Believe it or not it's been over seventeen years since we last got a theatrically released Friday The 13th movie due to the rights to the franchise being more complicated then the timeline for the Halloween movies. Which makes the show that i'm going to be taking not only today but also tomorrow all the more surprising as we finally have something new in the Friday The 13th series and it's this very TV show that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and so then join me as I give you my SPOILER FILLED first impressions of the show that that has Velma from the 2002 Scooby-Doo movie in a leading role with the show in question being called simply just "Crystal Lake" enjoy.
The plot of these first four episodes is nine months after her son Jason drowns at Camp Crystal Lake former camp cook Pamela Voorhees still believes that her son is alive and will go to any length to prove it. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty really good. With the idea of exploring a part of the franchises timeline that hasn't been explored in the films s a really good idea as it not only allows for fan favorite characters to return but it does also allow for new fans to get invested with the characters at the same time. Heck the plot for these first four episodes is also quite interesting as we do get to see a woman get pushed so far to the edge and seeing just how far that Pam is willing to go to just to prove her point is an interesting things to be added to the shows plot as it would have been very easy for this show to have her start of the show firmly insane and then get worse after the death of Jason but the fact that the show starts out with her being this genuinely kind and caring mother only to then start going insane is an interesting aspect to add to the plot of these episodes as now we the audience get to the chance to see her slowly unravel and become this more sick and twisted person and while yes there are certain aspects of the plot that aren't that well are that could have been alot more better there is still a chance that those aspects could be better in the latter half of the show with the plot of these episodes also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in these episodes is Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees , William Catlett as Levon Brooks and Gwendolyn Sundstrom as Grace. Also starring in these episodes is Cameron Scoggins as Dorf , Devin Kessler as Briana Brooks , Nick Cordileone as Ralph , Daniel Stewart Sherman as Enos , Bernadette Quigley as Trudy , Joy Suprano as Rita , Danielle Kotch as Claudette , Phoenix Parnevik as Barry , Manon Gage as Harmony , Brian J. Carter as John Christy , Nancy Nagrant as Kay Christy , Dan Thompson as Steve Christy , Jason Fuchs as Nate , William Hill as Gus , Drew Scheid as Shutterbug , Philip Themio Stoddard as Gabe , Lark White as Stella Blue , Nate Kelderman as Plato , Albert DiCesare as Space Ghost , April Consalo as Rhiannon , Kevin Interdonato as Jimmy Demilo and Callum Vinson as Young Jason Voorhees.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these episodes well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes was in all honesty really good. To put it bluntly the acting that we have here in these four episodes is just so much more better then what it really should have been with this being something that is quite shocking as while we have one big named star in the show the rest of the shows actors aren't that big of name with even all of the supporting characters in these episodes being played by unknown actors with this being something that does make the fact that even they turn in some good performance be all the more shocking as by all rights they should have been really bad and yet they end up being really good. With the best actor in these episodes very easily being Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees as my god is she so good in these four episodes alone with her really putting across the fact that Pam is struggling to survive without her beloved son and nine times our of ten she does all of this without any dialog she just uses her eyes or she just gives you a look and within that look you do get the feeling of torment that this character is going through every single day of the week heck her acting is just so good that it wouldn't be surprising if the makers of this show put her name forward to be nominated for an award for this show as she is just so good. With the acting that's in these very episodes really being helped by the fact that these episodes scripts are just so good that all these episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in these very episodes.
The characters in these four episodes are pretty well done as while there are some characters that could have been alot more better there are alot more that are handled really well. It does of course go without saying that Pam is a really well written character as due to the fact that she only appeared at the end of both the first and second movies the films really couldn't do anything with her character and therefor the show had and took the chance to fully flesh her out by showing us that she is this single mother who is struggling to make the rent and raise a kid on her own and yet she also does very deeply love and care for Jason with there scene together at the start of episode 1 being a very touching and heartwarming scene. However tho there are some characters that are handled pretty badly as even the characters of Barry and Claudette as even tho Claudette didn't get a line of dialog in the opening scene of the first film and Barry got half of a sentence you did still get the impression that they were just normal kids and nothing more then that whereas here in these four episodes they make Barry out to be bully and Claudette for alot of those first four episodes does come across as meaning well but almost cruel in her own way and this just doesn't feel true to how they came across as being in the first film whereas with a character like Rita or even Levon this wouldn't be that big of an issue as they were created for this show and heck both of those characters are done better then two of the shows many legacy characters altho to be fair they do something interesting with Crazy Ralph that dies make you view his characters in the early Friday The 13th films in a new light.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The film does go out of it's way to give Pam not only a life outside after Jason by showing her dating Levon the town sheriff but also in showing her openly befriend Grace. A kid that Jason was presumably best friends with ad to be honest seeing her scenes with both of those characters is genuinely heartwarming as that's when we get to see who Pam was prior to Jason dieing as we see her act as mother figure to Grace and while there is a really creepy and well done scene with getting turned on while she's with Levon and she sees some fire trucks going to the place where she's just killed someone seeing there relationship grow and seeing them become a rock for each other is something that was sweet to see even tho it could very well be seen as Pam getting closer to him so that she'll know right away if he finds out about any of the crimes that she's done. This is something that does make episode four be in it's own way kind of tragic as Grace even tho she doesn't find out that Pam killed her mom she still tells to Pam to get away from her with there bond beginning to fracture and it is something that does make you wonder if Grace is going to make it out of the series alive or not as while she was friends with Jason she was never close friends with Pam and with Pam going more and more insane by the episode it does mean that anyone who was a foe to her when this all happened is now prime to be killed of and there is a very good chance that the insane version of Pam might very well view Grace as an enemy and not as friend, whereas with Levon it is something that could go either way as while Pam is indeed in love with him he is also trying to work out who did the crimes that she herself committed in the first place.
