. Great bonding.”

Much like the plays Martello-White is used to, the cast ran the whole scene through for each take, performing it a total of 26 times.

“Every take that we shot was a full 18 minutes, so we had a lot of rehearsal,” said Madekwe. “I was really daunted by the idea of it, but when it came to it, when we were doing the rehearsal with everyone, with all of the crew, every department there, it became like this dance.”

The most shocking turn, however, is not Ian’s horrendous death. Seeing an opportunity for personal escape through the innocent UberEats delivery driver who comes to the door during the home invasion, Neve calmly retrieves her wallet and jacket from upstairs, feigning a tip for the driver, and leaves with him. The Strays ends with all four of her children standing aghast and abandoned with each other, listening to the sound of a motorbike driving away. 

Why does Neve leave at the end?

As a character study, Neve’s leaving makes sense, as chilling as it is to watch. Desperately trying to maintain control, Neve has spent decades burying her emotions, playing along, and finding the best way to personally come out on top — including in this final sequence. Without checking, Neve knows her husband Ian is dead, and instead goes to the table where her children are sitting, offering an apology: “I’m sorry for the way this has turned out. I hope one day you can forgive me.” It’s left ambiguous who she’s speaking to, whether to Dione or Sebastian and Mary, but it’s clear she’s about to cut and run.

For the character motivation of Neve/Cheryl, Madekwe and Martello-White had a slogan: “Me versus you.” 

“It’s Neve versus everyone else, and she always picks herself,” Madekwe said onstage. The Strays preempts this decision with Cheryl’s initial decision to leave her children behind to save herself, reinforcing flight over fight as the character’s key motivation.

“That ending was always going to be really tricky,” said Martello-White. “It’s quite a bold way to end the movie, but it feels like some people just are what they are, and they just return to that. She leaves at the beginning of the movie, and she leaves at the end.”

“You wanted it to be more ambiguous at [one] point, didn’t you?” said Madekwe. “You were playing around with different versions of it. But I think in my heart, when I read it, I thought, she is gone.”

“She’s gone,” agreed said Martello-White. “I think she realises in that home invasion, that it’s just beyond repair.”

The Strays is now streaming on Netflix.

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