Editorials
TV’s Best and Worst Moments/Episodes in 2014
Horror TV has been on a huge upswing for the past couple of years. Us horror fans are getting more shows aimed at us than we know what to do with! Try as I might, I haven’t been able to watch every genre show that airs, but I try to watch as much as I can. So take this list below as my personal analysis of my favorite (and least favorite) TV moments throughout the year. I probably missed some of your favorites (sorry Walking Dead fans!) but since I can’t watch every show on TV, feel free to list some of your favorite moments from the past year. I tried to find as many clips as I could of the scenes I was describing, but alas, not everything is available on YouTube. Needless to say, I do delve into spoilers below so you’ve been warned.
Best TV Moments
Bates Motel – Norma Kisses Norman
I’m still not 100% into Bates Motel. Don’t get me wrong, I like it just fine and accept it for what it is (a melodramatic soap opera), but I still don’t have that “I need to watch the next episode NOW” feeling that I get with other shows. It is better than I would have expected a TV prequel of Psycho to be, though. That being said, Season 2 of the drama got off to a slow start (marijuana dealers plot line, anyone?) but it ended up in a great place that I think could lead to a potentially fantastic third season. The cringe-worthy (and best) moment came after Norman decided to head into the woods and end his life with a gunshot to the head (over guild from murdering his teacher Ms. Watson). Unfortunately for Norman, his mother Norma followed him and stopped him from committing suicide, and then proceeded to kiss him in a way that was, let’s say a bit more sexual than a mother should be when she kisses her child. It probably sounds weird for me to say that I enjoyed this scene, since I’m not into incest or anything, but this was the show’s water-cooler moment if there ever was one.
Penny Dreadful – The Séance
Talk about a slow burn. Penny Dreadful has one of the most interesting narratives of any TV show I’ve ever seen. Based on the pilot alone, it is clear that the destination is not what’s important with this show, but rather the journey instead. Penny Dreadful takes its sweet time getting to the point, and at first I was a little bored but after a while I became mesmerized by how beautiful it was. That pretty much changed after t he second episode, appropriately titled Séance. If Eva Green doesn’t get an Emmy nomination next year (and let’s face it, she probably won’t) it will be a sad day for TV indeed. All of the performances are top notch, but Green nearly steals every scene she is in. Her tour de force performance in the second episode involves her character becoming possessed at the titular event and it’s phenomenal. Take a look at the clip above and tell me I’m lying.
The Strain – Bolivar Loses His Manhood
The Strain certainly had its ups and downs during its first season, didn’t it? I read the trilogy (written together by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan) and thought it was alright, if a little poorly written (I prefer Justin Cronins Passage trilogy) but definitely saw potential for a good TV show. I believe The Strain would have benefited from a 10-episode season. Just my opinion though. One thing The Strain did very well, though, was the horror. While it could never really land the personal moments or make me feel sympathetic towards some of the characters (Nora), it did horror very well. One such jaw-dropping moment was when Bolivar lost his penis in the toilet. It was darkly humorous and definitely one of the most memorable moments on TV this year.
Stalker – Pilot
I’m just going to put this out there: Stalker is infinitely better than Kevin Williamson’s other TV show, The Following. More on that particular topic later, but I can tell you that I have really enjoyed it. I’ve read countless articles calling it the worst new show of the season and I just disagree. It is not amazing, but it is certainly not terrible or misogynistic. Maggie Q is all kinds of awesome (anyone who watched Nikita knows this) and Dylan McDermott is fine. Williamson does copy himself a lot on the show (the opening scene of the pilot is very reminiscent of several different scenes from his Scream series) but it doesn’t stop it from being enjoyable. So while there isn’t really a specific moment that I can pinpoint in Stalker, I can say that it’s definitely good for a procedural on CBS and you could do a lot worse nowadays on TV.
Hannibal – Mason Verger Cutting Face Off/Beverly Katz’s Murder/Finale
I will be the first to admit that I thought making a TV series of Thomas Harris’ infamous book series was a terrible idea. I did not think there was any way in Hell that it could possibly be any good, especially since it airs on NBC. Well I’m eating my words because Hannibal has become one of my favorite shows currently (thank God!) on the air. I know this is something we have already pointed out on this site, but it is one of the most visually appealing and emotionally satisfying shows out there and it’s also insanely grotesque. I feel like every episode I am amazed at some of the violence they get away with (the man ripping his skin off while breaking away from the mural of dead bodies is one of the more memorable moments). Season 2 outdid Season 1 in every way imaginable. The first major turning point was Katz’s murder. When Crawford finds her vivisected (think the horse in The Cell), it’s definitely shocking to say the least. Then you have Michael Pitt’s Mason Verger CUTTING OFF HIS FACE on network television. Sure, it was in the shadows, but you could still see (and hear) it. Then of course you have the finale. I’m so glad we’re getting a 3rd season because that was a brutal way to end the season. Bravo NBC! Great job Bryan Fuller! You’ve won me over.
