bernardjkd.bsky.social
I do sci-fi, horror, fantasy & radio walkthroughs here on BlueSky.
Currently: #Buffy 🦇, #TheGoodWitch 🧹, #TheOuterLimits 👽. #TheHallOfFantasy 🧟♂️ , #UrbanGothic 😱.
Latest #DoctorWho scores:
"The Well" 6/10,
"Lux" 4/10.
#LOI football
2,321 posts
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Getting Started
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #149 "The Black Figurine of Death" (26-Jan-53).
More cookie cutter this ep. The figurines didn't play in as much as I wanted. Plus the two men who weren't the couple I didn't realise were separate characters! So the Whodunit passed me by!
archive.org/details/4702...
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio 148 cont'd.
Other adaptations of "The Cask of Amontillado" I've done:
#TheWeirdCircle Radio ep #33 (09-Apr-44),
#Suspense TV ep #2.06 (11-Oct-49),
#JohnnyDollar Radio ep #638 (24-May-59),
#CBSRadioMysteryTheater Radio ep #203 (12-Jan-75).
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #148 "The Cask of Amontillado" (19-Jan-53).
A pretty strong adaptation of Poe's story (Nov-1846). Is it the best adaptation? No possibly not but I still loved the ep and the end scenes were pretty great too.
archive.org/details/4702...
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#UrbanGothic Ep 2.02 cont'd.
In ep 2.01 the Sandman wasn't needed as the ep was already scary so a focus for those scares narratively added nothing. In ep 2.02 getting all sorts of half explanations about what went down prior was confusing. What was filmed was scary and it needed no backstory
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#UrbanGothic Ep 2.02 cont'd.
Had this focused on the pure supernatural side and not on over elaborate reveals about the cabal I think it would have been less hard work in the viewer.
There's so much going on at once that working out whose camera is on screen currently means it needs to be rewatched.
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #2.02 "Membrane" (29-Oct-01).
Rather like RTD shamelessly trying to plug Doctor Who into the latest fads this show is prone to do the same. This ep it's found footage. In this budget starved show that works well. Reminiscent of REC albeit the final reveal is fairly impenetrable.
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #2.01 "Sandman" (22-Oct-01).
Great start to S2.
8 contestants touch a prize car. Whoever is last man standing wins the car. But as time passes and lack of sleep takes over strange things start happening.
The Sandman himself wasn't needed on screen so he might've been cut.
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Cat
712
5
Is like on those "Twin Peaks" complex dream messages.
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Did you review each ep or just that first one please?
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#UrbanGothic Ep 1.13 cont'd.
I found an interview of Tom De Vile @devilligan.bsky.social by @gnofhorror.com.
The Ginger Nuts guy a big fan of the show so I'm glad someone out there shares my love for "Urban Gothic" (even though I only started it 3 weeks ago!).
archive.gnofhorror.com/interviews/u...
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#TheGoodWitch Ep 5.05 cont'd.
Sarah Power isn't stretched in this but I notice the opening credits list her now as "And Sarah Power" so she must be getting more money.
I hoped the two girls would be lesbians but alas no, however one of them was Asian American so three eps in a row with a POC!!
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#TheGoodWitch TV ep #5.05 "The Tea" (30-Jun-19).
Abigail and Steph both have new relationships. But this show hasn't had a decent ship other than Cassie in its 10 years so thank God they not giving Grace a new ship. I fully expect Steph's loved live to be as forgettable as all her others ones.
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#UrbanGothic Ep 1.13 cont'd.
This ties up the series and acts as a finale but there will be a Season 2 in 2001 presumably anthology horror eps too.
I like that all the "Resurrection of the Daleks" locations were reused in this ep and surprisingly by 2000 they still hadn't yet been renovated.
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #1.13 "Thirteen" (16-Aug-00).
Superb. There have been 12 seemingly unrelated anthology episodes up till now but this ep ties them all together with several callbacks to earlier eps. The Twilight Zone would try this 19 years later.
A journo finds a big story, too big to be told.
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #1.12 "Turn On" (09-Aug-00).
