Author's Note: As many of you already know, the most recent episode of the Hulu horror anthology series Into the Dark was postponed due to Coronavirus post-production woes, which is to say, it's hard to do post-production during a worldwide pandemic. Just ask The Walking Dead, which has yet to release its season finale.
Anyway, better late than never, but I chose to wait until the current episode of season two was released before doing this review, even though I suppose I could have gone ahead and reviewed the first season's 4th of July-centric episode in a more timely fashion. That said, insofar as I know, the current episode is the last to have been completed before the outbreak, which means this episode is effectively the season two finale.
I know, I know- I'm (culture) shocked, too. As such, in keeping with all the other reviews, I will be doing the last two episodes of the first season in one review next month, which tie into, respectively, the first day of school and Father/Daughter Day. As neither are actually true Federally-recognized holidays, it doesn't really matter when I do them, so I'll just do them whenever I can get around to it in August.
In the event that another season two episode is completed after all- they could maybe do a Zoom-themed horror episode, which wouldn't be hard, as navigating Zoom can be a horror, lol- I'll just go back to normal and review that and episode eleven of season one at the same time, as per usual, but I don't expect that to happen, so just look for my final Into the Dark review, for the time being, to happen sometime next month. Alright, let's get going with a little...
Originally released at the height of all of El Trumpo's border immigration nonsense, Culture Shock is widely considered by many critics to be the absolute best episode of the series to date, so I was very much looking forward to it. For the record, I didn't read any of said reviews before writing this- I try to never read other people's reviews before writing my own, if possible- but I was going by the info on the show's Wikipedia page, which features a Rotten Tomato-esque chart with each episode's critical aggregate.
I'm happy to say that, at least in this case, the critics were right- Culture Shock is indeed one of the very best episodes of the series to date- maybe even the best, period. It helps that it tackles a timely subject matter, with both sensitivity and a wry sense of humor, to say nothing of the fact that it was actually co-written and directed by a Mexican immigrant, Gigi Saul Guerrero, who got the job after criticizing the original script by newcomers James Benson & Efrén Hernández for not being "authentically Mexican" enough.
After rewriting the script to her tastes and gaining approval from Blumhouse, she then proceeded to cast the film with actual Mexican actors with their blessing, and to subsequently direct them in Spanish, while simultaneously speaking in English to the non-Spanish speakers in her cast and crew. (Bilingual FTW!) Most of the film was shot in sequential order, so as to make it that much more "real" for the actors. Blumhouse was so impressed with the end results that they signed Guerrero to a "first look" movie-and-TV deal late last year for her efforts.
Culture Shock tells the tale of a woman named Marisol (Martha Higareda, Borderland, Altered Carbon), who is pregnant and determined to get to America to provide a better life for her unborn child, no matter what she has to do to achieve her goal. We see in flashbacks that this is not her first attempt to get there, as she was sexually assaulted by Oscar (Felipe de Lara, Texas Rising), a man she thought of as a friend, who hooked her up with the "Coyote" (Sal Lopez, Full Metal Jacket) that was supposed to get her across the first time.
The rape resulted in her current condition, and also a further incentive to get across the border- to track down Oscar and confront him and possibly avenge her assault. Though the Coyote is dubious of her condition and warns her that he'll leave her behind again if she can't keep up, just as he did the last time, he nonetheless agrees to give it another shot, given that she's got the cash to take another crack at it. Even if she fails, he profits, so why not?
All is relatively well when the group runs afoul of the Cartel just before they are about the cross. A chase ensues, and sure enough, Marisol is caught at the border- but not by the Cartel. Is it the Border Patrol? A rogue group of would-be patriots trying to enforce their beloved President's hard stance against illegal immigrants? Or is it something actually even worse, as hard as that is to imagine? This being a horror show, I'm sure you can figure that one out on your own.
Marisol passes out, and when she wakes up, it would seem she has made it across after all. A seemingly kindly woman, Betty (horror royalty Barbara Crampton, of Re-Animator and Chopping Mall fame, among many other cult flicks) is there, telling her that her baby has been born and is alive and well and everything's just fine. But is it? Everyone is shiny and happy and always smiling, as if on heavy drugs, and the pastel colored clothes and homes and general environment look like a cross between a Tim Burton film, circa Edward Scissorhands, and that old Soundgarden video "Black Hole Sun."
So, if she's not actually in America, where is she? And what the hell is going on? Why don't the people she crossed with that are also there seem to readily recognize her? And why do they seem so different? And why won't Betty let her hold her newborn baby? So many questions, so little answers, but Marisol is determined to find out the truth, by any means necessary, perhaps with the help of the seemingly friendly Mayor, Thomas (Shawn Ashmore, the X-Men series' Iceman).
