Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

STRANGER THINGS, Season 4

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Full of heart and darker than receding seasons, STRANGER THINGS’ fourth season did not fail to please, expanding the runtime on many episodes and frequently injecting incredible cinematic moments.

In this season, the kids are growing up, and a new dynamic strains the group of Hawkins friends as they are now split on opposite sides of the country. When the Upside Down returns personified in a singular antagonist, this sets up the cast to go on separate but related missions. The mission is the same as always–fight the malevolent intelligence in the Upside Down–but this time we know who that intelligence is, and the stakes are even higher as the end game is revealed, which includes the fate of the entire world.

This season has a strong tonal change. Not only must the characters act in separate groups, but it’s way darker, with a lot less comedy and fewer scenes of the heartfelt feel good variety. We have a new major character, Eddie, perfectly played by Joseph Quinn. The runtime is longer on many episodes, fully fleshing out the storylines, which are frequently punctuated by incredible cinematic set pieces, such as a cop defending several of the kids from a surprise enemy. The villain is great, a psychopathic monster with a back story and relation to El. The climax had me saying, wow, they went there! The long denouement is satisfying and sets up the final confrontation in Season 5.

This season took some criticism, but I don’t agree with pretty much any of them. Yeah, it’s formulaic, but it’s been formulaic all along, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem isn’t formula but execution, and the Duffer brothers shred the execution. They provide characters I care about, put them in an underdog role against an overwhelming antagonist with supreme stakes, and they cross most of the Ts and dot the Is. Sure, the villain takes time to have conversations with heroes instead of just killing them, but at least he has something to say rather than the usual floating, telling them their flaws so as to weaken and psychologically destroy them before attempting to physically do so. The show communicates that eighties feel without trading on it. I appreciated all the wow moments and new lore. This is good TV, period.

If I had a criticism, it would be the ongoing reliance on the eighties trope of a psychopathic bully. The bullying in these shows and movies makes me wonder how anybody survived high school without dying, and a lot of times, they seem to be there to check a box on the Eighties Bingo Card rather than add anything. Last season, Billy did add something, though in this season, the bully didn’t do much more than get in the good guys’ way and be annoying, though he had plenty of potential for more.

Overall, I loved this season of STRANGER THINGS and look forward to the big finale.

LOVE, DEATH, AND ROBOTS, Season 3

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The first season of LOVE, DEATH, AND ROBOTS (Netflix) wowed me with its anthology of stunning, action-packed, and titillating animated stories. Season 2 upped the production quality though at the expense of story, and I feared the show had become nothing more than a series of self-promo resume reels for its creators. Season 3 put all those fears to rest, delivering a really terrific series of animated shorts that fire on all cylinders. I loved it.

In “Three Robots: Exit Strategies” (written by John Scalzi), three robot tourists from the first season revisit Earth to learn about its apocalypse; this time, we learn it was climate change that killed everyone, and we see how different strata of society reacted to the end, with the have-nots fighting each other and the haves secluding themselves until they died out. Poignant, funny in a harsh “haha, we’re a really stupid species” kind of way.

In “Bad Traveling” (David Fincher’s animation debut), a massive shark-hunting sailing ship runs afoul of an intelligent sea monster, forcing the crew to make a decision about whether to save themselves or a nearby island full of people. Brutally satisfying.

In “Night of the Mini Dead,” we see a condensed zombie apocalypse from a bird’s eye view, looking down at tiny people and cities. Funny and quirky.

I intended to only describe the ones I really, really liked, but I’m now realizing that’s almost all of them. I was really impressed with the consistency of quality across the entire anthology this season. I’ll skip the others with a recommendation to just watch if it you have the chance, but I should talk about the finale, “Jibaro.” In this fantasy story, a squadron of warriors and priests pauses to rest by a lake in the wilderness, only to draw the attention of a local siren. The catch: Her charms don’t work on Jibaro, who is deaf. Thus beings a game of attraction and repulsion between the two, a tale of violence and greed. It’s simple with frenzied, exquisite action and visuals, and it’s quite beautiful and stirring to watch. Even if you discover this season of LOVE, DEATH, AND ROBOTS isn’t for you, I hope you’ll at least give this episode a crack.

