Author of adventure/thriller and horror fiction

UTOPIA

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Adapted by Gillian Flynn for American audiences from a 2013 British series, UTOPIA (Amazon Prime) is a compelling and surprisingly dark story about a group of comic book nerds who get up in a conspiracy to change the world. I liked it, though I found it uneven.

The story begins with comic book nerds finding out that UTOPIA, the sequel to their favorite graphic novel, DYSTOPIA, has been discovered and is for sale. They aren’t just fans of the comic but conspiracy theorists who believe hidden messages in it predicted every major disease outbreak, raising the question as to whether these diseases were natural or bio-engineered. Unfortunately, mysterious forces are in play that want to prevent anybody from seeing the comic and will do anything to stop it while finding its real-life star, Jessica Hyde.

It’s just my kind of thing, and I went into it expecting it to be the next STRANGER THINGS, but the story quickly takes a very dark righthand turn into torture and frequent murder and stays there. In the American version, for example, a character is created only to be killed for shock value and to show how ruthless another character is, a creative decision by Flynn that comes across ham-handed and disrupts the chemistry. (A cute meta reference to herself comes across the same way.) People are regularly tortured in this show for revenge or information, and even while they’re giving it, the torture keeps coming. That aspect just didn’t quite work for me and makes the resulting story uneven, plus it makes a key character who often does it (and constantly casually threatens it) unlikeable when we’re supposed to be rooting for her.

When you find out what the conspiracy is, it’s actually nothing we haven’t seen before, but it’s done extremely well. When the villain reveals the entire plan, many viewers will be like, oh, um, that’s not exactly a bad idea. The bad guys are like a cult designed to produce a certain change in the world, but by the end they’re not necessarily the bad guys, they’re simply the antagonist with an opposing goal, the mark of a good story.

The ending sets up a season 2, though I’m not sure the story needs it. I’m curious how the British version ended and will try to find it. On a final note, John Cusak and Rainn Wilson are in the show, and they’re fantastic in their roles.

THE DARK Season 3

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Season 3 of the moody, dark, and apocalyptic Netflix series THE DARK concluded what can only be described as one of the most truly remarkable science-fiction series, so odd and complex it’s one of those TV series you’re surprised got made. Season 3 builds upon the complex relationships and central time travel mystery from the first two seasons while adding another dimension and bringing the whole thing to a powerful and decisive finish.

This was an enjoyable but difficult series to watch. I would have appreciated its intricate details more if I were able to binge-watch it from start to finish, which begs for a second viewing now that the work is complete and I kind of know what’s going on, who’s who in what time period, and how they’re related. The show is not really three discrete seasons but a single vision meticulously planned from the first episode. And holy crap, it’s incredible when you see the whole thing.

During the second season, I have to admit I began to get frustrated with it. Too often, characters appear from offstage to deliver speeches short on real details and long on bland philosophy, while the time travel itself started to rely more and more heavily on the bootstrap paradox. This is a paradox in time travel where, for example, a man has a child, the child goes back in time and has his own child, and that child turns out to be boy’s father (each is the father of the other), resulting in time travel literally creating people, events, and objects living in a time loop. In many movies such as ARRIVAL, it provides an answer or solution that crashes into the plot as deus ex machina, and in THE DARK, it started to feel like the TV show LOST, constantly teasing mysteries that once revealed didn’t really mean anything. THE DARK, however, fooled me, as the bootstrap paradox became the central point of the show, the “knot” the characters seek to maintain or unravel depending on the faction, and with the key to unraveling it being finding the “origin,” the prime mover to a swirling, massive set of events occurring in an endless loop.

Holy crap, it’s dense, it’s enormously atmospheric, it’s tragic, and it’s possibly the work of mad genius. THE DARK isn’t for everybody, but if you like intelligent sci-fi, check it out.

KINGDOM, Season 2

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Netflix’s Korean historical zombie series KINGDOM rocked into its second season, building on the political intrigue and outbreak setup of the first season in six highly dramatic, action-packed episodes. It’s an example of how to tell a story with zombies right and proof the undead aren’t dead yet as a genre.

The season picks up right where the last lets off, with Prince Chang and a small force fighting back a horde of undead that no longer “sleep” during the day. Lacking the means to destroy the zombies, he decides the best way he can save the dying province is to finally attack his larger problems in the capital, and try to reclaim his throne.

While season 1 was a slow burn setting up a lot of elements that build toward a zombie climax, season 2 is packed with action sequences that build toward an even bloodier finale. The six episodes are remarkably tight, with every scene providing important backstory via a flashback or advancing the plot.

What makes KINGDOM work for me is the characters are likeable, the GAME OF THRONES political intrigue is lightly done but effective, and the history and culture provide a unique perspective and tools for a rising dead story. Unlike shows like THE WALKING DEAD, the characters don’t mull the loss of civilization and humanity, and instead focus on the material stakes of saving their country, while the bad guys are willing to sacrifice part or even all of it to hold onto power. This tight thematic and plot focus serves the story well and makes for compelling viewing.