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out where all this is going- if you're remotely familiar with Black Mirror, you'll probably realize what's going on almost immediately- but it's not really about the "big twist." This is a human story, meant to make the viewer empathize with people who just want a better life for themselves, aka what used to be known as the "American Dream." But what happens when the "American Dream" becomes a nightmare? For all too many immigrants, including the ones who were born here and have lived here all their lives, that question is all too real these days.
Culture Shock, as its name implies, puts the viewers in the shoes of a completely relatable character, excellently played by Higareda, that you'd almost have to be a complete a-hole not to sympathize with. She's a rape victim that, against her better judgment, has decided to keep the baby, which should go over well with conservatives, and yet, she's also fiercely independent and driven, which should win over the liberals.
Yes, the right may not take too kindly to the whole "anchor baby" thing, but you'd have to be heartless- or the President- not to feel for Marisol once you realize what's really going on here. And even the far right should like the other "twist" ending at the very end of the episode- though, if they really think about it, it's actually a pointed commentary on what our country has become under our recent leader, who isn't much of one, no matter where you stand on the whole immigration issue.
Hell, IRL, for all of El Trumpo's grousing about not letting people in because of the pandemic, it's actually other countries that are actively trying to keep us out because of how disastrously he has dropped the ball, when it comes to the Coronavirus. In other words, immigration isn't down because of him, it's down because he's so thoroughly screwed things up that people don't even want to come here anymore, you know what I mean? That's not exactly something to brag about, especially if you consider that this used to be the place where the world's best and brightest wanted to come- now, they're taking their talents elsewhere, which can only hurt us on down the line.
So, yeah, although the episode isn't anything you haven't seen before, plot-wise, it absolutely is a new variation on a tried-and-true plot that you probably haven't seen before. By making things political, writer/director Guerrero effectively ups the ante and makes it a must-see episode of the series. The cast is golden, and it's always nice to see one of my all-time fave Scream Queens, Crampton, even if she doesn't have a huge role here. (Seriously, though, does that woman age? She practically looks the same as she did when I was a kid!) I say check this one out, absolutely. 🎆🎉😊
Next up, we have the latest, and possibly the last episode for a while, The Current Occupant. Unfortunately, its critical reception has been in keeping with Treehouse, which is to say, many consider it to be one of the worst efforts of the series to date. I patently disagree with that assessment- Treehouse was actually one of my favorites. But is Occupant really that bad? Let's take a closer look and see.
Barry Watson (Boogeyman, Teaching Mrs. Tingle) plays Henry Cameron, a man who wakes up in a mental hospital with no idea what happened to him or how he got there. With Henry suffering a complete loss of memory, Dr. Larson (Sonita Henry, Krypton, Star Trek), vows to do everything within her power to help him, with an assist from a tough-but-fair orderly (Marvin Jones III, Black Lightning).
However, when he has a run-in with an erratic patient, Helen (Lilli Birdsell, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) that seems to recognize him "from TV," Henry begins to wonder if there's something else going on here altogether. A helpful nurse, Eliza (Kate Cobb, Shameless), seems to be on his side, but says they have to be very careful how they approach things, as there's certain things going on that are of a sensitive nature, to say the least.
After a certain point, Henry begins to wonder if he might just be the President of the United States, here after an assassination attempt on his life, with the nefarious Vice-President (Ezra Buzzington, The Hills Have Eyes) - whom he mistook as the Administrator of the mental institution- perhaps actively trying to keep him from remembering who he is so that he can remain President.
To hasten his recovery, he agrees to a highly-experimental process that involves a Clockwork Orange-style flashing of words and images before his eyes while he answers pointed questions from Dr. Larson. Will it help, or will it only make things worse? Also, is he even really the President, or does he just think he is? After all, Helen, a fellow patient, who claims to be his Secretary of State, isn't exactly the most reliable witness, and there are others there with similar delusions of grandeur. Might he be no different from any of them?
As you might have figured out by now, this isn't that far removed from last season's 4th of July episode, Culture Shock. The main difference is that, while Marisol knows something is off about her surroundings, Henry is the very definition of an unreliable narrator. Might he just be plain crazy as the result of a traumatic experience? As a direct result, it's hard to know whether we should support his quest for answers or not, which means he's a far less sympathetic character than Marisol, especially once he actively starts acting out and hurting people.
