Like Toxic Avenger for the teen set.
Cast: Leo Howard, Liza Koshy, Adam Hicks, Aislinn Paul, Meghan Rienks, Melvin Gragg, Tyler Chase, Mary Mouser. With Hayes Grier and Chad L. Coleman.
It is a good time for new TV shows. You can see new shows not only on regular TV channels but from streaming providers. Hulu, one of the streaming providers that produces its own content, came out with a show that I never had a chance to see in 2016. The show is Freakish.
What I have noticed is that there is been a good amount of original horror-themed shows being released on streaming services like Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. The themes in these streaming series touch on many horror tropes. For example, nothing says horror like a chemical plant in your town having a meltdown. Freakish focuses on that trope, placing a group of high school students in detention on a Saturday as the chemical plant meltdown is happening. No, that’s not going to ruin their weekend, right?
The tone of the teen horror soap show is not overly dark, but it does have its dark moments. The idea of the show is an interesting one. A small group of students is stuck in their school after a radiation cloud caused by the chemical plant meltdown hits the whole town. Soon enough, they are not alone. Some of their friends have returned from the outside after being exposed to the radiation cloud. Of course, they enter the school sick. Without the ability to know what is causing the sickness and how to treat it, those friends start turning. These “freaks”, as the main protagonists call them, follow standard zombie lore: you get bit, you turn. Essentially, Freakish becomes The Walking Dead for the ABC Signature demographic. The biggest mysteries in Freakish are what caused the meltdown and if there any other survivors.
Each character has their own backstory through the season’s run, some of which get emotional. Now, as much as I attempt to not spoil the show for those who have not watched it, I have to mention something that is a bit spoilery: Tyler Chase’s character. OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH, that fucking guy! You will hate him from the beginning because he is straight up an asshole, but in a stuck up kinda way. He does have his motivation for doing things the way he does, as does everyone else in the show. But man, if I ever see him in person, I just might punch him in the face.
The show did what it had to do and kept me hooked until the end, which I was not fond of. I have a theory of why they did what they did: since it’s an original show, Hulu didn’t think they were going to make a second season. Well, Season 2 of Freakish starts on October 18th. There are still a lot of unanswered questions about what caused the meltdown. Judging by how much the show kept me intrigued, I’ll be sure to binge watch it on the day it releases.
