#phsr

FreakyLinks (October 2000 - June 2001)

A television series trying to be a cross between The X-Files and The Blair Witch Project (it was even produced by Haxan, just like the latter) - one of the early attempts to have a television series deep into the found footage horror and Internet horror styles. The series follows the story of Derek Barnes, a laidback surfer who after the death of his twin brother in mysterious circumstances takes back his website, OccultResearch.com and turns it into “FreakyLinks.com”, where he investigates and films bizarre, unusual and strange things all around the USA. While the characters are goofy and the website is supposed to be a fun “film and search the weird” one, in each episode Derek and his friends/collaborators end up on very serious, dramatic and tragic cases involving the supernatural. Dark secrets, brutal deaths, demonic possessions, hauntings, shapeshifters from hell... The series keep shifting between a sort of casual “supernatural comedy” a la Buffy and serious, dark horror, which might be a bit disorienting as you start thinking you’re in for fun (the main character has some Martin Mystery vibes) and then... cut to insane criminals in asylums, baby cribs filled with blood, suicides and people being tortured or buried alive. The tonal shift can be a bit abrupt.

Personal opinions: It has some very good ideas, some great basics, some fresh plots. It is notably quite interesting to see how they approach the overall story under an angle quite new for the time: you have a team of investigators, but they clearly do not belong to any official organizations or company (unlike X-Files) and as a result do face the troubles every-day persons have when trying to get into official investigations or other people’s business ; and on the flipside they are not “chosen ones”, they are not supernatural people, they are just ordinary humans that do what they can with what they have and that don’t even actually want to get involved into the supernatural but are forced into it (example: when faced for example with people asking for their help in cases of demonic possessions, they make it clear that they are not some sort of “ghost busters”, they just document things, and then go for the basic reaction everybody has in face of such claims “It is probably a mental illness at play here, and so that’s why these people need help”). Each episode is its own case, story, but there is an overarching mystery about the twin brother who might not be so dead, and the things he had discovered while opening the “OccultResearch” website. The episodes also followed each other, so that the consequences of one case might be talked about or impact the next one. Honestly, I see how it could have worked, there was work for a good show. 

But it also is clearly a product of the early 2000s. The addition of humor out of fear a pure horror show wouldn’t work... the protagonists actions sometimes being very insensitive, making them look like jerks... the main character’s womanizing habits (and him randomly meeting promiscuous women left and right)... the attempt at introducing found footage style in the show, but the series not committing itself to it and only using it for a few scenes each episode... Mind you, on the flipside, the series was very aware of some of those things - for example the main protagonist is supposed to be flawed and by moments insensitive (which causes tensions and troubles with some of his team-mates), some episodes are much more comedic to balance the serious horror (such as the skunk ape episode), and while “found footage” isn’t the entire style of the show, the analysis of videos and recordings is always plot-relevant. But there’s still moments like the main protagonist refusing to pay a person with a piece of metal stuck in his head to know his “freak story”, while shaming him for even trying to ask for money, and ultimately filming him secretely with a hidden camera... And the show seems to show them in the right for doing that? Clearly mentalities have changed.

  Also, the show does have some flaws, such as deus ex machinas popping sometimes to end episodes (notably - in this show every time you meet someone in a mental institutions, they will unexplicably be out of it to save the life of the protags at one point or another), or simple actions that are exaggerated for dramatic effects, but that rob the realism of the show (characters moving between places much too fast, or leaving rooms without being noticed when it is actually impossible). And I am sorry but the main’s actor is a bit over-dramatic in his facial expressions whenever he is supposed to be distressed, anxious or in fear, it makes the thing a bit too silly... His character and the way he acts would be very fitting for a comical horror show, but in serious scenes... not so much. In general, you oscillate in this show between good actors that make realistic roles and just people that over-play their role in exaggerated or funny ways. 

It aired on Fox and only had one season of 13 episodes (which had a hiatus in the middle, notably due to the show’s renewal being officially announced mid-airing because of the low ratings - it was in the famous “dead friday slot”. But despite the low ratings, the cancellation did cause a minor outcry and attempts by fans to force FOX to renew the show - because you see, to promote the series, as with Blair Witch, they created the famous “FreakyLinks.com” website from the show for real, and the website itself was very popular back then (lots of people still remember fondly). The website’s popularity and the show’s quite decent quality for the time resulted in it gaining a small cult following.