Nightmare and Dreamscapes - Episode 8
And for the last time, this review will contain spoilers for the episode and short story.
Summary: Mary and Clark are a married couple on a trip across the state. While they are at a rest-stop, Clark says that he wants to try driving on some side road, think that it’ll be more interesting. Mary is against it but relents. While driving, Mary sleeps and has a horrible nightmare about being back at the restaurant, where severed fingers are floating around the juke box.
When she wakes up, she notices that Clark has lost their way, but insists that he just took a wrong turn somewhere and should be on the right path soon. They come across a fork in the road, so Clark decides to take the left road, while Mary wants him to go back. They start bickering and their mood hits rock bottom. But right when they are about to turn around, they come across a scenic little town called Rock and Roll Heaven. Mary has a bad feeling about this, but Clark thinks she’s being silly. In the town Clark insists on checking out the restaurant, which is kept in a 50s style, like pretty much the whole town.
Once inside they notice that one waitress bears a striking resemblance to Janis Joplin. The other waitress give Mary a message to leave while they still can, but Clark doesn’t see it. As it turns the waitress is Janis and there are a lot more undead Rock legends inhabiting this town. They keep people who got lost there so they have an audience for their concerts. Mary and Clark try to escape, but are stopped by a bus and Elvis himself.
In the end they have to attend the concert which according to the waitress can last a whole year. They have also been assigned new jobs in the town. While Mary is despairing, it looks like for now Clark isn’t all that unhappy with their new life in Rock and Roll Heaven.
My opinion: An interesting premise and the TV episode keeps very close to the original short story. But I find Mary and Clark to be very unsympathetic characters, so I don’t feel all that bad when they get trapped in that town. Especially Clark is annoying, but that’s on par for the way he was shown in the book. The special effects are okay in this episode, but since I’m not that familiar with the big legends of Rock and Roll, I can’t tell how accurate the actors portraying them are.
Comparison with the original short story: Actually very little got changed. The only things that come to mind are that Clark doesn’t get to see the secret message of the waitress and that at the end he seems happy to see all the legends on stage, when in the book he was just as angry and upset as Mary was.
Rating: Okay
Well folks, that was it. Overall this short TV show was quite alright, even though I didn't like some changes and really wished they would have picked some other short stories. Not to mention, if you call your show Nightmares and Dreamscapes, you should stick to that short story collection and not have almost half of the episoded (3 out of 8) be from other books.
Summary: Mary and Clark are a married couple on a trip across the state. While they are at a rest-stop, Clark says that he wants to try driving on some side road, think that it’ll be more interesting. Mary is against it but relents. While driving, Mary sleeps and has a horrible nightmare about being back at the restaurant, where severed fingers are floating around the juke box.
When she wakes up, she notices that Clark has lost their way, but insists that he just took a wrong turn somewhere and should be on the right path soon. They come across a fork in the road, so Clark decides to take the left road, while Mary wants him to go back. They start bickering and their mood hits rock bottom. But right when they are about to turn around, they come across a scenic little town called Rock and Roll Heaven. Mary has a bad feeling about this, but Clark thinks she’s being silly. In the town Clark insists on checking out the restaurant, which is kept in a 50s style, like pretty much the whole town.
Once inside they notice that one waitress bears a striking resemblance to Janis Joplin. The other waitress give Mary a message to leave while they still can, but Clark doesn’t see it. As it turns the waitress is Janis and there are a lot more undead Rock legends inhabiting this town. They keep people who got lost there so they have an audience for their concerts. Mary and Clark try to escape, but are stopped by a bus and Elvis himself.
In the end they have to attend the concert which according to the waitress can last a whole year. They have also been assigned new jobs in the town. While Mary is despairing, it looks like for now Clark isn’t all that unhappy with their new life in Rock and Roll Heaven.
My opinion: An interesting premise and the TV episode keeps very close to the original short story. But I find Mary and Clark to be very unsympathetic characters, so I don’t feel all that bad when they get trapped in that town. Especially Clark is annoying, but that’s on par for the way he was shown in the book. The special effects are okay in this episode, but since I’m not that familiar with the big legends of Rock and Roll, I can’t tell how accurate the actors portraying them are.
Comparison with the original short story: Actually very little got changed. The only things that come to mind are that Clark doesn’t get to see the secret message of the waitress and that at the end he seems happy to see all the legends on stage, when in the book he was just as angry and upset as Mary was.
Rating: Okay
Well folks, that was it. Overall this short TV show was quite alright, even though I didn't like some changes and really wished they would have picked some other short stories. Not to mention, if you call your show Nightmares and Dreamscapes, you should stick to that short story collection and not have almost half of the episoded (3 out of 8) be from other books.