A very strong ep. A Black Mirror style ep in 25 minutes. A woman recovering from a phantom pregnancy gets a robot dog. It may not be as daring as or hit home as much as a Black Mirror ep but this near future tech story has so much to recommend it.
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#TheGoodWitch TV ep #5.04 "The Prince" (23-Jun-19).
And now another Asian American guest actor! Is "Good Witch" entering the 21st Century at long last? I'm curious to know if all white casts is a Hallmark thing?
Abigail is no longer acting Mayor!
Plus intrigue as the Poindexter is up to no good!
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #1.11 "The Boy's Club" (02-Aug-00).
Loved this.
An upcoming young London gang leader gets ideas of hitting the big time by joining the mysterious group The Boy's Club. Lot's of grisly gangland deaths, plenty of masochism and a man eating pig. Leslie Grantham guests. Oink.
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That's the nadir of the entirety of Who completed.
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #146 "The Hangman's Rope" (06-Jan-53).
A creepy horror story about the murderous ghost of Jack Ketch the Hangman but set in the 1950s.
I love how instantaneously this show is on the horror set up and never lets up with the trappings or mystery.
archive.org/details/4702...
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #144 "The Steps That Follow Me" (19-Sep-52).
To my ears is the same recording as Radio ep #42 with the title just different? Hard to say which is which and there are other surviving files too!
Lesser known shows are hard to get forensics on.
archive.org/details/4702...
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #142 "The Shadow People" (05-Sep-52).
The surviving files might be a later remake hard to tell but lets go with the above date.
This is great. Shadows out to kidnap you. Forever. Top notch OTR horror despite the main guy being super generic.
archive.org/details/4702...
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #140 "The Legend of Drago" (22-Aug-52).
This is the first ep to go out nationally on the Mutual Network. Eps are still made in WGN Chicago.
The surviving file is a rebroadcast copy retitled "The Castle of La Voca".
Lovely trad horror this ep.
archive.org/details/4702...
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep 42 cont'd.
So are the Chicago made eps vastly different from the Salt Lake City eps? Ok the Chicago style is a bit more professional, budgeted and quite typical maybe but it's not noticeably different either better or lesser than those homespun Salt Lake City eps.
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #42 "He Who Follows Me" (11-Mar-50).
Adaptation of M.R. James story "Count Magnus" (1904).
I'll let the scholars decide if 1940s Chicago radio writers can capture 1900s English horror writing but this show is still a fine piece of OTR horror.
archive.org/details/4702...
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#TheHallOfFantasy WGN Chicago was part of Mutual Network. The show would have ~110 Radio eps for the Chicago area (1949-52) before it would finally go out nationally across the USA on Mutual.
Just one ep of these local WGN Chicago eps exists. But as Chicago only eps get remade later it's unsure?
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#TheHallOfFantasy There were only 29 Radio episodes made and broadcast on KALL [Salt Lake City] with the last one airing 01-Jun-47.
But two and a half years later, 1500 miles distant at WGN [Chicago] the creators Richard Thorne and Carl Greyson bumped into each other and resurrected the show.
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#TheGoodWitch TV ep #5.03 "The Honeymoon" (16-Jun-19).
I liked giving Grace the ability to move forward in time but not really. Noah is dispensed with so this show really is stuck in a dead end spiral. Poor Bailee Madison is being wasted with the stuff on offer to her.
Finally an Asian American!!!
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I can't see any of your points being a proper assessment of where the show is at or what it is currently delivering. But I'm glad it's what you think the show should be.
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #1 .10 "Pineapple Chunks" (26-Jul-00).
In a meta crossover with #DoctorWho 25 years early Anita Dobson is the main baddie Mrs Flood.
I absolutely loved this episode. OK the budget is tiny and video tape still grim but this was a joy.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9UL...
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#UrbanGothic Ep 1.09 cont'd.
It's unclear whether the huge divide between UK and US horror is intended or just a by product here. A bit of both? As everything is so different in the UK TV system trying to rip Scream is fully pointless yet what's left of the idea is still an interesting watch.
