
Dead Sea Squirrels
Some 2,000-year-old squirrels offer some great lessons about both the Bible and life in this clever new Minno series.
Dylan wants to be a Satanist. Or at least pretend to be one.
Why?
Well, as he explains to his high school heavy-metal bandmates, it’s rock tradition: “The devil always has the best tunes.”
Dylan figures the time to “convert” is ideal. It’s the late 1990s, and his hometown of Happy Hollow is in the grips of what would later be known as the Satanic Panic. Satanism is in, he figures—and the quiet Dylan figures that a little black nail polish and some lyrics embracing the number of the Beast is a great way to be noticed.
Yes, he is getting noticed. But with a classmate said to be ritualistically murdered, and with pentagrams painted on garage doors, perhaps the timing isn’t as advantageous as Dylan initially hoped.
And when the police come to call, this young would-be “Satanist” might be playing a different tune.
Let’s be clear: Something strange is happening in Happy Hallow—the welcome sign of which brags, “Great town. Even better people.” The town is literally shaken by a weird event shortly after the high schooler’s disappearance. (Most folks say it’s an earthquake, others a gas leak. The more conspiratorial point to a potential alien attack.) Supernatural forces seem to toss people around on occasion, and that’s never good.
And then, of course, one must contend with the murders. And the animal sacrifices. And the satanic symbols. Little wonder that so many townspeople fear that Satanists may be moving in—and possibly corrupting their children. “I heard that one in five teens has been in a cult,” one woman breathlessly informs her friends.
Dylan is exhibit 1A for both, it would seem.
Just a couple of days before the teen’s disappearance, Dylan was just a quiet kid almost completely ignored by his classmates. The only people who paid him any mind at all were his Deth Krunch bandmates: drummer Spud and guitarist/singer Jordy. When Dylan asks his friends if anyone would miss him if he went missing, Spud and Jordy both tactfully ignore the question and turn up the car radio.
But then he rebranded Deth Krunch as a Satan-worshiping metal band, and everything changed. The band’s shows were packed. Its members were objects of both fascination and fear. Dylan also found that his longtime crush, Judith, had a definite thing for bad boys: And if true love isn’t worth sacrificing a cat or two, what is?
But Dylan has no connection to the murder. His band has as much interest in actually worshiping Satan as it would watching a Lawrence Welk Show marathon.
And yet, there’s an undeniable power in even the pretense—and soon this responsible teen begins … slipping.
Dylan’s mother, loving but concerned, notices. She hears the whispers. She’s uncovered some of his secrets. And when inexplicable dark forces literally begin to attack her, she wonders whether there’s a connection.
When Dylan takes the band in this new, Satanic direction, bandmate Jordy’s onboard—to a point. She worries that if Dylan plays the bad boy, he just might ultimately become one.
“You have a good heart, dude,” she tells him. “I just don’t want to see it go bad.”
As for this TV-MA show, we’ve got a lot of “bad” to wade through already.
Hysteria! contains pretty much all the content you’d expect from both a questionable high school romcom and a mid-level R-rated horror flick. Violence and bloodshed are sporadic, but strong. Harsh profanities are heard throughout. Nudity doesn’t seem to be an issue yet, but heavy make-out scenes and crude, sexually charged discussions? Yep, they’re here.
But while those problems are significant, perhaps the biggest issue here is the story’s spirituality.
Obviously, the show’s hero becomes an avowed (if not committed) Satanist—largely to impress his would-be girlfriend. He and his bandmates perform songs that explicitly reference satanism, and Dylan sometimes slips in a “hail Satan” in the middle of sets. In the first episode, when another student questions his commitment, he bristles. “I didn’t choose Satan—Satan chose me!” he hisses. And then to prove his commitment, he cuts a pentagram into his palm.
Even the show thinks this is going a bit too far. But that doesn’t stop Hysteria! from pushing a reactionary Christian into the role of secondary antagonist.