Overall, I found this season brilliant, different, and giving me plenty of reasons to hope for a fourth season.

THE ENFIELD HAUNTING

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Originally airing on Sky in 2015 and now available for streaming, THE ENFIELD HAUNTING is a three-part miniseries describing a notorious haunting that allegedly took place at a council home in the Enfield district of London in the years 1977-1979. (The case is also featured in THE CONJURING 2.) The series offers solid acting and an engaging story until, well, it kinda goes off the rails.

It’s 1977, and single mom Peggy Hodgson is raising four children in her council home. When her daughters Janet (11) and Margaret (14) discovered odd noises in their room, Peggy investigates only to see furniture move on its own. The DAILY MIRROR runs a story, which draws the attention of the Society of Psychical Research, which in turn sends novice paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse to either prove or debunk. Grosse has his own interest in the afterlife, as he and his wife lost their daughter the year before. When Grosse becomes convinced the haunting was genuine, the Society sends Guy Playfair, another investigator, to the house. The series, in fact, is based on his book, THIS HOUSE IS HAUNTED.

I loved the Seventies setting and quick pacing, with the spirit steadily revealing itself and inviting more attention from the press, Society, and authorities. The actors are great–notably David Matthew Macfadyen and Timothy Spall of Harry Potter fame, with their dynamic driving the story for me. The third episode, however, jumps the shark as things get even worse and then wrap up tidily in an emotional if incredulous finish.

The real-life haunting the series is based on has been judged a hoax by experts, while to this day Janet Hodgson maintains it was all true, making it a matter of individual belief. Regardless of where you stand, THE ENFIELD HAUNTING is surprisingly fun, at least until the “real life” events start to imitate a sappy movie. Check it out for a neat little ghost story.

CRACOW MONSTERS

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In the Polish series CRACOW MONSTERS, a medical student joins a group of supernaturally gifted students working with a mysterious professor to investigate demonology. A work of dark urban fantasy with strong roots in Polish mythology, the series follows genre conventions while serving up something that feels unconventional, gritty, and lived in. I liked this one a lot, it’s a lot of fun.

In the first episode, we meet Alex, starting her first year at medical school in the city of Cracow. The sole survivor of several tragedies, haunted by the death of her mother and horrific night terrors, she worries she will go insane like her mother and distracts herself with partying and sex. (Ah, to be young again, when you can party hard all night and then go to class the next morning with a giant cup of coffee feeling a little worse for wear but ready to go.) When she’s invited by a brilliant professor to an internship with his group of gifted students, she enters a world where Polish mythology is real. And she learns she is at the center of it.

There’s a lot to like here. Cracow is wonderfully gritty, its locations offering a distinctly European mix of hip and modern with old and even ancient. The characters are basically angsty hipsters, but they’re believable, and they’re interesting as a team. The monsters are terrific–a pair of twins who are succubi, a monstrous version of Krampus/Santa Claus, and so on–all controlled by a malevolent spirit who may not be a demon but instead a god. The plot rolls out as a simple dark urban fantasy but with just enough complexity that it comes together. The Polish lore is great.

All’s not perfect, as it rarely is. The pacing may be a little slow for some, at least in the early episodes (I personally didn’t mind the slow build). Alex is difficult nearly to the point of being unlikable, though that’s a common reaction for me watching something with a strong dash of YA in it. Her battles with various monsters roll out without much tension, they seem to resolve easily and in a scripted manner. And as is common with TV shows where the writers want to keep a sense of mystery going, characters argue, avoid talking, or “cease to exist” due to a cutaway when a simple conversation would fix things. Also common, the arch villain talks about how he’s going to kill the protagonist instead of easily doing it. A number of smaller plot questions were punted to Season 2.

But no matter. Though the Neil Gaiman style of urban fantasy isn’t my usual thing, I liked this one a lot, and there’s plenty on the table for a second season if it earns it. Recommended if you’re looking for fresh, offbeat, and highly immersive dark fantasy.

ALL OF US ARE DEAD

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Korea’s latest awesome contribution to apocalyptic horror is ALL OF US ARE DEAD (Netflix), a series about a group of high school students struggling to survive a zombie apocalypse that starts at their school. I went into it warily, expecting it to be YA but not in a good way, and was pleasantly surprised. Wowed, in fact, with me thinking this just might be the best TV series I’ve ever seen with zombies that wasn’t a comedy.

