[July 31st] mark[ed] the 30th anniversary of “The Lost Boys,” the stylish 1987 horror comedy film that some say reinvigorated the vampire genre for a new generation.

“The Lost Boys” made vampire films young and sexy, and predicted books and films like the “Twilight” series, and TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “True Blood” and “The Vampire Diaries” that have given the genre a youthful spin over the past few decades.

“The Lost Boys” was convceived as a “Goonies”-esque kids adventure film, according to IndieWire, but under the direction of then largely unknown director Joel Schumacher, the movie took its darker, R-rated turn.

The movie centers brothers Michael and Sam Emerson, played by Jason Patric and the late Corey Haim, respectively, who move to the fictional, sleepy beach town of Santa Carla, California with their just-divorced mom and move in with their oddball taxidermist grandpa.

Older brother Michael falls for a girl named Star, played by Jamie Gertz, who’s attached to Kiefer Sutherland’s David. He invites Michael into his group of unusual friends and, after a bizarre initiation, Michael unwittingly becomes one of them — a vampire.

Meanwhile, Sam meets Corey Feldman’s Edgar Frog, who manages a comic store with his brother, Alan. But it’s only a cover for their true calling: hunting Santa Carla’s vampires.

Michael must try to save himself from his bloodsucking fate while also freeing Star from hers, while Sam and the Frog brothers try to put an end to David’s murderous band.

“The Lost Boys” also boasted a hit soundtrack featuring INXS, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Who’s Roger Daltrey, Foreigner’s Lou Gramm and others.

“The Lost Boys” was both a financial and critical success, and has since become a bit of a cult classic. Though a planned theatrical sequel starring Sutherland never took off, there were two forgettable, direct-to-video sequels, and even a few comic book sequels.

The worst is yet to come, or so it seems when the season 1 finale of ABC’s political thriller series “Designated Survivor” aired last week. What new conspiracies will President Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) and FBI Agent Wells (Maggie Q) be battling against in the forthcoming second season?

In season 1’s final episode, an email from Atwood (Malik Yoba) finally led to the unmasking and consequent capture of the White House mole, Whitaker (Richard Waugh), along with more than 200 of his co-conspirators across the country. This victory, however, was very quickly dampened by the fact that Lloyd (Terry Serpico) was still at large and even has gained access to the Pentagon’s most highly classified server.

This development does not only set the stage for the second season’s potential main antagonist, but it also brings to light the fact that there really is more to the conspiracy than what meets the eye. What were Whitaker, Lloyd and Lozano really planning to do? Were they at the topmost part of the villainous tier or had they merely been acting on orders from a more powerful source?

Aside from the brewing conspiracy, President Kirkman will also have to struggle through and eventually rise above more challenges and oppositions to his presidency. According to TV Line, during ABC’s Upfronts presentation last week, Sutherland shared that season 2 will see the addition of “no less than three principal characters” to help further flesh out the complexities of running the White House.

The second season will also be featuring more of the personal lives of the main characters and may even show “a midseason event that I believe will knock the socks off our audience.”

“Designated Survivor” will be holding out the same Wednesday time slot of 10 p.m. ET when it returns later this year. Channing Dungey, president of ABC Entertainment Group, shared in a statement about ABC’s 2017–2018 programming that she’s been “incredibly proud” of the series’ storytelling.

Moreover, season 2 will also be ushering in the series’ fourth showrunner in former “The Good Wife” executive producer Keith Eisner.

I’ve just updated the gallery with episode stills from the most recent episodes. Enjoy!

I’ve just updated the gallery with episode stills from the most recent episode plus some stills from the upcoming 2 episodes. Enjoy!

The massive conspiracy at the heart of Designated Survivor took a sharp turn in the past two episodes of the ABC drama, which culminated with Peter MacLeish (Ashley Zukerman), a veritable Manchurian Candidate recently appointed to the role of vice president of the U.S., getting shot to death by his own equally traitorous wife — who proceeded to then turn the gun on herself.

It was a massive moment for the ABC political thriller, an escalation of the stakes when the stakes were already tremendously high. After all, the series rests on the premise of the U.S. government’s destruction paving the way for the untested low-level secretary Tom Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) to become the president, despite his almost complete lack of political experience.

During a panel discussion with Sutherland and series creator David Guggenheim following a screening of the episode, ABC News’ Elizabeth Vargas was quick to point out that it’s not just the world of Designated Survivor that features a man without political experience as commander in chief — such is the case in the real world as well, with the election of Donald Trump. Given that parallel, and the resulting breaking news that’s occurring on a near-daily basis, how is it possible for the modern political landscape to not impact the Designated Survivor writing process?

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I’ve just updated the gallery with episode stills from the most recent episode plus tons more stills from the pilot. I will be slowly replacing medium quality stills in the gallery with high quality, as well as getting the episode screencaps up to date.