That's a problem, narratively, and it doesn't help that the end result is probably exactly what you think it is, even without having seen it for yourself. Granted, such was the case with Marisol in Culture Shock, but, as viewers, even if we can't exactly relate to her situation, we empathize with her predicament. In The Current Occupant, it's a lot harder to, as few of us have been in the same situation as Henry finds himself in, and his behavior in general is far less understandable, as those looking after him haven't really done anything to deserve his treatment.
I mean, don't get me wrong, if I were in the same scenario, I'd probably be freaking out, too, but I wouldn't necessarily be mean about it, you know? Also, as much as I hate to admit it, by making him potentially the President, part of me was inherently rooting against him by default. I couldn't help but think: boy, if ever there was a President that deserved to be locked in a loony bin, it's the one we have now.
Not that Henry seems to be actively conservative or what have you- we don't know that one way or the other- it's just well-nigh impossible not to bring the outside baggage that is our knowledge of the REAL current occupant into the proceedings. And that's a problem I imagine almost all US viewers are going to have. The sad thing is, under most circumstances, I would be empathetic to someone in this situation, but because it might be the President... not so much. Which says a lot about where we are as a nation, if you think about it.
I mean, I know it's not supposed to be THE President, as in the one we have IRL, but it's hard to divorce that from what we bring to the table when watching this, unfortunately. As such, it compromises the whole affair, which may be what critics are responding to so negatively.
But even if you can separate the two and look at things objectively, the truth is there's nothing here most of you haven't seen before, and the "twist" at the end isn't really a twist at all, unlike Culture Shock. There, the first big twist isn't a twist at all, really- we know what it is and what reaction we're supposed to have about it- it's actually the final twist that drives the knife in. Here, the twist isn't really that surprising, and, as such, it just ends up being anti-climactic.
In Culture Shock, it was the whole scenario that was different- it was a twist approach to a plot most of us have seen many times before- and that's what made it stand out. Here, it's a set-up many of us have seen before, but with only a mildly different approach, and because of that, the ending falls flat, primarily because it doesn't knock us for a loop, it just confirms a suspicion most of us already had throughout the episode. Hell, even if it had gone the other way, it wouldn't have been that much of a big surprise, either. That means that the whole thing in general just comes off as a retread. Oh well.
Look, it's competently acted, to be sure, and the execution is solid. The direction, by editor-turned-director Julius Ramsay, of The Walking Dead and Krypton fame, is perfectly fine- you can tell his background is in editing, and I mean that as a compliment, as he keeps things moving at a decent enough clip. Alas, the script, by Alston Ramsay, Julius' brother, is just too straight-forward, without bringing anything new to the table.
The Ramsays have worked together before on the movie Midnighters, which I haven't seen, but which got mixed reviews. But you would think that this would be a perfect fit for them, as Alston was a D.C. speechwriter who turned to screenwriting after retiring from that field. This should have been right up Alston's alley, plot-wise, but it ends up just wallowing in institution-set movie clichés.
To be fair, this approach has sunk plenty of other talented writers before him, i.e. John Carpenter's The Ward, also written by brothers, which wasn't terrible, but not exactly worth the near-ten year wait between movies for Carpenter, either, and hardly a return-to-form. The truth is, it's hard to create a new spin on such an old trope- and I say that from experience: I tried to write one, and it was roundly rejected in my writing class in college, which effectively stopped a proposed novel version dead in its tracks.
So, yeah, The Current Occupant is no Shock Corridor- hell, it's not even as good as Gothika or the amusingly bad Don't Look in the Basement, which are at the very least, entertainingly silly. It's just kind of meh, TBH. Regardless, not the finest one to go out on. Honestly, if they had leaned into the whole Trump thing, it might have actually been much more engaging all around.
By practically making the character apolitical- I literally have no idea if he was supposed to be Republican or Democratic or something else, like Libertarian- it makes the whole thing feel sort of wishy-washy. You're not really rooting for OR against Henry, because you have no idea if he was a good person or an awful one under normal circumstances. He seems okay, but it's hard to say. That's a problem, and it's one the episode just can't overcome, I'm afraid.
So, yeah, The Current Occupant is a big miss for me, but don't miss Culture Shock- it's the real deal, and one of the best episodes of Into the Dark ever. Turns out the critics get it right sometimes, after all. By all means, check that one out, but you're gonna want to skip Occupant, unless you're a Barry Watson completist, lol. Is there such a thing? If so, have at it- but I've about had it up to here with Presidential drama of any kind, quite frankly. 😵
No comments:
Post a Comment