As a fan of the old Night Stalker movies and TV show, I was stoked to hear there was going to be a new version on TV.
I didn't watch it, for some reason, and I guess no one else did either, because it was canned after a handful of episodes. Now you can get all of the ones that were produced on DVD.
This had potential, but I think it was far too much of a slow burn for the television crowd. You got hints of mystery and a bigger conspiracy, but no reveals.
And the Carl Kolchak in this version is very, very different from the one we old school fans know and love. Stuart Townshend played Kolchak as a sleepwalking male model, not a middle-aged, blustering hack in a straw hat.
And if that weren't bad enough, he gets saddled with a perky reporter/sidekick/love interest/rival (Gabrielle Union) and a kid photographer who follow him around like puppies. Someone obviously was aiming for the Clark/Lois/Jimmy vibe, and I don't think that works for Kolchak. He's supposed to be the lone voice in the darkness.
Vincenzo was even warm, fuzzy and completely supportive of Kolchak's investigations. I was very confused.
Of course, it was chock full of those newspaper inaccuracies that make me giggle. Like the complete lack of journalistic ethics, reporters and photographers wandering through crime scenes like its a cocktail party, and journalists who live lives of the rich and famous.
Kolchak's a lowly crime reporter -- who drives a shiny new tricked-out Mustang and lives in an amazing house in the Hollywood Hills complete with an in-ground pool. On a reporter's salary.
Yeah, right. Tell me another fairy tale.
Everything about this show was languid and hypnotic. The pacing, the stories, the long, lingering shots of L.A. -- even the music and narration, which was reminiscent of a credit card commercial. There was absolutely no urgency or intensity, and that was sorely needed.
So it had promise, but never lived up to it. Pity.
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