Tales from the Darkside

I finished first season and, although there's some real masterpieces, most of it is just mediocre and there's even some episodes that make 20 minutes seem like eternity. Still, I recommend this show because good ones are worthy of getting through bad ones to see them.

6/10

The premise which inspired "Distant Signals" is guaranteed to ignite the inspiration of anyone who has loved the characters of a TV series. Mr. Smith (Lenny Von Dohlen), an otherworldly visitor, approaches the creator of a 1965 detective series (David Margulies) which was canceled in mid-season. This "fan" offers him $2 million - in gold - to write and direct six more episodes, including a vital series finale, which will remove the wandering hero from "limbo." Darren McGavin, with heartbreaking pathos, portrays the actor who is physically and metaphysically transformed from an aging dead-drunk bartender into his former self as a mythic star. This peculiarly "impossible," yet patently real idea glows with magic and life as an example of how a mere half hour installment of a small screen anthology can represent "the height of televisual art."

This wasn't a bad show, but watching it on a regular basis could leave you with a hollow feeling. The bad guys occassionally won in this very dark series, and I was sometimes repulsed by some images. However, if you were in the right mood, you might find something to enjoy, and I myself actually enjoyed most of the episodes. Some that stand out include one Christmas episode about the "grither," kind of an anti-Santa Claus being; an episode where a grandmother makes a birthday wish, and it comes true in rather painful ways for her other family members; and an episode set in a baker's shop, where an old black lady combines baking cookies with voodoo. Pretty good stuff, just not for the faint-of-heart.

Although I was in my early teens when I watched tales from the darkside, if left an impression on me. As a matter of fact, I still remember the first TFDS episode. The Halloween episode in which a rich old, whom everone in the town owns money to, has fun with his debtor's children by making them search for the outstanding notes in his creepy mansion. If a child found the outstanding-notes, that families debts would be wiped off. Of course, none of the children every found them...running out of the house scared out of their minds....until a real witch shows up! Needless to say, the old miser is paid a visit by the devil himself! I still rmemeber it to this day. Anyway, TFDS has dozens of episodes with eerie endings. If you like the late 80's tv series MONSTERS, you would also enjoy "tales from the darkside". It is just too bad that they don't show it any more....

This was one of my favorite horror shows as it was very watchable and enjoyable. There were many shows of this type during the time it ran and one can say it was probably the inspiration for a couple of the other ones that came on during this time such as "Monsters" and ever the one that Freddy Krueger had as the stories from those two shows I sometimes think came from this one. However, this one was around first and it is the best of the bunch. Granted, the episodes on Tales from the Crypt got a little darker and you could sometimes get lucky and see some nudity this one had by far the better stories. It also had one of the coolest openings of the bunch as well, for it may have been simple it was also effective in telling the viewer that they were on a trip to the darkside. Many good episodes are to be found, one of my favorite involved a woman renting a room in a place or something and there is a hole in the wall and something seems to be living there. I also remember one about some old lady who treated her father horribly and was good at making cookies, but she gets what is coming to her in the end. All in all one of the best horror shows out there.