Salutations, traveler of The Internets! Welcome to William's Bloody Hell, so named after our founder, Sir Bloody William.
He is seen in the likeness above in a rare, 19th century woodcut. This
image was rumoured to have been
commissioned after a bout of unpleasantness
in the White Chapel district of London. Do enjoy your stay and peruse our many, varied offerings, much of which cannot be found elsewhere!
:: American Gothic ::
by William the Bloody
In the late 1990s, Renaissance Pictures, aka Sam Raimi's production company, put out a television series about a small town in the south called Trinity. Trinity's main law man is Sheriff Buck, and he knows how to get results. Mainly, through shady deals to buy obedience/loyalty or through harsh intimidation and fear. The pilot episode sees Sheriff Buck respond to a disturbance at the Temple family farm house. The mom has been dead for years and the dad is a violent drunk who sometimes lashes out at his two children, teenaged Merlyn who is mentally disabled and young Caleb. Sheriff Buck enters the residence alone and with absolutely no foibles kills father Temple and quietly dispatches Merlyn, leaving Caleb no immediate family. The sheriff immediately shows an unnaturally large interest in the newly orphaned Caleb, and is severely perturbed when Caleb's last living relative, his twenty-something year old first cousin Gail shows up wanting to take care of him. A doctor at the local hospital who treated Caleb following the horrible ordeal at his home takes a sympathetic shine to him, and doesn't know why, but feels as though Sheriff Buck's designs on Caleb has less than sincere origins. While Caleb recuperates in a night at the hospital, he is visited by the spirit of his dead sister Merlyn, who is now clear of mind and no longer mentally handicapped. Merlyn is kind and loves her brother, even in death, but lays some hard truths on him for his own good, and to desperately warn him against Sheriff Buck. Merlyn shows Caleb a disturbing scene from the past in which Sheriff Buck raped their mother and that Caleb is his bastard son from this act. No one knows about this, as Buck terrified the mother from talking, and as soon as she gave birth, secretly murdered her, which everyone assumed was a suicide. Now that Caleb is legally an orphan, Sheriff Buck wants what's rightfully his, namely Caleb his heir, but cousin Gail has a strong claim as a recognized blood relative, and the hospital doctor has proven to be a competent and caring mentor, and both of them want to keep Caleb out of Buck's clutches. However, as they will learn, there is more to Sheriff Buck's power in the small town of Trinity than deals and fear.
The Good: Ah, Renaissance Pictures. This series bares many of the Sam Raimi trademarks: sharp camera tilts, odd film overlap montages, night scenes with heavy fog, weird supernatural happenings, and yes, BRUCE CAMPBELL. In addition to Bruce's guest appearance, Raimi fans will recognize Sam's brother Ted in an episode, as well as filming on location at the Evil Dead shack that same episode, and an off-handed reference to Evil Dead 2 made by Caleb and his young friends when talking about a scary movie they just saw. This is all well and good for Raimi enthusiasts, but the casual viewer might be drawn in by the sheer evil that is Sheriff Buck. Yes, it is constantly alluded that if he isn't the actual devil, then he gets his abilities and influences from that department at the very least. He's a handsome, older man who always seems to get his way, and if he has to cajole you to get it, you better be careful not to wind up dead. And Caleb, poor young Caleb, the heir to the devil's power, well, he could go either way. The first half of the series shows an interesting virtual tug of war between Sheriff Buck and the hospital doctor fighting to pull Caleb's moral compass in what they think to be the right direction. There are also Sheriff Buck's crookedly evil deals with the townspeople and heir tragic irony. The series has some neat supernatural twists and turns which can have some cool results from time to time.
The Bad: Unfortunately, this series suffers from what I'm calling "Firefly Syndrome," wherein the series gets cancelled, the episodes aired out of order or not at all. Even more unfortunate, is the fact that the DVD release did not correct the out of order issue. The episodes are on the DVDs in the order they aired, with the ones never broadcast put last, and this can really screw your enjoyment of the show up. Despite the out of orderness, the series has severe continuity issues besides. Seriously. It gets pretty bad. One of my favourites is that it seems every single night there is a full moon in Trinity. Every night. Even the nights when there is a crescent moon, there is a full moon. Neat trick. Also, as much of the acting isn't so good, and the overly Sam Raimi-ness of it all can come off oddly corny.
In the end, I kind of liked the show, but felt the pacing got pretty laggy and that some parts went on without anything really happening. As a result, even though the show sort of ended without a real ending, it felt like it went on far too long and got a little tiresome. I did enjoy parts, don't get me wrong, but with all of the being out of sequence and the horrible continuity errors and everything, I don't think I'd really ever do a repeat viewing. Good to rent if your an avid Sam Raimi fan or into the supernatural, but more than once? Meh.
C