WORST TV
Rosemary’s Baby – The Whole Thing
I don’t really have much to say about this TV special except that it was completely unnecessary. It would be different if it was unnecessary and good, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t awful. It was just generic, which is something a remake of a classic should never be. A TV mini-series probably isn’t the best choice for this property though. Did NBC learn nothing from 2002’s Carrie?
The Following – Joe Is Still Alive
This show, man. I really wanted to like it. I pretty much had to force myself to make it through the first season and then I just gave up a few episodes into the second season. The Following is so dumb. It’s full of the dumbest characters I have ever seen on TV and the police force is completely inept. The villains aren’t just unlikable, they’re annoying. I get that we aren’t supposed to like the villains, but I can’t even stand to watch them and that makes for bad TV in my opinion. The biggest mistake the show made was bringing Joe Carroll back for the second season. Now, I know those of you who do like the show will cry out “it wouldn’t be ‘the following’ without Joe to follow!” but I think the show really should have reinvented itself after “killing off” Joe. That being said, it clearly has its fans so I’ve got to give it that. I just really can’t stand this show and I think it needs to be removed from TV.
True Blood – Tara’s Death
I always gave True Blood the benefit of the doubt. When it premiered in 2008 it was THE show to be watching. Season 2 was the peak of its success and Season 3 wavered a bit. I enjoyed Season 4 but that seems to be when people really started losing interest. Season 5 was terrible and Season 6 was slightly better, but not by much. Then Season 7 happened. This had to be one of the laziest seasons of TV I have ever seen in my life. I think the writers just gave up at a certain point. It was clear that this was going to be an unsatisfying ending for the once-promising series when Tara was dispatched off-screen in the opening moments of the premiere (and then we were treated to a full-season arc for her mother, Lettie Mae, a character no one cares about). Tara had some problematic characterization throughout True Blood’s seven seasons, starting as a strong, empowering character in the first season and then becoming whiny and obnoxious in seasons 2-4. Finally, the writers gave her a break and turned her into a vampire, but then chose to insult their audience by giving her about 15 seconds of screen time before killing her off screen. I know they were trying to show viewers that “anyone could die” but at least give a major character a major death. What a waste. To top it all off, the rest of the season sucked and had one of the worst finales I have ever seen. Also, sorry for the video above, but both of the YouTube videos of Tara’s death had embedding disabled by the “creator.”
Ravenswood – Pilot
I predict I’ll get a lot of flack for even including this on the list, but I assure you that it has a lot of horror elements. Ravenswood, for those of you who don’t know, is the supernatural spin-off of ABC Family’s hit TV show Pretty Little Liars. I confess, I do watch and occasionally enjoy Pretty Little Liars. It’s pure soapy fun and pays homage to horror films all the time (the second season finale is essentially the plot of Psycho and actually lifts scenes right from the film). Ravenswood was boring. And if any of you watch PLL (thought I’m betting many of you don’t so I’ll keep this short), you know it’s not boring. Ravenswood tried to be mysterious and spooky (and even killed off a main character in the second episode, only to have her stay on the show as a ghost) but just failed in all aspects.
American Horror Story: Coven – Finale
I have a love/hate relationship with Ryan Murphy (as I’m sure many of you do). I thought Murder House was alright but nothing special. I fell in love with Asylum, which I thought is the only season to embody the “horror” in the show’s title. But then Coven came along. I was so ready for it and devoured every (amazing) casting announcement made for it. The premiere was alright but that led the way to the worst season the show has ever done (I’m still not fully caught up on Freakshow so I can’t speak for that season). It just seemed like the writers didn’t have any outline written when they began the season because the plot lines when nowhere, great actresses were wasted (looking at you Patti LuPone). Characters were killed and resurrected so many times that death held no stakes whatsoever, but nothing could compare to the awful finale of Coven. I did not care who the Supreme was. I especially didn’t want it to be the mystery that the whole season was wrapped around. It ended up not even being very interesting (and it was pretty obvious it was going to be Sara Paulson’s character). Kathy Bates and Angela Basset were not really used to their full potential and the racial commentary was so over the top it was obnoxious. For some reason, people seem to like this season the best (and hate Asylum) and I will never understand why. I have just come to accept that I’m in the minority. Do you agree or disagree with me?
So that’s my thoughts on this past year of horror TV. Like I said in the beginning, I’m sure I missed one of your favorite (or least favorite) moments so feel free to comment on some of yours below!
Comics
‘Spider-Noir’ Comic Changes Explained: How the TV Series Reinvents Marvel’s Darkest Spider-Man
A little while back, I wrote an article chronicling the Hellraiser franchise’s affinity for Film Noir and touched on how that genre has, historically, always been connected to horror.
This connection can be observed in everything from the cannibalistic serial killers of Frank Miller’s Sin City to the disturbing criminal plots fueling neo-noir thrillers like Stuart Gordon’s underrated King of the Ants. That’s why it came as no surprise when I finally sat down to watch all eight episodes of Prime Video’s recently released Spider-Noir series and was confronted with plenty of classic horror tropes.
What did come as a surprise, however, was how showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot approached these horror elements when compared to the 2009 comic book that the show is based on. From the heavily altered rogue’s gallery to an equally terrifying yet completely different origin story for Nicolas Cage’s take on the webslinger, there are plenty of changes here that I feel might be of interest to genre fans.
