Review: Fear Itself
Posted by bob in Reviews on June 15th, 2008
We’re two episodes into NBC’s horror anthology series, Fear Itself, so now might be a good time to assess and see how well it’s working.
The biggest problem with producing a suspenseful network television series is the very nature of broadcast television (and applies to basic cable as well). You have to have breaks for commercials and therefore you’re structuring your story for the act breaks, knowing any sense of suspense is interrupted with bright, colorful and loud advertisements for product that can totally spoil the mood.
Additionally, the work of the director and crew is spoiled when the networks insist on including the colorful bumpers — advertisements for other shows on the network – in addition to the network bug, that is the ID for the channel. In this week’s “Spooked”, the screen goes black for effect but the bumper remained spoiling the moment.
Yes, Rod Serling had this issue to a lesser degree on The Twilight Zone, but our expectations were far different and his stories so masterfully told that we seemed caught up in the moment.
Also, on the other genre shows (Moonlight, Reaper) we have come to know and care about the characters and come to an episodic series with a different set of expectations. When this anthology notion was hatched as Masters of Horror for Showtime, they didn’t have the same act break, bumper or even time restrictions. Yes, it led to more gore and flesh so the team this time had to focus more on story and suspense than out and out horror, hearkening back to the TZ and Outer Limits models of superior storytelling.
And here’s where I find the show to deficient: the stories. “The Sacrifice” is a clever idea from Mick Garris that doesn’t hold on because so little is explained to round things out. For example, why does the one sister not talk and why would the father, trapped in the fort with the vampire, be a preacher when there’s no one to preach to? And what about the entire need for procreation to extend the family line? Nice directing and an interesting cast is spoiled when the story fails to keep you riveted so you don’t think of the flaws until after the final credits.
This week’s “Spooked” has a stronger story with a beginning, middle and an end but feel overstuffed with details and backstory. And the largest lingering question remains how could a house sit vacant and rotting for so long in what otherwise appears to be an affluent neighborhood? Director Brad Anderson also went for a full-color look that robbed the story of mood, lessening its overall effect and wasting a pretty great performance from Eric Roberts.
Summer is also not necessarily the optimal time for a spooky series and the ratings seem to reflect that. In its second outing, the numbers have tumbled against CBS’s first-run . At this rate, the thirteen may be the only episodes ordered, spoiling a great concept that needs a tad better execution and some network cooperation to avoid the bumps and bugs that go a long way to spoiling the mood.
What do you think?
