This week’s Fear Itself episode was Brad Anderson’s entry Spooked.
An ex-cop turned private eye (Eric Roberts) unwittingly spends the night in a haunted house while on a stakeout.
This episode had a fairly predictable arc that, for me, quickly took the wind out of its sails. The framework of the story just wasn’t that strong and the ending was very curt and unsatisfying. However, putting said mediocre material in the hands of a talented filmmaker like Brad Anderson made a big difference. It’s well shot and you could see he was trying his darnedest to create as much atmosphere as possible. Spooked felt like a combination of themes and ideas from Anderson’s two previous efforts – Session 9 and The Machinist – but it’s nowhere near the quality of those. I must say that is was really good to see Cynthia Watros (Libby from TV’s Lost) again. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her until she came onscreen. There are some great visuals; especially the graffiti on the house walls and it’s the little details like that, that are the best parts of Spooked.
An ex-cop turned private eye (Eric Roberts) unwittingly spends the night in a haunted house while on a stakeout.
This episode had a fairly predictable arc that, for me, quickly took the wind out of its sails. The framework of the story just wasn’t that strong and the ending was very curt and unsatisfying. However, putting said mediocre material in the hands of a talented filmmaker like Brad Anderson made a big difference. It’s well shot and you could see he was trying his darnedest to create as much atmosphere as possible. Spooked felt like a combination of themes and ideas from Anderson’s two previous efforts – Session 9 and The Machinist – but it’s nowhere near the quality of those. I must say that is was really good to see Cynthia Watros (Libby from TV’s Lost) again. I hadn’t realized how much I missed her until she came onscreen. There are some great visuals; especially the graffiti on the house walls and it’s the little details like that, that are the best parts of Spooked.
Spooked was a very uneven affair. There were points it had me, but then other stuff kept taking me out of it. Admittedly, not all of this was the show’s fault. The NBC watermarking is still a huge problem and there were also sound issues with the broadcast. Also, even with a DVR, forwarding through commercials still breaks the mood. I doubt these issues will be resolved, so I don’t know how much longer I’m going to put up with it before giving up. Who would have thought the major problem with Fear Itself being a network show would be the FORMAT, rather than the subject matter?
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