Belated Review: Candle Cove

All episodes of the SyFy Channel's semi-anthology series Channel Zero are now available on demand, so I just finished watching season one, also known as "Candle Cove." The story is based on a 1-page-long short story by Kris Straub. If you're assuming that the writers must have had to stretch out a 1-page story quite a bit to make it the source of an entire season's worth of television, you ain't wrong.

The original story concerned a children's series of the same name, a series that was particularly creepy and disturbing considering its targeted age group. I have mixed feelings about the original short story. On the one hand, it's a creative and intriguing concept, brilliantly presented not in typical prose format, but rather as a series of entries in an online message board. But the ending is far, far too abrupt and undeveloped, with Straub taking obvious pride in an intriguing twist ending that really shouldn't have been the end at all.

So no, the writers of the TV series didn't have much to work with, and they were forced to add a lot of elements to expand it into a whole season of television. As horror, they invest a lot in the admittedly very creepy puppet character Jawbone, and in various, mostly visually effective monsters that lurk about menacingly. As narrative, the writers take the central conceit and make it the center of a multi-layered mystery. The main character here is Doctor Mike Painter, a child psychologist who has recently gained some renown due to a surprisingly successful new book. The story is set into motion when Mike Painter returns to his childhood home-town after decades of absence, only to find that the long-ago series Candle Cove, which played a central role in his childhood, has mysteriously returned to the airwaves, and is affecting the children watching it in disturbing ways.

There's a lot of potential in this set-up, but the writers bumble the presentation in a number of ways. Characters repeatedly jump to odd conclusions and make foolish choices, and the police are far too quick to falsely suspect Mike of criminal activity, especially when you consider that the sheriff and one of his deputies are supposed to be old friends of Mike's. It gets to the point where you repeatedly exclaim, "why would he do that?" "Why would he say that?" Why would he think that?" And so on.

My wife and I also got tired of just how many times the show pulled an already tired cliche, showing something dramatic and horrific, and then, guess what, it was just a dream! Seriously, the show really needs to lay off on the whole "just a dream" gimmick.

The next season is based on a different short story, one which I admire greatly, "The No-End House." I am both looking forward to seeing a dramatization of the story, but also, in light of the many missteps from the first season, kind of nervous that they'll screw it all up royally. We'll see.