Fear Itself - Community

Original airdate : July 24th (Episode 7)

Wow. This series sucks even harder then I thought it did. And I thought it sucked pretty hard.

"Community" is about a couple living in the city who decide they want to move into a nice community home and start a family. They find a place called "The Commons" which is more then eager to bring them into the fold. A low priced fully furnished home, an overagressive landlady, and creepy robot like neighbors. I think you can tell where this is headed. The townspeople also seem to be overly concerned with the couple having a child, even threatening foreclosure on their home if they can't produce. Ah, the American dream.

The premise for the story is somewhat of a good one. Sure its a similar idea that's been done to death in movies like The Stepford Wives and Body Snatchers, but it seemed like it had potentional. Done properly it could have been a very Twilight Zone esque story. Instead it falls short of even Outer Limits..the newer ones. This is a small nitpick when compared to the whole clusterfuck of other things wrong with this episode but it annoyed the shit out of me. There's a title card after almost every scene proclaiming things like "two weeks later," "two days later," "one day earlier." Jesus christ, shut the fuck up. I don't care what day it is, I just want this episode to end.

This episode stars Brandon "Superman" Routh, who manages to turn in one of the worst performances i've ever seen. I had no interest in seeing Superman Returns but it's pretty clear to me now that he was hired solely for his looks. It says a lot about the state of Hollywood when the biggest name actor in this episode is also the worst actor. Deadpan is the word i'm looking for. He almost sounds dubbed at times. I guess the Fear Itself producers just figured they'd thrown a known name into the mix to draw in viewers, whether he had any chops or not. Ironically enough, by the end of the episode, Routh ends up in a wheelchair ; much like his Superman predecessor. Insert Twilight Zone theme. Why couldn't this dude get thrown off the horse? I kid, I kid.



So who directed this pure and utter piece of crap? Certaintly not the same person who wrote and directed American Psycho, right? Wrong. Mary Harron is her name and she's also written for some pretty big tv shows. She even directed one of my favorite episodes of Six Feet Under. I'm a big fan of American Psycho and an even bigger fan of Six Feet, so you could say up until this point I was on the Harron bandwagon...of which in the past hour I was unceremoniously thrown off. Looks like ole Mary may have drained all the wit and cleverness out of herself on American Psycho. Perhaps the fact that she didn't write this episode is the problem. Regardless, Fear Itself seems to be cancer for the careers of respectable filmmakers.

If you ever find yourself in this creepy commune situation, here's a little piece of advice. GET THE FUCK OUT! Didn't think of that, did ya Superman?

Episode 8 of Fear Itself, titled Skin & Bones, airs tonight on NBC at 10pm. This one's directed by Larry Fessenden who's probably most well known for Wendigo and who directed the new Ron Perlman flick, The Last Winter, which just hit dvd shelves a couple weeks back. Skin & Bones is about a cattle herder who returns a changed man after being lost in the woods for several days. I'll have a review up for it whenever I get around to watching.

Check out my reviews for past episodes :

Episode 2 - Spooked
Episode 4 - In Sickness & In Health
Episode 6 - New Year's Day