A Look at "Channel Zero: Candle Cove", pt4

Continuing from the Other Day…

            I took a couple more days before writing this because I had more pressing things to attend to and was tired from having a life not on the internet.  Anyway, I started off by talking about Creepypasta as a thing on the internet, then wrote about “Channel Zero: Candle Cove”, then I did a rundown of the first 3 episodes of “Channel Zero: Candle Cove”, and then I did the last 3 episodes of “Channel Zero: Candle Cove”.  (I am actually getting real tired of typing out “Channel Zero: Candle Cove”).

            Today I am going to do a short little rundown of what I liked and did not like overall for the series.  The show is not nothing, which is why it is frustrating.

What I Like

            The first 5 minutes of the show are excellent.  They are so well produced that they would work as a horror short with nothing else following.  I am shocked that it has not been released onto the internet as an advertisement for the show.

            If nothing else, I recommend you watch the opening of the first episode and then turn it off, the rest of the show does not measure up.  As a starting point, it is a lot of spooky things hinting at a much larger spooky thing in the background.  It is great on its own and only pulled down by association with the rest of the show’s under developed content.

            Beyond that, the whole series is well produced.  The acting is good.  The costumes are good.  The camera work, subtle background stuff, sound, and lighting all work.  It is a well-made show.

Okay.  Maybe this costume is not that great.  But most of them are.

What I Dislike

            You can tell these guys wanted to create something akin to David Lynch’s diner scene from “Mulholland Drive” (Seriously, click the link and watch that, it is great). The problem is, everyone who tries to be David Lynch just ends up sucking at being David Lynch.  When emulating that style, often times creatives fall into a trap, making weirdness that is creepy devolves into weirdness that is just obtuse, and then ultimately the weirdness causes a complete break from what the audience can metabolize.  The weird stops being alienating and scary, instead it becomes boring.

            “Channel Zero: Candle Cove” has a lot of, "Why is this happening" that is never explained.  In some instances, such as the aforementioned David Lynch, or even movies like “Buckaroo Banzai” not explaining things and allowing the audience to take it all in and make of it what they will, that sort of thing can be a strength.  Such confidence in the material means that they are in no way talking down to the audience… Actually, no.  That isn’t true.

            When you explain nothing, allowing the audience to interpret everything, you are talking down to the audience in a different way.  Think of how directionless the show “Lost” was.  They introduced new and strange elements all the time and rarely if ever explained any of them.  They were talking down to the audience via pretentious obfuscation.  Throwing out strangeness that they had no plan or guiding ethos for, and then when the audience tried to see something in this narrative inkblot the show runners giggled and said something akin to, “do you think so?”

More like, "Lost all narrative cohesion".
I am talking shit, I thought too much of this show's acting sucked for me to bother watching more than a couple episodes.

            Yeah, well, I can tell when I am being pissed on in spite of them telling me to, “be careful of the rain”.  I know when things are strange for strange sake and when there is some kind of guiding machinations.  “Channel Zero: Candle Cove” is strange in a bad way, not in an "open to interpretation way".  It is shameless in how the tooth monster makes no sense.  It is confusing in how many characters it tosses out.  It is bloated with how much unnecessary horse shit that clutters the narrative.

            All of that though, that is the overarching issue.  There are finer things to get upset about.  Numerous little things in the narrative that are simply dwarfed by the bigger problem of not making sense.  For instance, there are a few idiot balls being juggled between several characters.  There are random romantic subplots that exist only to manufacture pathos when murder happens.  The dead ends and slow bits that could easily have been jazzed up with quicker dialogue or even some levity.  It is flawed.

Maybe My Criticism is too Strong

            You might be saying that what I am asking for can’t be done.  Adding levity would distract from the sense of dread.  The quick romantic build-up is necessary because they don’t have time for real build up.  Characters doing dumb things in a horror show is just how it is done.  You might be saying that genre conventions excuse these failings.

            Maybe you are taking an entirely different debate tactic and saying, “it was adapted from an internet ghost story, it doesn’t have to be high art.”

            To that last one I reply: get your head out of your ass.

            You do not have to forgive a show’s failings just because those failings happen elsewhere.  Telling the creators to trim the fat, punch up the dialogue, and work too make the romantic elements more human (OR JUST CUT THEM) is meaningful and specific criticism.  It makes sense and I can point to instances in which it works.

            Anything can serve as the inspiration for a great story.  As a starting point, as a theme, or even just for a scene.  “The Terminator” happened because of a literal fever dream James Cameron had about a metal skeleton wreathed in flames.  “The Haunted Mask” came about because RL Stine’s kid couldn’t get a mask off their face.  If you are making a show based on something, whether it is juxtapositions between war and sitcoms, which inspired the jarring tone shifts in “The Last House on the Left” or war and game shows which inspired “The Hunger Games”, do a good job.

            This year saw the release of “It”.  Last year “Stranger Things”.  With all the difficulties of working with young actors and drawing on much larger and more complex mythologies (Stephen King and the 80’s, respectively) these presentations of their material were able to make everything “Channel Zero: Candle Cove” wished it was.

            You are allowed to demand more from the material you watch.  Even if that material is well made, you can still ask that the flaws you see in it be corrected in future works.
            The Creepypasta that inspired “Channel Zero: Candle Cove” was 500 words. This show grafts on tooth monsters (tone breaking and out of place), a psychic powered child (in tone but adds to the clutter), and some of the most holy-shit-stupid characters I have seen in recent memory (which I guess is always in tone for horror as a genre).

            You know what this show doesn’t have?  The internet.  The thing that birthed it is not a plot element.  That strikes me as an omission that in many ways betrays the conceit of the whole venture.  But maybe that is just me.

To be Continued

            Next time, for the final entry in this look at the first season of “Channel Zero,” I will focus on “What I would have done” with the initial premise of “Candle Cove” the Creepypasta.

Part 5...

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