return to the island of misfit toys

i sit writing this on a particularly windy los angeles evening. fitting perhaps since i'm writing about a show set in the windy city. of course, this is where #WellActually twitter comes in handy. this is also a hackneyed device to fabricate an intro to get me into the rest of this post. but you read it. so thank you.

part of being able to digest a critical review of a piece of art is knowing a little something about the reviewer. what are that person's tastes? what are their sensibilities? what eccentricities do they harbor that colors their view of the world? personally, i have a fascination with the idea of spontaneous human combustion.

you ever have an idea for a project that seems so awesome at first but then you start to actually execute the project and you start to think that maybe your great idea wasn't so great after all? we've all been there. it's also what i'm starting to think about the creators of this show and their decision to base it in chicago.

the thing about shooting a television show in los angeles is that eventually you want to show off los angeles. while carl kolchak inhabits a decidedly spooky chicago, the universal studios backlot that gave birth to kolchak's ghostly adventures is decidedly in southern california.so for this week's episode, carl packs up his rumpled suit, grabs his ragged hat and heads to the golden state.

gather round children and let me tell you a tale of the great beyond. the tale of things both known and unknown. a tale of things that are imagined, hoped for, and feared all at once. i tell a tale of carl kolchak and his fanciful investigations into darkest chicago.

the beauty of episodic television is that there are no consequences to anything. which is a really odd thing to consider about television nowadays. prestige television has made story results matter. continuity is second only to narrative. 

there are plenty of similarities in the film and television archetypes of both the private investigator and the reporter. generally, both are dogged pursuers of fact, willing to bend (or occasionally flout) the rules in order to get information. they venture into often-perilous situations against the demands of common sense or their own best interests and shine a light on people and situations that would rather be left in the dark.