NBC’s Fear Itself: A Refreshing Approach

I’ve been watching Fear Itself on NBC since it started a few weeks back and I must say that so far, I have not been disappointed.

Every episode I’ve seen, I think I know where it’s going and the ending is a twist that I didn’t see coming. It’s a refreshing twist.

WARNING: EPISODE SPOILERS if you’ve DVR’d the show:

Last Thursday night’s episode, In Sickness, probably should not have caught me off guard, but it did. A couple is getting married, and the bride-to-be receives a note that says “You are marrying a serial killer”. After that, the bride and bridesmaids get pretty nervous about the groom the rest of the day. We follow the bride as she experiences different little things that actually keep us guessing. In the end, the groom traps her in a confessional booth so they can “talk” and we’re thinking this is bad. But then the bride tells the groom that the note isn’t that important, since it was delivered to the wrong person. The bride and her brother are the killers.

The episode before this one, Family Man, starts with a family man getting into a car accident with a mass murderer. They swap bodies and the crook enjoys his new life while the family man has to suffer his new lot in the life of a criminal. All he wants to do is get back to his life, his body. In the end, he’s able to confront the killer, get into a fight that ends in the death of the mass murderer and gets back in his own body. But it was too late. The killer had killed his family except for the daughter, and for all his trouble, she points to him as the killer. Nice twist, again.

One of the interesting aspects of the show is that they use different talent, both in front of and behind the camera. In Sickness was directed by John Landis (An American Werewolf in London, Twilight Zone: The Movie) and Victor Salva (Powder, Jeepers Creepers I & II) wrote it.

Family Man starred Colin Ferguson (The Sheriff of Eureka), was written by Dan Knauf (Carnivále, Supernatural) and directed by Ronny Yu ( Freddy vs. Jason, Bride of Chucky) It was nice to see Colin doing something other than the Eureka Sheriff!

Future episodes will see products from directors like Ernest Dickerson (NBC’s Heroes), Darren Bousman (Saw II, III and IV) and Rupert Wainwright (The Fog, Stigmata). Future stories will come from scribes like Max Landis (Masters of Horror), Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and Sean Hood (The Crow: Wicked Prayer, Halloween: Resurrection).

I like NBC’s approach to bringing in fresh, experienced blood (no pun) for different episodes. It creates a different approach to delivering the story and there’s nothing to be lost in a continuing story line. Nice.

Even though some of the creative talent lined up are sequel experts, I still look forward to being surprised by future episode endings where they’ll be touching on new twists (I assume) for werewolves, post apocalyptic worlds and ghosts, just to name a few. If you’ve caught the show, what’s your take?

Official site: Fear Itself

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