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #1.09 "Be Movie" (19-Jul-00).
Much like ep #1.07 tries to subvert "Friends" this tries something similar with #Scream. But its message isn't clear and even ends the same way as ep #1.07.
However what does work that unlike the fake teens of Scream all the teens in this feel real.
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #1.08 "Cry Wolf" (12-Jul-00).
A very good werewolf ep. I wasn't expecting anal sex in this show I'll be honest. What time of the day did this show air?
Cleverly the scientific rivalry between the two scientists is matched with the love (ok just sex) triangle with the werewolf.
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Billyfluffs living in his own echo pyramid clearly.
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#UrbanGothic Ep 1.07 cont'd.
Andrew Morgan directs on it's all on video so looks drab despite Morgan's talents but again you just have to let dated video ride.
Naked folk shagging on video looks like Amateurs porn.
The end was a bit unfathomable. Why was the guy there with an actual camera crew?
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #1.07 "The One Where..." (05-Jul-00).
Ok there are 3 twentysomethings men and 3 twenty something women so this is meant to have a Friends thing going on. But they aren't very Friends-ish the characters nor their lives so it's hard to workout why they kept up the homage.
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Boring and tedious?
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#TheGoodWitch TV ep #5.02 "The Forever Tree [2]" (10-Jun-19).
Cassie & Sam finally marry.
Fake Brandon and fake Tara finally return. No sign of real Lori though. Still dead under Sam's jetty I tell ya.
Sarah Power and Bailee Madison are too good for this show.
I hope the horsey hottie hangs about.
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #25 "The Mark of Shame" (04-May-47).
Adaptation of Mary Elisabeth Braddon's story "Eveline's Visitant" published in Belgravia Magazine (1867).
I do get a #TheWeirdCircle vibe from this show's set up but this series is so much more interesting.
archive.org/details/4702...
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#TheHallOfFantasy Ep 24 cont'd.
The other six "Markheim" adaptations I've done previously are:
#TheWeirdCircle Radio ep #77 (20-May-45),
#Suspense Radio eps #41 (11-May-43), #147 (28-Jun-45), #775 (01-Nov-58),
#Suspense TV ep #5.03 (28-Oct-52),
#CBSRadioMysteryTheater Radio ep #279 (23-May-75).
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #24 "Markheim" (27-Apr-47).
Adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's story from the Pall Mall Gazette (1884).
My 7th version of this story and all adaptations are very different. If I ever read the story I could work out which is most faithful.
archive.org/details/4702...
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#UrbanGothic Ep 1.06 cont'd.
This show does wear its heart on its sleeve. I mean there is no budget and video in 2000 looks so shit but this had body horror, location, night shooting and mad science. The lady Doctor and the lesbian cop needed to have a moment otherwise why tell us she's a lesbian?
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #1.06 "Sum of the Parts" (21-Jun-00).
Tried to be an edgy dark cop procedural but the budget means it was more like The Airzone Solution than The X-Files!
Was the thing in the tank alien? The black oil was very X-Files but so much cheaper.
Terry Molloy and Ace Bhatti guest.
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#UrbanGothic TV ep #1.05 "Deptford Voodoo" (14-Jun-00).
Unlike when Buffy does an ep about voodoo this avoided stereotypes and cultural appropriation inherent in Buffy and in general in US TV.
A young Nina Sosanya stars. She hot!!
Again you simply must ignore that this was shot on video and enjoy.
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#TheHallOfFantasy Radio ep #22 "Man-Size in Marble" (13-Apr-47).
Adaptation of Edith Nesbit's story from Home Chimes Magazine (Dec-1887).
I am liking their adaptations so far. I'm sure the Victorian ghost story element was watered down but 1940s OTR horror is so fine.
archive.org/details/4702...
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#UrbanGothic Ep 1.04 cont'd.
As regards UK anthology horror/supernatural shows. They could be very middle class or trad. What is really eye opening so far about "Urban Gothic" is that there are none of those trappings. Despite obvious influences it feels quite eager to be modern and street.