Fear Itself: Community
(S01E07) This tale was penned by newcomer Kelly Kennemer; his only prior writing credit was the acclaimed film Music Within. It was directed by America Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page’s Mary Harron. The plot is like Superman and Lois Lane moving into suburban hell to start a family. I know the general plotline of a couple moving into an idyllic community that turns out to be anything but has been done before, but I’m not thinking of any specific examples (I expect you’ll fill me in with your comments). The Stepford Wives has the same tone, but obviously there are some distinctive differences. Here, there were some clever moments to be sure, but the suspension of disbelief was even greater for this extended story than in most horror stories.
Brandon Routh, definitely channeling more of the foppish Clark Kent as Bobby, does a capable enough job of carrying the lead in this story, but I find it hard to believe that he and his wife Tracy, played by Shiri Appleby, would just go along with the shenanigans of the Community they find themselves living in, especially as things go from bad to worse and they begin to realize just how wrong things are.
The story keeps jumping ahead months at a time. They’re well aware that the televisions in the community are tuning into their houses and bedroom activities. The contract they signed violated basic human rights in many ways; can such a thing still be legal? Is any of it? I mean, he’s got a lawyer friend on the outside who ultimately gives into the community? And that ending? Really?
I’m all for some suspension of disbelief, but a community like this is just too implausible. Is it isolated from the rest of the world on some island or something? If it’s just a little neighborhood area of suburbia in the midst of other neighborhoods, there’s no way this could stand. The incident with the woman who “committed suicide” would be enough to launch a full scale investigation into the police department and everything else about the community.
Hell, who was the guy Sandra was going to bang? There was no established punishment for him, so I’m guessing he was from outside the Community. You have to figure that friends and family are free to come and go so access to the outside world is available. I know, I know. Suspension of disbelief. It’s highly unlikely that a guy in a hockey mask would survive getting run over by a car fifteen times but that happens too.
Let me put it this way. The premise held potential, but the stakes needed to be much higher and the threat much more evident. Make the Commons more like The Village from The Prisoner. As it was established, there didn’t seem to be enough of a hold on these people to keep them in town. There should be powerful people in town, like heads of state or judges or something to explain how it could remain so outside the law and allowed to act as it does.
ANNOYANCES
- It took Bobby how long to discover that the neighborhood was on the television? He’s a guy. We flip channels. Especially if it shows bedroom action. Secondly, Sandra didn’t know there were cameras in her house either?
- Why was Sandra trying to commit suicide? Didn’t she tell Bobby that her marriage had been saved (though admittedly anything a Neighbor says is suspect).
- So does the community have agents in the outside world, or do the neighbors hitch a plane to your loved ones homes and slaughter them in their sleep, rushing home in time to tuck their kids in with a bedtime story?
- Tracy is more in love with the idea of the Community than she is with her husband’s legs? The characterization of these people was just so weak. Something has to drive you to that point of insane sanity, and nothing here did.
- Nobody reads contracts? Everybody who moved in there signed the contract without reading the ridiculous fine print. Okay, that’s probably true.
- If I have a lawyer draft up a contract that says my wife has to sleep on the left side of the bed every night, and if she ever falls asleep on the right side, I have the right to cut off her breasts and she signs it, does that make it legally binding? A judge is going to look at that and say, “Yep, lop ‘em off. Should have stayed on your side, bitch.”
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