31 Days of Halloween: Monsterland S01E01: Port Fourchon, Louisiana

2020, Hulu

Yeah, I still feel like watching a TV episode is cheating, even when the genre matches well. Monsterland describes itself as broken people driven to desperate acts while interacting with fallen angels, mermaids and other gothic monsters. After only two episodes, let's just say the broken people is focus.

Based on North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud, the idea is to tell human stories but intersect them with humans. The problem is that I am not sure I want this much human in my monster stories. Episode one, brings us Toni, a just shy of teenage single mom working a shitty diner for shitty wages, trying to raise a daughter who embodies the rage Toni has inside her. OMG, her life and her situation is terrible.

Then Alex comes along. Alex is dressed in Psychopath 101 garb, nerdy and neat, but he is creepy kind to Toni, as he seeks a place to stay in her one horse, no motels town. He has to get off the road, as he has just drowned someone, and has a carload of evidence. When he places the tightly wound roll of bills numbering $1000 into her hand, she knows she cannot say no. And despite her better judgement she finds herself drawn to Alex, and surprisingly, he to her. 

But Alex is no mere psychopath, he is a doppelganger. He and another have been travelling, murdering, collecting skins and lives. Alex was once like her, desperate and with little hope. But s/he took it from others, and can offer Toni the same. How desperate is she? How bad does she feel about what s/he has done? Is it an escape hatch?