Once again I play the this-is-my-game card and state that it didn't have to be movies, did it? So, last night we watch some of british TV's latest scary/horror shows.
The Fades is about a teenage boy who can see ghosts and a group of people calling themselves Angelics, who fight evil ghosts.
Bedlam is another story about a boy who can see ghosts but is more for the pretty people living pretty lives but experiencing ghosts demographic. Is there a demographic for that in the UK? I guess it could be snarkily summed up as Big Brother with Ghosts? But they cannot be exactly that as there was already Big Brother with Zombies; literally.
The Fades is the better of the two. It's a story about ghosts and the people who see them. But not just any ghosts but those nasty, angry types who are hanging on long after they should for whatever angry reason they need. Others, those who aren't as angry, get glow sticks installed on their chest until they burst into a flock of glowy birds. The angry ones are led by this nasty ghoul-like one that has an agenda. That agenda involves the end of the world, if the dreams of our teenage hero are any indicators. So, teenage boy, and his movie obsessed bestest buddy plus his cute lil new GF are going to be wrapped up in this ghostly agenda.
That snarkily said, it is a very atmospheric show with truly creepy ghosts and a dark future. Like all british specfic shows, the plot could go in any direction so the end of the world is truly a possibility. The main character, while given a dose of his ghostly awareness and other... powers early on is upset and nervous about what he is wrapped up in but still understands their is something very important going on. It will probably morph into a story more of adventure and super powered entities duking it out, but that will not temper my interest. As long as we don't have to watch Paul the angelic teenager wank and grow wings again.
Meanwhile
Bedlam is truly annoying. Yes, we have a bunch of attractive people living together in a renovated metal asylum that was shut down when the owner was caught doing unseemly things to the patients. The new owner, son of said looney and his daughter, have started setting the place up as a condo site. Yep, they call the place Bedlam. Add to that the adopted nephew returning from his vacation in another asylum, after "getting better" from seeing ghosts. The nasty daughter is allowing some of her friends stay with them, gratis, so she can exercise her power over them. She also has sleep walking dreams where she interacts with the horribly treated patients from her granddaddy's days.
So, each week, a new tenant with a dark past will be introduced. That tenant, all female so far, is haunted by a ghost of someone who stayed at the asylum, someone angry at the tenant and whatever terrible way she screwed up in the past. And Jed, the ghost whisperer, gets to save the tenant. Or sleep with them. Or both. And also, condo developer daddy is probably also murdering girls.
What bugs me the most is actually how contemptible the female lead is. She is manipulative and controlling of her friends, jealous of anyone who talks to Jed and has no concern for anyone but herself. And yet the reason Jed is there is to save her. Or save us from her?
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