Double Shot

A couple of NBC’s Fear Itself episodes have gone by since I last spoke of it, so here’s a few thoughts on them.

Ronny Yu directed the third episode entitled “The Family Man”.

A successful banker (Colin Ferguson) switches bodies with an apprehended serial killer (Clifton Collins Jr.) after a near death experience. Now, he has to find a way out before his family becomes the killer’s next victims.

This was probably the best one so far. The storyline is similar to 1995’s Hideaway, but has enough of its own personality to stand on its own. The episode did seem a tad sanitized, but was still decent. The ending was also pretty good and most importantly, one I didn’t see coming.

Ronny Yu (Bride of Chucky, Freddy vs. Jason) is surprisingly reserved in his approach to the material. It was actually quite refreshing to see him play something straight for a change.

The next episode is called “In Sickness and In Health”. Just before a bride (Maggie Lawson) is to about to take her vows, she receives an anonymous note revealing a chilling piece of info about her husband-to-be.

You know how sometimes you can tell a director’s work without even seeing their name in the credits? For example, I bet if you lined up all thirteen episodes of the first season of Masters Of Horror with the director’s names unmatched, any seasoned horror fan could probably pick out who did what with almost perfect accuracy. My point is that within the first few minutes of “In Sickness” I thought to myself, ‘Ah, this must be Landis’s episode’ and sure enough, it was. His two Masters Of Horror episodes Deer Woman and Family were good and great respectively and you can always count on his stuff to at least be entertaining.


His Fear Itself episode is a fairly odd affair though. It probably would have been serviceable if it wasn’t for the really weak conclusion. It is fine if you want to throw in a twist, but when it doesn’t jive with all that came before it (unless I’m missing something, please fill me if so), it’s really frustrating. It really made the whole episode seem off kilter, even by Landis’s standards. I will say though, that it was good to see William B. Davis (the sinister Smoking Man from The X Files) again. I guess I can consider that a preamble to the movie that rolls around in a few weeks.

So, two more episodes down. That’s one hit and one miss.