At the end of season 2, everything is wrapped up neatly with a bow, while setting the stage for a possible season 3. I’m not sure the show needs it, but I’ll check it out just the same.

DON’T HUG ME I’M SCARED

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DON’T HUGE ME I’M SCARED is a 6-part indie musical/comedy/horror web series released from 2011 to 2016 by British filmmakers Becky Sloan and Joseph Pelling. Rolling out like a horror version of SESAME STREET on crack, it’s honestly one of the most deeply provocative, entertaining, and strangest things I’ve ever seen on the internet.

Each episode starts off as a typical show for kids, complete with a stylized, colorful set and three characters, Yellow Guy (a boy like Bert or Ernie), Red Guy (a creature like Grover or Oscar the Grouch), and Duck (a talking duck). They find themselves in a situation, and an object on the set comes to life to sing a song to teach them something about a topic such as Creativity, Time, Technology, Love, Healthy Eating, and Dreams. The lessons start off educationally until sliding headlong and in a surreal way into a darker, nastier, very adult interpretation of the topic, resulting in the characters being brutalized. This could have come across as a shtick, but it’s done so well, and you sympathize with the characters so much, it’s super dark and compelling.

Part of the wonder of the show is the amazing detail in set design and techniques used to tell the story. Easter eggs abound, many visible only on repeated or even frame by frame viewings, all of them hinting at a deeper story. The storytelling techniques combine live action, puppets, cartoons, and computer animation. The songs are catchy ear worms. The surreal horror aspect is creepy as hell. And the end of episode 4 and the last episode bring in what appears to be a meta commentary on corruption in content creation in children’s programming, a larger story that ties the whole thing together but is very open to interpretation as to exactly what that story is.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it. All the episodes are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ux2ZxSXePs&t=1221s.

LOCKE AND KEY (2020)

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I liked Joe Hill’s LOCKE AND KEY comic series quite a bit and was excited to hear it would be coming to Netflix. Unfortunately, despite some nice threads and plenty of promise, the adaptation, which deviates quite a bit from the comics’ darker material, feels like standard TV fare, and by the end had me banging my head against the wall at characters making constant terrible decisions without any consequences.

The story follows the Locke family, which is moving into the father’s ancestral home, Key House, after he is murdered by a student at the high school where he worked. Everyone is grieving or dealing with guilt. The three kids in the family try to make their way at their new school. Then the youngest begins to find mysterious keys around the house, each of which grants a magical power. Unfortunately, an evil entity also needs the keys, which it intends to use to unleash hell. This begins a cat and mouse game where the kids use the keys to gain powers while fending off the evil entity, which often has the upper hand.

The result was not bad for me so much as simply lackluster and overly familiar. The keys were fantastic, a really fun element in the story that kept me interested. The characters, unfortunately, weren’t exactly likeable, and the villain was dastardly and conniving to the point of being eye-rolling. Some of this was in the acting, while much of it was simply an adaptation of very dark and powerful material to render it safely packaged for a wide TV audience. By the end, the characters were making one terrible decision after another, generally without consequences.

So overall, LOCKE AND KEY was okay for me, a fairly decent watch but lacking the strength of its source material and paling in comparison with other amazing shows.

BLACK SUMMER (2019)

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Produced by Asylum and set in the same zombie apocalypse as Z NATION, BLACK SUMMER (2019) is a Netflix series about a group of people trying to find sanctuary as the military pulls out and society collapses from the rapidly spreading infection. I picked away at this one all year, finally finished it, and found it overall good stuff but difficult to stay committed to.

There’s an interesting storytelling technique happening here; basically, it’s BUSHWICK with zombies. The idea is to follow a group of people individually and eventually all together, with Rose being the lead, a woman who must get to the evacuation center at the stadium in order to reunite with her daughter. There’s little plot other than characters either react to zombies or proactively fight for what they want as they travel from point A to B. The presentation style is pretty realistic and extremely tense, with very long takes, long stretches of moving with no dialogue, and people being terrified and aiming poorly and making mistakes exactly as they would in this type of crisis. I enjoyed this aspect the most, as it makes even a single zombie a seemingly unstoppable force, and it provides serious cathartic energy when the survivors get their thing together and achieve a victory. It also grounds the story nicely, as it’s quite believable. On the negative side, this is all you get; there’s very little going on character wise to make you care about any of these people, and they don’t dig very deep for the kind of ethical dilemmas that make apocalyptic fiction so interesting.

Overall, BLACK SUMMER was a fun watch for me, and I’d happily recommend it to zombie fans. Nothing super memorable, but definitely tense, engaging, and realistic.