TV Review: The Ray Bradbury Theater Season Two (1988)

The Ray Bradbury Theater Season Two (1988) developed by Mark Massari based on the short fiction of Ray Bradbury

See my review of Season One!

Another anthology of Bradbury stories brought to the small screen (at least, the screens were smaller back in the 1980s)! Here's an episode-by-episode breakdown...

The Fruit at the Bottom of the Bowl--A hack writer visits an editor's posh home and, in a moment of passion, kills the editor. Then the writer obsessively tries to remove all the fingerprints from everything he touched in the house. As he wanders around, he gets more paranoid and there's more flashbacks to what happened. The ending has a nice little twist.

Skeleton--A hypochondriac (Eugene Levy) has his latest set of supposed ailments--problems with his bones. His regular doctor writes him off as imagining things. The guy finds an osteopath who is more sympathetic...and a lot more creepy. The osteopath eggs on the hypochondriac's worries about his skeleton, causing the hypochondriac to lose both his weight and his sanity. Levy's performance is a bit too comical at moments and the osteopath would have been twirling his mustache if he had one. With its emphasis on the psychology of the situation, this story works better as prose.

The Emissary--A bed-ridden boy has the perfect dog. The dog fetches whatever he needs or wants, which is mostly stuff from the outside world. He also brings a companion, the schoolteacher whose class he should be in. The sweetness of the tale has a nice, sinister twist at the end.

Gotcha!--Two strangers meet at a costume part. He's dressed as Oliver Hardy and she as Stan Laurel. The party is boring but they hit it off, having the traditional romantic arc/montage for TV and movie couples. Until she wants to play a game called "Gotcha" which does not work out well for him. The shift doesn't work and made for an unsatisfying ending.

The Man Upstairs--A young boy visiting his grandmother in Paris helps out at her bed and breakfast. A new customer shows up. He is very odd, keeping strange hours, using wooden utensils, and appearing with some extra organs when the boy uses his special binoculars. The boy suspects something foul and winds up doing something foul by the end of the show. This episode reminded me of Tales from the Darkside--it has the look and sound of 1980s TV horror. I liked it but the effects are definitely dated by today's standards and it's really hard to suspend disbelief about the binoculars.

The Small Assassin--A mother believes her new-born baby is trying to kill her. Her husband and her doctor are sympathetic but skeptical. Since it's a Bradbury story, it turns out she is right. The show relies on a lot of baby POV shots and close-ups of the baby's mouth or eye to make the infant look sinister. The original short story is a little too implausible; the episode does not solve that problem but makes the best of it.

Punishment without Crime--A rich man (Donald Pleasance) goes to a company so it will create an android copy of his wife. The man wants to kill it. His much younger wife has had an affair and he's angry with her and wants some sort of satisfaction. Unfortunately, the law steps in and says he is a murderer. He's forced through a trial where the defense claims the victim is not human and the prosecution claims that the androids are so realistic they should have rights. The man winds up on death row still pleading his innocence. The concept is very interesting given extra circumstances the viewers see. When the man sees the fake wife, he wants to leave the company with a "perfect" version of the woman he married. The robot explains that he's only paid for a rental; they never allow purchases. The only way out is death. This episode has a lot going for it--the intriguing premise, a very capable actor in the main role, the dystopian flavor. Maybe the best of the season.

On the Orient, North--A French nurse on the Orient Express decides to help out another traveler, a man who is clearly about to die. He does, in fact, die though his ghost lives on. She helps the ghost to continue his journey. The story was a little slow and the performances did not grab me.

The Coffin--Two bickering brothers meet one last time. The older brother is an inventor and is working on his last project: a coffin. The younger brother has been living off his older brother and is looking forward to his death. That death doesn't end their conflict, leading to an ending that's more poetic justice than tragedy.

Tyrannosaurus Rex--A stop-motion animator is hired by an overbearing producer to make scary dinosaurs for his movie. The animator's work is never satisfying until the frustrated artist creates a very familiar T-rex. The story seemed a little obvious and the 1980s cable tv production values definitely hurt the believability and enjoyment of the episode.

There Was an Old Woman--A little old lady lives in her mansion with her clocks and other curios. She's visited by a smiling man who comes with four stout lads carrying a five and a half-foot wicker basket. She susses out that they want her as a corpse but she does not want to go. They cart her body out while she naps. But she isn't gone and has to raise a ruckus to get back what's rightfully hers. The story has its charms and its bleakness, characteristic of a Ray Bradbury story.

And So Died Riabouchinska--In Paris, a ventriloquist is involved in a murder at the theater. Naturally the dummy's identity is key to the mystery though the detective is annoyed by the dummy constantly talking about and contradicting the ventriloquist. The story arc is surprisingly standard and a bit unsatisfyingly filmed.

Overall, I was less impressed with this season. The production values have dropped a little and the 1980s synthesizer score (which isn't in all episodes) wore thin for me very quickly. Some of the stories seemed like they'd be better as text. I may not watch Season Three.

Slightly recommended.