Animation
Good Times
Netflix takes a classic sitcom, Good Times, and turns it into a vulgar, violent, sexually-charged TV-MA show.
I’ve been here before.
If you’re thinking that very thing at this very moment, you have a few explanations to explore.
One, you might just really love reading this review, so you read it again and again. And if that’s the case, thanks—but you can probably move on now. Because let’s be honest: Reading The Brothers Karamazov would be a better use of your time.
Two, you could be experiencing déjà vu. As you likely know, it’s a common phenomenon where we feel as though we’ve already lived through a particular moment or done a particular thing or, in this case, read a particular television review. Experts say that the feeling can be attributed not to time travel, but to a curious hiccup in the brain.
Three, you could be flashing forward or back in time, or you exist on two or more timelines, or at the very least you have a mysterious and highly disturbing knack for predicting the future.
But then, of course, that’d make you Lucy Chambers.
I’ve been here before.
So Lucy must think each time she wakes up at 3:33 a.m.—starting from, as someone tells her, “a painful dream you’ve never had.” Sometimes she wakes up and finds that she has company: Her young son, Isaac, has trouble sleeping, too. Sometimes he sleepwalks. Sometimes he talks to people who aren’t there. And sometimes he just stands by Lucy’s bed, staring at her.
Those nightly disturbances are troubling for a whole host of reasons, including the fact that Lucy, as a children’s social worker, really needs her sleep.
Her job is stressful enough on a full night’s rest, after all. But all these nocturnal disturbances add another level of difficulty to her life. Sometimes, she seems to “dream” while she’s wide awake. And those dreams, it seems, often come true—a shame, given how bloody they are. She sees people dead, and then they die. Just like Isaac sometimes “plays” with kids weeks before they move into the neighborhood.
Detective Inspector Ravi Dhillon could use a little of Lucy’s déjà vu. It just might make his job a little easier. And wouldn’t it be nice to catch a murderer before he murders than after the fact?
Alas, he’s not so lucky. He can only solve crimes after they’ve been committed, sometimes much later. In fact, he’s still noodling on one case that’s more than six years old.
And he just happens to have a lead on it after all this time.
But when Dhillon follows the lead to a makeshift motel and inspects the would-be suspect’s room, he discovers the walls are covered with pictures and drawings and news clips related to scads of murders and unexplained deaths—including a few that haven’t quite happened yet. Is the suspect a particularly forward-thinking serial killer? Or is there more at work here?
Soon, both Dhillon and Lucy might know. Because Gideon Shepherd—the mysterious renter of that mysterious room—has connections to them both. And he’ll reveal them all in his own, sweet time.
I’ve been here before.
Writing television reviews for Plugged In often comes with its own dose of déjà vu.
I tell you about the latest creepy-weirdish-sci-fi show on a streaming service. I’ll admit that it boasts some sharp writing and fine performances. The twists can be compelling. The mystery behind the first episode’s apparent chaos feels like bread crumbs, encouraging the viewer to watch another episode. And then another.
But predictably, the review turns a corner. Because even as the plot draws you in, the content can repel. The show is bloody, the images disturbing, I’ll write. And the language is crass. I’ll try to find a new way to tell you that a series is both good and bad—a worthwhile show (for adults at least) if only the show would show some restraint.
But the devil’s in the details, they say, and The Devil’s Hour comes with a few of its own. One, it’s British, starring Peter Capaldi (my favorite Doctor Who) as the ominous-if-enigmatic Gideon Shepherd. Two, the title comes not from any real occult connection, but rather to the time in which Lucy habitually wakes up. She tells a psychologist that the time is known as the Devil’s Hour. But the evil we see here is all too human—and perhaps, in its own way, all too familiar. Three, the show is preoccupied with suicide, and many of its episodes contain judicious trigger warnings.
Outside those series-specific notes, I’ve said this all before. You’ve read it all before. I hardly think we need to write it, or read it, again.
But chances are you’ve not read The Brothers Karamazov. And you should. It’s really good.
Lucy takes her strangely placid son, Isaac, to a therapist—the seventh such professional she and Isaac have seen. But she also finds the time to visit her dementia-stricken mother, as well as making space to stop in on one of her social-worker cases. But while cautioning that particular mother not to let her abusive ex through the door, the mother’s young daughter hands Lucy a toy—and Lucy realizes that she’s seen the toy in a vision or dream, covered in blood.
Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Ravi Dhillon tries to figure out who would want to kill what would seem to be a nice, old man in a nice stable neighborhood. His best lead: A car that just might’ve been involved in a six-year-old cold-case, too.
Lucy’s horrific vision goes beyond the bloodstained toy. She also has seen the little girl apparently dead in a morgue. The “vision” is replayed several times with ever-growing clarity. It’s not the only such dreamlike vision that Lucy has. We also see a scene that (after several repetitions throughout the episode) crystalizes into a woman attempting suicide. In the two final repetitions, she holds the muzzle of a shotgun under her chin, clenching her eyes as she presses the trigger. In one repetition, the gun goes off (which we hear rather than see). In the other, it doesn’t.
The corpse of the old man is shown, lying in a pool of blood. We hear that he was stabbed three times, and we watch as a forensic specialist probes a bloody wound. Detectives find the computer had porn on it (we see a screen filled with pictures, but the images are blurred) and hear that the victim had some magazines, too: Nothing illegal, but most contained some elements of bondage. Isaac is pushed by a boy in school and called a name. In apparent revenge, Isaac urinates in and on the boy’s backpack. (Isaac later seems to lie, saying the urinals had been moved and he’d been confused.)
Lucy almost hits a child with her car. She sleeps with her ex-husband, telling him to leave before Isaac wakes up. (We don’t see anything critical; indeed, the most the couple does when the camera watches is cuddle.) When he returns the following night, Lucy seems reluctant to let him in, yet reluctant to have him leave. Confused, the man asks, “Did we have sex because you love me, or because you love sex?”
We hear a reference to bed-wetting and dirty sheets. Dhillon smokes, and he seems ready to vomit at the sight of blood. Lucy pours what appears to be whiskey in her coffee. Characters say the f-word seven times and the c-word once. We also hear “b–tard,” “p-ssed” and “b–locks.” God’s name is misused once, and Jesus’ name is abused twice.
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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