With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to take a closer look at all the adjustments that Spider-Noir made to the story in order to bring this incarnation of Spider-Man to life in all of its monochromatic glory (unless you watched the True-Hue color version of the show, in which case you’ll be treated to a surprisingly comic-booky palette that you don’t usually see on television).
The Dark Origins of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir
Our first order of business should be to examine the origins of the Noir comics themselves. Originally published as part of the Marvel Noir alternate universe that reimagined several characters as hard-boiled crime-fighters, Spider-Man Noir became the most successful book in the entire run. This highly politicized story about Peter Parker coming to terms with the capitalist evils of the Great Depression seemed to have struck a nerve with audiences looking for a darker take on the wall-crawler, which is likely why we’d soon see several sequel stories as well as a video game adaptation of the character in 2010’s underrated Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
Of course, it wasn’t just Spider-Man’s darker disposition that made this version of the character a hit, as 1930s New York City was depicted as being much more hostile than what we generally see in the standard Marvel Universe. From Peter’s powers coming from an Eldritch Spider God that spawns man-eating arachnids to Vulture being an ex-Freak-Show Gimp with a taste for human flesh, you can definitely understand why this Web-Head isn’t pulling his punches.
Unfortunately, this alternate universe was a little too popular for its own good, with each subsequent sequel/adaptation further diluting the political anger and classic horror influences that fueled the original comic-book run in order to appeal to a wider audience. Spider-Man Noir was nearly unrecognizable once we got to the Spider-Verse crossover that turned the character into a household name, though this would at least lead to an interesting adaptation in 2018.
The Classic Horror Influences Hidden Throughout Spider-Noir
Jack Huston as Sandman in ‘Spider-Noir’
When Phil Lord and Chris Miller finally translated Spider-Man Noir to the big screen, with Nicolas Cage bringing the character to life in an unexpected case of pitch-perfect casting, he was still mostly relegated to comic relief as his nazi-punching antics and over-the-top edginess were played for laughs. However, while this version of the character had little to do with the comics that spawned him, Spider-Noir’s newfound popularity eventually resulted in the announcement of a darker live-action spin-off – a spin-off that I was cautiously optimistic about.
While the showrunners ultimately decided to go in a completely different direction than the 2009 comic, the new team of writers appeared to understand Noir as a genre in ways that even the folks at Marvel Noir couldn’t quite grasp. That’s likely why 2026’s Spider-Noir boasts plenty of horror elements, just not in ways we’ve seen them before.
The series is obviously borrowing tropes and aesthetics from period-accurate monster movies, with Universal’s 1930s output being a particularly big influence. From the re-imagining of Sandman and Tombstone as tragic figures to The Spider even being operated on by a mad scientist with hilariously antiquated techniques, this bizarre collection of super-powered freaks could have easily shown up in a classic creature feature.
The scares aren’t all retro, however, as the showrunners also injected plenty of body-horror into the mix during their attempt at unifying the origin stories for all these larger-than-life characters. Hell, the Spider himself is now revealed to have gained his powers after being bitten by a half-mutated Man-Spider during World War I, and the aforementioned mad scientist keeps a disturbing collection of failed experiments in her basement, proving that not all of her patients were lucky enough to simply gain superpowers after being experimented on.
Nicolas Cage Reinvents Spider-Man Noir for Television
Ben Reilly/Spiderman (Nicolas Cage) in SPIDER-NOIR
Photo: Aaron Epstein/Prime
© Amazon Content Services LLC
I also really appreciate how Cage insists on depicting Ben Reilly as an arachnid trapped inside of a human body, with his uncanny physical performance and classic Hollywood impressions keeping your eyes glued to the screen while also providing some of the show’s funniest moments.
I still think it’s a shame that the character is no longer politically motivated, and I miss the detail about Uncle Ben having been cannibalized by Vulture after his social activism ruffled too many feathers, but at least this time our protagonist actually feels like someone who could have been written by Raymond Chandler if he were a fan of Superheroes.
In fact, the writers nailed the snappy back-and-forth that Noir authors like Dashiel Hammett used to refer to as the “riposte”, and it’s fun to see supervillains being depicted as horrific movie monsters instead of specialized henchmen – with The Spider feeling like just as much of a Freak Show attraction as the rest of them. Purists might be put off by the lack of reverence for the source material, but I think that’s a small price to pay when even the show’s most clichéd moments intentionally harken back to the golden age of Hollywood.
That’s why I’d argue that Amazon’s Spider-Noir isn’t really an adaptation, but rather an equally valid take on the same premise that inspired Marvel back in 2009. And in a world filled with recycled storylines that only serve to advertise future releases, I’d rather have two completely different visions of the same character than a straight-up retelling of the same handful of ideas.
At the end of the day, there’s enough space inside this comic fan’s heart for both man-eating Vultures and a Cronenberg-inspired Man-Spider. And if you’re also a fan of nostalgic creature features with comic book flair, I’d highly recommend this street-level superhero story with a spooky twist.
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