Before getting to the themed bulk of this week's piece, I want to follow up one of last week's tips: The second season of Reservation Dogs (on Hulu) wrapped this week, and remains both funny and touching. While I like aspects of most of the characters, I emerge from the second season with Cheese (more formally Chester, played by Lane Factor) as my favorite character. At first they played him in a more forced way, with a formulaic introduction in which he identifies himself, including his pronouns, which seemed a little programmed. While part of the core group, he's initially the most peripheral. Still we see more genuine depth as the second season rolls on, particularly one episode in which he's innocently swept up and into a dehumanizing, institutional situation. A calm and ultimately calming presence, he weathers adversity with grace, and elevates those fortunate enough to spend real time with him. I know people who won't take to it as smoothly as I did, especially those who would expect there to be at least one, intractable, unrelenting and sadistic bully, but it worked for me because all of the others there came up through variations of life on the Rez. There will be days to come when I'll take a slow, deep breath, and ask myself "What would Cheese do?" and I might better for it.
Early on Tuesday September 27th, the show was formally renewed for a third season.
Over the past year and a half I've frequently seen and heard the phrase "spooky season" bandied about -- sometimes strictly limiting it to October, sometimes (and it seems more originally) as something by rabidly avid fall season enthusiasts, who try to kick it off as early as July 5th, with the 4th being the last general decorated-for holiday here in the U.S. until Halloween. Those with more of a fixation on round numbers mark it as starting July 23rd, which is 100 days 'til Halloween. Seems a bit extreme, but we all have our favorite times of year, and I won't begrudge anyone their attempt to spread their joy out over a wider span. Any small thing we can do to make opening our eyes for the day a little more welcome... is always welcome. Regardless, tomorrow is October 1st, and I'm in favor of letting the entire month be presided over by spooks, and monsters -- all of fictional basis, of course. There are too many monsters at large in the real world, and I'm hoping we see as many of them as possible (metaphorically) slain at the ballot box come November 8th.
While not necessarily a binding theme for this week's post (though at this point in the draft it's working out that way), this kick-off of October includes some seasonably supernatural fare.
The CBS supernatural sitcom Ghosts returned last night for the start of it's second season, picking up smoothly from the end of the first.
It was reportedly a strong ratings addition last year, and so was quickly picked up for season two. That's the U.S. version of a Brit series. Key to each is a young couple looking to turn a recent inherited estate into a bed and breakfast, only to have the wife's momentary death and resuscitation allow her to see and hear the ghosts who are geographically bound to the property. The ghosts are generally delighted to have some degree of agency in the world of the living, but especially at first are less than thrilled with the prospect of groups of strangers invading their space, especially as having the living walk through them is an unpleasant sensation for them.
I included a section on the shows this past November, including info on both the U.S. series and the British original. It's near the end of that piece. All episodes to date of the U.S. version are available on Paramount+, while the U.K. version's three seasons (so far) are over on HBO Max. Here's the first trailer for season two of the U.S. version:
Similarly, and the first season covered earlier in that same late-November 2021 post linked above, next Wednesday will see the start of the second season of the Chucky series return to Syfy. This continuation of the story of a serial killer who transferred his consciousness and life force into a doll was a surprise hit last year. Here's the season two trailer:
In a goofier, campier vein, last week I mentioned how Rob Zombie's (he wrote the screenplay, directed, and even cast his wife as the female lead) movie version of The Munsters was to hit Netflix this past Tuesday. On a whim I gave it a look (really, there's so much I'll do to avoid doing the things I'm supposed to be doing), and I while I fell asleep midway through on the first pass, I finished it the next day, and was somewhat surprised how clearly a true fan project this was. Rob clearly was and is a big fan of the mid-sixties sitcom, and what he's written and directed is very much in the spirit, for good or ill, of that show.
Essentially what he did was give them a detailed origin. Among the things we learn are (retooled for some reason from what I recall from the show) Herman's creation, how he and Lily met, their courtship, how they came to leave the old country and come to the U.S., how they came to live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane, Herman getting his job at Gateman, Goodbury & Graves, how they found Spot (their pet, fire-breathing dragon), and even gave us a backstory on the Count's bat, Igor. Clearly, young Rob spent a lot of time daydreaming about the Munsters.
So this is us getting to know them when they were relatively young, well before they had their son, Eddie. The humor's all very much at the simple-minded level of the original show, so most of us will have no laugh out loud moments, with the attempts at jokes both telegraphed and belabored. Still, there's something charming in it all, coming from Rob Zombie, whose nihilistic House of 1000 Corpses (2003) remains a firm film regret for me.
