When it comes to horror-related television shows, one that hardly ever gets brought up is Thriller. This series is frequently glossed over in America because it's from the UK. As anyone who has seen a Hammer horror movie knows, britain is quite good at making disturbing and engaging films and tv episodes. The show was developed by Brian Clemens, who also worked on the highly successful espionage show Danger Man with Patrick McGoohan (which I also enjoy), as well as The Avengers. While I can't speak for The Avengers, Thriller is quite similar to Danger Man in the regard that all the episodes are self contained, meaning each one has different characters and its own storyline. It's arguable as to whether or not this is a good thing, but I personally think so because it means you don't have to watch every single episode to find out where the plot is going. Speaking of plots, the show is unfortunately something of a mixed bag in this respect. Some of the episodes in particular are just hard to watch because the stories are so dumb or far-fetched. One in particular that I really can't stand is "An Echo of Theresa", which involves a man in London being confused over his wife's secret friendship with an mysterious woman named Theresa. At the end, it's revealed he was brainwashed after returning from the Korean War or something like that. I personally found it terrible. That's not to say good episodes are a rarity in this show. One that I saw recently, titled "The Eyes Have It", is pretty interesting. It's about a group of terrorists attempting to assemble a missile launcher piece by piece in a school for blind people. They realize an important political figure is going to pass through the area soon, and they obviously want to be put on the news. In addition, there's more paranormal oriented episodes, such as "A Place to Die", which involves a doctor and his wife moving into a strangely friendly village and having everyone obsess over them at all times. It soon becomes clear that the villagers all share a secret with each other but not with the couple, the secret being they are all part of a cult and want to kill the doctor's wife as a sacrifice. I like this one because the plot is very similar to the Wicker Man, which was released just 2 years earlier. Maybe this is where it came from. As a whole, Thriller is not the most impressive or innovative show that I've seen, but because I've been watching them lately (in addition to Halloween being soon) I thought that it would be ideal to say what I think about it.
Review of Thriller
