“The Mist” (2017)

Fantasy/Horror

10 Episodes

Produced by: Guy J. Louthan and Amanda Segel

Featuring: Morgan Spector, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Luke Cosgrove, Darren Pettie, Russell Posner and Frances Conroy

An unexplained mist slowly envelops the city of Bridgton, Maine, creating an almost impenetrable barrier to visibility. The residents of the town soon learn the situation is even more precarious as hidden within the mist are numerous monsters of various sizes that attack and kill anything that moves.

Episode Eight: “The Law of Nature”

Cinematographer: André Pienaar

Directed by: Guy Ferland

Episode Nine: “The Waking Dream”

Cinematographer: André Pienaar

Directed by: Nick Murphy

Episode Ten: “The Tenth Meal”

Cinematographer: André Pienaar

Directed by: Guy Ferland

I have to say I am actually sorry I started watching this show as it was nowhere near as good as I thought it was going to be, or as good as it promised from the outset. The signs were there early on – in the actors, the way the narrative struggled to move forward as well as the situations everyone finds themselves in – the same situations most genre characters find themselves in, there is absolutely nothing new plot wise or narratively that draws a viewer in – it is a massive letdown in every single way a television show can be, particularly in this age where quality can be so high.

These last three episodes feel extremely long even thought they run a standard forty minutes, the writing is on the wall early into these episodes, the fact that you can feel the show petering out much like many of the characters seems like a relief – for some of them death must feel a sweet relief not to have to spout the cheesy lines, be around the horrid unbelievable sets and not to have to think about he ludicrous protracted storylines that feel that are going nowhere fast.

I can only hope that this series does not get a renewal as there are plenty of other original ideas that exist that deserve the time and money this show is taking up – it is like a sick addiction because once this started I had to see it through to the end just to make sure I was not like one of the characters in the mist, hallucinating something that isn’t there.

The lead actors Alyssa Sutherland and Morgan Spector as Eve and Kevin Copeland seem to want to make this show work, but Sutherlands acting ability is narrow and what worked for her in “Vikings” does not work here, the indifference as well as airiness works against her in a role where she has to project and show emotion, which on the evidence available seems hard for her to do. To be fair, towards the end of the show her range is starting to show but it is too little too late for me to identify with her or to even really care. On the other hand Spector’s character just seems a cypher as well as hollow, apparently it is enough for him to want to return to his family for us to care about him, but ultimately he feels like a jerk with little emotion for someone who is supposed to have a family – the angriness that his brother was showing turns up in him at the drop of a hat, it seems an afterthought to attempt to give him some depth.

What should have taken a few episodes has taken nine, that is, the actual reason for the mist to be present in the town – which is still not answered but you can check off one lazy cliffhanger which I hope we never have to endure an answer. I can see what was hoped for with this series, that is to have a slow burn to the end so that the second season may concentrate on where this mist came from. But to be honest it took so long that I could imagine people just thinking who cares, and turning the show off, permanently. Its not enough these days to drop people into situations where there is needless misdirection’s as well as storylines that go absolutely nowhere and to expect that to appeal to viewers, because it doesn’t. There are too many other quality shows that exist on endless platforms that for a new show there needs to be a definite hook, and for a show to base itself on a horror novella and not deliver horror is unforgivable.

The internal logic to the show keeps falling down on itself with little reason for why people behave the way they do. The way in which religion and commerce come up against each other all the way through the series, in particular the last few episodes is not only tired but also trite. It was almost as if the show runners didn’t think the original concept was good enough and so manufactured themes that might have sounded good on paper but when it came to execution fell short. They may have worked with more experienced as well as visionary directors but as with the actors and writers this is a decidedly amateur affair.

This may have worked better as a limited series show with a hard ending that not only answered some pretty serious questions about humanity as well as fear but also was a genre piece. This show has one pretty big thing against it as I have said and that is the film that Frank Darabont wrote and directed. That movie had one of the best as well as most horrific endings to any film of the past twenty years at least.

“The Mist” is streaming now on Netflix.