Again, and for the last time, here's the trailer for The Munsters (2022 110 m) Some minor fun is in spotting who some of the people are under their garish makeup. Well, it was for me. Again, though, the "comedy" is very 60s tv cornball, in line with the source show. I don't know that it's a viable watch for anyone who doesn't clearly remember the show with some embedded, nostalgic fondness.
Coming to AMC Sunday night at 10 Eastern (with multiple replays) is the new series adapting Anne Rice's Interview With A Vampire. A seven-episode first season (conflicts between reviewer info and imdb entry, which references eight episodes), as it's on AMC the drive will be to turn each viewer into an AMC+ subscriber. So, as soon as the first episode ends you can count on them telling you that if you sign up for AMC+ you'll be able to watch episode 2 right away.
I'll note ahead of time that the announcement came down several days ahead of the first airing that they've already greenlit season two.
This adaptation will be a strong departure in detail from Rice's 1976 novel, in everything from race, age, and time period of origin for Louis, the titular vampire. Instead of a young, white, plantation owner in 1791, the Louis of this series (at the point of his vampiric rebirth) is a 33 year-old, black, creole businessman in 1910. Here's the series trailer:
The
stalwarts for the first season are Lestat de Lioncourt (played by Sam
Reid), Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), and reporter Daniel
Molloy (Eric Bogosian).
This
is part of a larger development deal Anne Rice signed with AMC before
her death last year, once all the rights reverted to her once the
contract with Universal elapsed. Whereas most of Rice's vampire works were told from the perspective of the much older Lestat, Interview is all about Louis' experiences. Working diligently to fill the streamer's vaults, with AMC about to lose the main series of The Walking Dead
(ending with this season), they're anxious to develop new continuing
series with devoted fan bases. While it will ultimately depend upon the
strength of viewer response, the intent is not only for this series to
last seven or eight seasons, but also for a variety of other series
based on Rice's novels to do the same. Currently in development is a
similar adaptation of Lives of the Mayfair Witches.
So, the planned beginning for an adapted Anne Rice universe.
I'm
frequently presented with situations where someone's much-beloved movie
or tv series is something I've never taken the time to see, or for some
other reason have avoided. Particularly in the age of social media,
where people band together and bind themselves with nostalgic memes,
there's a lingua franca many people find in dropped references to
one of these. In some cases they're so common that I've picked up a
working knowledge simply from the frequent references, as with those to The NeverEnding Story (1984). Especially around this time of year, one of the frequently-mentioned, seasonal, fan favorite films is Hocus Pocus
(1993). Fans (the eighties kids ones) generally remark how it was one
of the scarier things they were allowed to watch back in the day.
Celebrating its 29th year, it's much-beloved by its fans. Well, this
year - today in fact - they're finally getting a direct-to-streaming
(Disney+) sequel as the children-hungry Sanderson sisters are summoned
into the present again in Hocus Pocus 2 (2022 1h 47m)
Bette
Midler, Sara Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy and Doug Jones reprise their
roles from the earlier film. Different screenwriter and director. I've
no clear idea how well or poorly it'll stack up to the original -
usually these things can't help but go at least a little awry, as they
have to decide whether they're simply going to try to rehash the
original, or if they genuinely have something of interest to add - be it
by fleshing out backstories or forging a new path.
Disney+ has the lock on all of it.
In it, Cooper plays Leon, a photographer who wants to capture the gritty aspects of the city. A lack of serious attention for his work, along with a criticism that he's not taking sufficient risks, drives him to take to the shadows of the subway system at night. This leads to clues that there have been a long string of disappearances which he connects to a butcher named Mahogany. His appeals to police detectives go nowhere, and those close to him begin to become concerned as Leon becomes obsessed with the matter as his sense that there's a cover-up and a conspiracy at work. Here's the trailer: Distributed by Lion's Gate, Barker was upset by both an initial release delay and a subsequently extremely limited release (roughly 100 screens) with a quick path to home video. He attributed that to studio president Joe Drake's kickback scheme, where he would throw promotional weight behind films that gave him a producing credit, and so a cut of the action. Those who didn't pay their tribute got the shaft. So, despite general critical praise, it was a box office failure.
I've run out of time (exceptionally busy on the work front) and want this to go up. So, I bid adieu to you - and shortly to September - and hope you'll be back here next week, for the first Friday of October. - Mike
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