Review of the New Night Stalker

I'm afraid I'm going to have to agree with this guy. I hear the next one is an improvement. I don't know if I have the interest to go on.

Carl Kolchak originally was this middle-aged world-weary guy who kept running into the supernatural. The series had a little bit of welcome humor in it. Stuart Townsend is just a boring, broody young guy who's trying to figure out the supernatural because "something" killed his wife and unborn child. And, sadly, I don't care. It's very sad not to care about about someone who's murdered, but I don't, because the whole plot makes a comic book page look 3D.

And oh, look, we have a Government agent trying to cover up something. [eyes roll] To quote John Hurt in Spaceballs, "Oh, no, not again."

If they wanted to do another Night Stalker series, why couldn't Townsend just have been Herbert Q. Morris or someone and his boss been Tom McGillicuddy? Maybe Carl Kolchak was Townsend's great uncle and he picked up his interest in the supernatual from him, then his wife was killed. This way it could have been a sequel of sorts and still stood on his own. But to take a great actor like Darren McGavin and have him replaced with this bland silhouette is just sad, sad, sad.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:22:00 PM

Comments:

That's kind of sad. How many episodes do you think it'll last?

# posted by  Jerry : 10:21:00 AM

 

Another angle on it since the reviewer covered my other compaints: Kolchak: The Night Stalker gave us a monster a week that, generally, they weren't afraid to show. If the vampire/werewolf/mummy/zombie is unseen, there's not much reason have them as the creep of the week. This take of the show has the modern fast cuts/blurry/shadow technique that keeps us from getting a good look at the creature. And while that can be fine also (such as "The Energy Eater" in the original series), I get the feeling they're going to be doing this all the time. When I watch Christopher Lee as Dracula I expect a full fang shot. At least they're releasing the series on DVD next Tuesday (Oct 4). I saw Dan Curtis's name as something like "consulting producer" but did not spot Jeff Rice's (Kolchak creator) in the credits.
-Rodney

# posted by  Anonymous : 9:51:00 PM

 

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