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We are sometimes surprised just how dark that family-oriented dark fantasy shows can be. Though they’re supposed to be suitable for kids, there are plenty of scary-looking creatures, shocking twists and heart-skipping jump scares. A new Roku series based on a popular dark fantasy book series promises some scary family viewing. Does it deliver?
Opening Shot: “Dear viewer, this is a dark fairy tale,” a voice says. “Like all fairy tales, it begins once upon a time. Our time… is now.” We hear that as a car drives onto a bridge late at night.
The Gist: A man (Christian Slater) cowers in the presence of a dark creature, and says he did what was asked; he wants his daughter Calliope (Alyvia Alyn Lind) back. She comes out, but there’s things about her that aren’t right, which is when her dad realizes that the person in front of him isn’t his daughter. Suddenly, he’s snatched up and dragged under the bridge, and the ogre takes his form.
The Grace family is driving to Henson, Michigan, where they’re moving to after leaving Brooklyn. Helen Grace (Joy Bryant) is looking for a fresh start with her three teenage kids — oldest daughter Mallory (Mychala Lee) and twin boys Jared (Lyon Daniels) and Simon (Noah Cottrell) — after divorcing the kids’ dad. Part of the fresh start is for Jared; some of the visions he’s had and other minor transgressions back home is part of the reason why the divorce happened.
They move into the Spiderwick estate, a creepy, overgrown old mansion that belonged to Helen’s grandfather Arthur Spiderwick (Albert Jones); Helen’s aunt Lucinda (Charlayne Woodard) has lived in the mansion her whole life, but she was sent to a psychiatric hospital decades prior due to the visions she used to see.
What are those visions? Helen has told her kids stories of what her aunt saw: Fairies, baggarts, and other magical creatures. And while a young Helen was fascinated her aunt’s stories, her mother and others who couldn’t see what Lucinda saw were more concerned about her mental health.
The house is strange in a number of ways: A tree that grows poisonous apples grows in the middle of the entry foyer, and mushrooms grow everywhere. The kitchen has a model-sized kitchen inside of it, complete with a working stove. And, of course, there are lots of noises, which Jared investigates on their first night at the house. He takes Mallory’s epee and stabs at where he thinks the noise is. He sees blood, a small eye-like growth and a note from Arthur Spiderwick.
Helen takes Jared to see a noted psychiatrist at the same hospital where Lucinda is to enroll him in group therapy. Jared meets Hatcher (Hunter Dillon) and Emiko (Momona Tamada); Hatcher classifies the group as a “messed up, heavily medicated Avengers.” Uncomfortable being classified as in need of help, Jared bolts the group before meeting the doctor, and goes to Lucinda’s room just as his previously-catatonic great aunt warns Helen to get out of Henson while she can.
In the meantime, the ogre-turned-human and his offspring move into a house in town. “Calliope” is looking to feast on humans, but her “father” has other plans. They find a Fabergé egg with a monster-like embryo inside. They need what the father calls a “field guide” in order to raise it right, but that field guide is what they’re looking for.
Jared, investigating more noises in the house, finds his great-grandfather’s attic, where all sorts of samples and other documentation are stored. Part of that is a book that says “Field Guide” on the cover… but all the pages are ripped out. He also sees a tiny creature that looks somewhat mouse-like but wears clothes and wields a tiny sword. He tells his family about it, but, of course, they don’t believe him.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Based on the book series by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, this is the second iteration of The Spiderwick Chronicles, the first being a 2008 feature film. The vibe of the show is similar to other family-oriented dark fantasy shows like Ghostwriter and Locke & Key, the latter of which was a previous project of Spiderwick showrunner Aron Eli Coleite.
Our Take: The Spiderwick Chronicles is in that weird nether region of not being scary enough for adults but perhaps being too dark and scary for some of the younger members of its target audience, which are teens and preteens. There’s a little blood, but any violence is implied. There are one or two jump scares in the first episode, but they’re mild ones at best. And anything that’s supposed to be a surprise — and the first episode ends with one — is pretty predictable.
But we’re not sure if the story is really relying on the scary stuff too heavily. It’s more a story about how Jared rallies his siblings and others — likely Hatcher, Emiko and others — to gather the pages of his great-grandfather’s field guide and save all of the mystical creatures in Henson from the ogre Mulgrath.
Part of the story is how Jared gets past the judgement that has dogged him his entire life and gets people to believe what he — and his aunt Lucinda before him — has seen is real. There’s a scene that indicates that Simon, who has been the “good” twin all this time, can also see what Jared sees, but it’s likely that his sense of logic overrules those visions. How long will it take for him to join in with his twin, with whom he is so close that the two of them still sleep in the same room together and speaks to Jared in their own “twin language”?
There seems to be enough story to fill the eight episodes of the first season, and perhaps multiple seasons, but as Jared and company encounter the magical creatures and work to defeat Mulgrath, we wonder if the story is going to become more warm and fuzzy and less scary as it goes along.
There are attempts to give all of the Grace kids their own stories; Mallory is dismissed by a blind fencing coach called “The Maestro,” for being too rigid, for instance, but we’re not really sure where those stories will go. We just don’t know if the story has enough momentum to hold the interest of viewers of any age.
What Age Group Is This For?: Like we said, The Spiderwick Chronicles is aimed towards the preteen and teen crowd; it’s probably too intense for kids under 8.
Parting Shot: Like we said, there is a surprise that we’re not allowed to reveal. But, to be honest, it’s not that big of a surprise.
Sleeper Star: Slater makes a good ogre posing as a meek human. When he’s being evil, he’s not over the top, but just menacing enough to let us know that there’s a bloodthirsty ogre underneath that human skin.
Most Pilot-y Line: A neighbor and Realtor tells Helen that he can take the mansion off her hands and she can move into town, where “you’ll appreciate the ethnic vibe.” How Helen didn’t tell him to go screw himself right at that moment, we don’t know.
Our Call: SKIP IT. The Spiderwick Chronicles isn’t scary enough or wonderous enough to hold our interest, and we get the feeling that kids who watch the show will seek out other shows that are either scarier or more whimsical.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