Peacock really did miss a trick here as if they had waited just one month then they could have released the show on an actual Friday the 13th. Yet they instead to chose to release it in the middle of October which OK fair enough October does have halloween in it and this is a horror show afterall but you can watch horror on literally any day of the week therefor wouldn't it have been more fun to see this show drop on an actual friday the 13th that is something that does make alot more sense as people would already be on edge due to how unlucky many people perceive that date to be an therefor to have a new installment of the franchise that's build around that date it something that does make more sense then releasing it in October. This is a show that might have benefitted from releasing it's episodes weekly and not all at once as unless your Netflix your not going to gain subscribers from dropping all of your episodes at once and given the fact that this show is built around this one character going insane it would made alot more sense to drop the episodes weekly as then you will get more people coming back to your service on a hopefully full time basis and you'll also get alot more people talking about your show on social media for a longer look at something like the Scrubs revival which was yes does also air on ABC but the episodes also drop on Hulu and it would have been very easy for Disney to put the rest of the episodes on Hulu before they air on TV and yet didn't do that and because of that more people are going to come to Hulu to watch the show and it is something that could have worked for this show as this show is good enough to that and it has a big horror franchise attached to it therefor it's going to get alot of people watching the first episode in the first place.
While these episodes do get alot of things right like for example making Crazy Ralph a gun obsessed war vet with PTSD. Sadly one of the things that it does get wrong is the fact that alot of the characters in these episodes just aren't that likable heck the only truly likable characters in these episode are Grace , Pam and Levon and that's it as the rest of the townsfolk spend alot of time making fun of Jason behind Pam's back and when they clearly see that she's in distress in episode one not one of them tries to help her rather they all gather around her telling her things that all serve to make it worse granted the whole point of this show is to make you route for Pam and that does mean giving her some unlikable characters to interact with but alot of the characters that are meant to be her friends just aren't that likable as characters. As all this does is make us want Pam to kill them whereas if the makers of this show had still gave them negative aspects but also showed us reasons as to why they are like that like they do with Grace and her mom in episode three then it would go along way into making the characters alot more likeable and if Pam does indeed kill them later on in the show which in all fairness she very well might do then it would make those deaths be all the more tragic as then we would be seeing more of just how far she has fallen as then she'd be willing to kill genuinely good hearted people but as they are these are characters that you can't wait to die and while we know that both Enos and Ralph won't die due to the fact heat there in the first film Rita for example very well could die as could Trudy and Steve's parents for example.
Now then these episode have / had an exact grand total running of exactly fifty six minuets and six seconds with the episodes ranging from as high as fifty six minuets in episode one to as low as forty minuets and fifty five seconds in episode three. Which to be fair is fairly solid thing to do as it does show the episodes plot is dictating the running time of the episode and not the other way around and after looking at the running times for the other four episodes it does appear as if that will also be the case for those episodes as well which is a great thing to see happening as as much as it pains us to see a good show have short running times the plot should always dictate how long an episode is and not the other way around with these episodes having more then enough plot there to fully cover there respective running times. Yet even s alot of the episodes don't really use there respective running times all that wisely as alot of them don't fully develop there plots which is find for episode one as that is setting up the plot and it therefor does get a little bit slack there but episode two has a very underdeveloped plot when it really shouldn't have done due to the fact that the main plot was already set up but to be fair tho episodes three and four are where the series really does get cooking plot wise with the makers of this show putting alot more thought and effort into the references to the films then they did into giving us well thought out and developed plots. This is something that is also true for the shows characters which in all fairness is fair enough as you could argue that alot of the character will get the development later on in the show and it could well be argued that Pam not getting character development does allow for her decent into madness to be all the more tragic but none of the films other characters get any kind of character development either with the makers of this show being more focused on making us feel sorry for Jason then they did in giving the characters some character development but I really will admit tat these epsodes really do have some really good pacing to them tho.
So now the as this is a slasher show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual kills tat are actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes and well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the kills that are actually featured / presented to us in these very episodes were in all honesty really good. With the episodes making us of alot of practical effects for it's gore and it is something that really does stand out out as it would have been very cost effective for the makers of this show to just do there kills inside of a computer and call it a day but the fact that they went the extra mile to create these very good looking practical effects for these brutal kills is something that does standout in all if the right ways. With the best kill in these four episodes being the death of Grace's mom in episode three as after she starts bad mouthing Pam at the diner where she works Pam picks up a hammer like weapon smacks her across the face breaking her face in the process with Grace's mom lashing out rightfully so with Pam simply sidestepping her and sending her into the chip frier which is just such a brutal kill that des have some really impressive looking gore effects in it which might have been enhanced with CGI as we get to see the inside of Grace's moms face and we do get to see her missing several teeth and while it's not the goriest kill in these four episodes as the double kill in episode one is alot more gorier in terms of blood interms of story importance this one does have that kill beat as while the kill in episode one is apart on Levon's story the kill in episode 3 is a major part of Grace's story with the rest of the episodes kills being just as as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall these four episodes were alot of fun to watch and they do take certain characters that we know and love from the films and do something interesting with them and heck these four episodes do go along way in proving that there is still life in this franchise yet in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well of the bad things that are in these very episodes in this post and while this is only my first impressions of this already released show i'll be watching the final four episodes tomorrow with me then doing the full series review of the show as a whole.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very post well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very post from Tenor , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from these very episodes that I used in this very post being the really great Google Images really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from these very episodes with alot of them really being really better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on Google Images really are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition as well and so then horror fans we end this review as we always do with really our one and true goddess Elvira wishing us all some really very unpleasant dreams.
