I don’t know about your part of the country, but here in Seattle,
autumn is already a fact. The days are growing shorter, the rain is
falling colder, and the sweaters and flannel pajamas are moving back to
the front of the closet. Halloween candy is appearing in the grocery
stores and nearly every magazine has a pumpkin, a witch, or a sexy
redhead on the cover. The best have all three.
For some, these signs mean the end of summer, but for me, it means
the beginning of Flannel Pajama TV Season. This is a time when it’s
perfectly okay to veg in front of the boob tube with snacks in one hand
and hot cocoa in the other, and to embrace the waning sunlight in the
most appropriate way: by watching spooky TV shows.
Here’s a somewhat chronological list of moody, atmospheric TV shows I have loved — my autumn romances, as it were:
“One Step Beyond.” I must admit I’d not even heard
of the show until I was in my late 30’s, and I bought the entire series
on DVD based on an overheard conversation. Someone said, “…it’s what
‘The Twilight Zone’ wanted to be, but wasn’t.” I can’t say for sure if that’s true, mainly because “One Step Beyond”
claimed to be based on true stories, while “The Twilight Zone” was more
of a morality play. But it really doesn’t matter; they were both shot
in that Cold War-era, severely-lit black-and-white that’s best viewed in
UHF. That high-contrast monochrome could make even the most wholesome
of shows seem sinister.
“The Twilight Zone” came out at the same time, but
had a slightly longer run and did better in syndication. This is really a
love/hate show for me; I remember staying up well past bedtime to watch
re-runs on our rickety B&W, and ultimately wishing that the show
was scarier than it actually was. While the Marius Constant theme music
alone was the stuff of nightmares — a truly portentous call to fright
— the episodes were pretty dated, even when I got to know them in the
late 1970s. Even at such a young age, I was figuring out that no matter
how velvety and persuasive Rod Serling’s voice, I didn’t like the TV
telling me how I was going to feel.
Right about the same time I was sneaking my late-night “Twilight Zone” fix, I was also watching Darren McGavin and “Kolchak: the Night Stalker”
in prime time. I was really too young to get what the show was about,
but it had two of my favorite things: cynical wisecracking reporters and
low-budget monsters. Win – win. I think that my penchant for seersucker suits came from this show, too, but I can’t prove it.
In the 1980s, I didn’t have the right kind of cable to get “Tales
from the Crypt,” and I was completely turned off by “Tales from the
Darkside’s” theme music. (Seriously, how many minor chords can you
squeeze into 30 seconds? Evidently all of them.) But I grooved on “Friday the 13th: The Series,”
despite the fact that the show had virtuallly nothing to do with the
movie franchise. (Okay, okay — both the movies and the show were
produced by Frank Mancuso Jr. That is it and that is all.) While the
movies were slashy and gory, “Friday the 13th: The Series” was almost
charming in its attempt to be eerie; most episodes centered on a quaint
antique store full of cursed artifacts and the proprietors’ attempts to
get and keep them locked up.
“The X-Files” was part of my Sunday night routine for years and years, and for a few brief and shining seasons, the “X-Files” slash “Millennium” double-header was the best thing on television. Ever.
While I loved the multi-layered story arcs of “The X-Files,” the deeply
morose paranoia of “Millennium” is absolutely timeless, and probably
worthy of a column unto itself. Hope Frank Black can sit tight for a while.
I am doubly shamed over “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
When it came out, I was rabidly and vehemently against it. I thought it
was the worst premise for a show in the history of worst premises, and
aforementioned less-than-stellar shows aside, I was not going to subject
my eyeballs or my brain to this nonsense. Then I watched an episode —
“Hush” — and I was hooked as if I’d been a fan all along. My other shame
involves a not-so secret crush on Alyson Hannigan, and let’s not talk
about that now, thanks.
And with “Buffy” comes “Angel,” which also fed my
fetish for dilapidated buildings and dark rooms. Did it matter that the
supposedly immortal main character was visibly aging and that the
impossibility of vampire pregnancy was dealt with in an improbable
fashion? Heck no; not at all. I was too busy enjoying the convoluted
back stories, demonic romances and the absolutely wonderful
soap-operatic feel of it all.
There are many other good, spooky, supernatural, eerie, moody,
science fiction-y, atmospheric shows out there, I know. I can feel them
lurking; hear them crunching about in the fallen leaves. The only reason
I haven’t listed them here is because I simply haven’t had the time to
watch them all. But there’s an entire autumn ahead of us, isn’t there?
No comments:
Post a Comment