In a high school in a small city in Korea, a student accidentally becomes infected with a virus designed to increase aggression. (What this virus is and why it’s there is explained as the story develops.) The outbreak snowballs across the school and the city at large, resulting in the Army being called in to quarantine it all while managing tens of thousands of refugees. Stuck at ground zero is a few small groups of students, most of them likeable and kids we can root for, some of them hateable villains. What follows is a nonstop, horrific struggle to survive and hopefully escape.

As far as zombies go, they’re the usual rabid runners a la TRAIN TO BUSAN, and the virus is evolving, promising some surprises. When they first start to spread across the school and city, the action is incredible, and the zombies are genuinely scary. The zombies aren’t as important, however, as the human characters are, how they respond to the crisis, how they pull together or fall apart, who survives and who dies. The show is brutal; not everybody is going to make it, though some who die do so with what has to be some of the most badass sacrifices I’ve seen on television.

One of the things I liked most about the show was its attention to realism. A lot of dialogue, character change, and screen time is devoted to the kids trying to figure out what to do next based on available options and then doing it, with every step they take dogged by horrific obstacles and sometimes shadowed by the dynamics of their high school relationships, which they slowly shed as they realize how unimportant all that stuff was in the face of the current threat. Over time, they realistically fuse into a tribe. There is a little philosophy, like why live after you’ve lost everything, but mostly tough ethics, such as what to do if your best friend is hurt and therefore might turn into a zombie and threaten everybody. Most of the action is devoted to surviving the next few hours with courage and homegrown ingenuity, which culminates in a series of incredible set pieces.

Oddly, this strength is also fodder for a criticism of the show, which is its twelve episodes could have been easily shortened to maybe ten by cutting some of its repetitiousness. But no matter, overall, I loved ALL OF US ARE DEAD pretty much from start to finish. If you enjoy good stories with zombie mayhem and apocalypse, you’ll probably love it.

SILENT SEA

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In SILENT SEA (Netflix), a team of Korean astronauts travel to an abandoned moon base to recover research materials that could save Earth from a growing, dire water shortage. The result is a pileup of typical thriller and survival horror tropes. The series is overall fun and has some good ideas, though it’s far more Hollywood than what I’ve grown to love about Korean series making.

It’s the future. Earth is in dire straits due to desertification and water shortages, resulting in conflict, die-off, and rationing. Song Ji-An (Bae Doo-Na, familiar for me from her roles in SENS8, CLOUD ATLAS, and KINGDOM), an astrobiologist, is recruited for a team led by Han Yun-Jae (Gong Yoo, THE SQUID GAME and TRAIN TO BUSAN) to go to the moon. Their mission? Penetrate an abandoned research base and recover materials from a project that may be able to solve the water crisis.

The set up is cool, it’s Korean dystopian sci-fi, some familiar solid actors, count me in. The only trick is immediately a bunch of thriller tropes are piled on. The ship fails, they don’t have enough air, the highly fit astronauts exhaust themselves over a reasonable hike in a fraction of Earth’s gravity, the base’s systems are pretty broken down. The crew yell at each other but otherwise often don’t communicate well, with Song Ji-An staring blankly when she should speak up or even move to save herself or others.

After catching so many terrific Korean series and films like THE DOOMSDAY BOOK, TRAIN TO BUSAN, SQUID GAME, HELLBOUND, SWEET HOME, FLU, DERANGED, THE WAILING, and so on, I just don’t think it lived up to the standard I’d grown to expect. God help us if Korean directors look at their Netflix success and start to think they need to tailor their stuff to the U.S. market. Hollywood needs strong alternatives, not imitators.

All that said, I liked it. The characters aren’t lovable, but they are likeable enough. The pacing is a bit off, but once things get into high gear, it really rolls. The monster element is creative, I loved that part. The base is a cool setting and there are some good ideas. Critics and audiences seem to agree that this is a good show, and I can’t argue with that. Overall, it’s a good popcorn watch, definitely watchable, even if for me it didn’t live up to other terrific Korean movies and series.