Concerned mother Tracy Whitehead worries that TV shows such as The Smurfs and ThunderCats are gateways to the occult. (“Smurfs, as cute as they appear, use black magic to invoke Beelzebub and to speak to the devil himself!” she tells a small gathering.) She fumes about how God is unwelcome in public school (to much eye-rolling from the show’s more “reasonable” characters). And don’t get her started on the influences of heavy metal.
So when it appears that a bloodthirsty satanic cult might be making its presence known, Tracy—just as much as Dylan—uses all that interest and fear to rally the town’s terrified parents.
“We are mothers in a satanic age, but it’s not too late to fight back!” she says.
Hysteria!, at least in its early stages, treats Tracy with all the snickering distain of a school bully. It’s possible that that will change: Some supernatural happenings are, after all, at work here, which means that Tracy’s alleged paranoia may be closer to the mark than some might imagine. But even if so, the story’s exasperated treatment of what, for many, are very serious concerns makes for a sizable stumbling block.
This Peacock series does effectively tap into how it feels to be an outcast teen, and how it feels to be a parent of such a teen: the fear, the uncertainty, the desperation to try to help. But the show itself offers too much content with too little insight or entertainment.
And as such, Hysteria! may be one you can comfortably, calmly, skip.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Two teens are kidnapped by weird, masked attackers, and a pentagram is painted on the garage door of one victim’s house. (One gossip says that the paint was mixed with blood.) While most of the residents of Happy Hallow are worried about these new developments, Dylan—an unpopular high schooler and member of an unpopular band—sniffs opportunity. He decides to rebrand his band, Deth Krunch, into one connected with Satanism.
“Someone’s missing and people are scared,” scolds bandmate Jordy. “You want to exploit that?”
“It’s just an act,” Dylan says. But will it remain so?
The opening scene depicts the two teens making out: The girl, Faith, is just in her underwear and sitting on top of her beau. The two talk about the sexual rumors each has heard about the other. A crucifix hangs over the girl’s bed.
Dylan’s wall is covered with posters of popular heavy metal bands from the 1980s, including some that advertised links to satanism. When Dylan convinces his two other band members to brand their own group as satanists, Dylan buys a leather coat and paints his nails black. He hands out fliers prominently featuring a pentagram and the tagline, “Witness pure evil!” Jordy argues that none of them are into satanism “at all,” but at their very next show, they sing a song that prominently features “666.” (Perhaps it was hastily written.) Jordy’s stage makeup includes an upside-down cross.
Dylan, leaning into his new role, threatens high schoolers: Anything bullies do to him and his friends would “pale in comparison to what we’re capable of,” he says. After the show, a classmate tries to get Dylan to kill a cat to prove his bona fides. The cat goes free, but Dylan carves a pentagram into the palm of his hand instead. (The self-mutilation, naturally, results in a lot of blood.)
A woman is thrown around and pulled up a set of stairs by an unseen presence. She’s then left to hover, and that presence raises her arms into a Christ-like pose before it flings her into a glass coffee table.
A woman tries, mostly unsuccessfully, to alert parents to the occult dangers in pop culture. She meets with a couple of women in her Catholic church and talks about the dangers of The Smurfs (which she says use black magic to communicate with the devil) and ThunderCats (which she accuses of being filled with demonic themes and bestiality). Later, she laments, “God isn’t welcome in our schools.” The town’s police chief reminds her her that any student is welcome to start a faith-based club, and further tells the woman that he’ll keep her daughter, allegedly sick, “in my prayers tonight.”
The masked men who attack the teens knock both unconscious: One assailant punches the teen guy in the face, while the other chokes the girl into submission after chasing her around a bit. The guy is later found dead in what is described as a ritualistic murder. (We don’t see the body.) Satanism, animal sacrifices and drinking blood are referenced throughout the episode.
Teens drink, and some get drunk. One adolescent girl says she stopped listening to Mötley Crüe “once they went sober.” Many teens lie to and mislead their parents.
We hear the f-word three times, the s-word about 15 times and are exposed to other profanities, including “a–,” “h—” and “p-ss.” God’s name is misused five times (once with “d–n”), and Jesus’ name is abused once.
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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