"Scion" – Two Sentence Horror Stories S01E05

Only one episode this week. The CW ran a repeat of "Gentleman" in the 9:30/8:30 pm slot. Which doesn't bode well for a show that was already being aired in the highly-disposable time period of August. Plus as I noted elsewhere, the show was preempted last week by my local CW affiliate. That's not the kind of treatment shows considered successful get.

On to "Scion". Two male teenagers are kissing in the park. One of them, Noah (Uly Schlesinger) starts coughing. He has cancer, and the other teenager is his lover, Isaac. Noah's parents check him into an exclusive treatment run by Dr. Lucie (Kate Jennings Grant). While undergoing treatment, Noah has nightmares, loses time, sees a janitor who hits himself in the head with his broom, and meets a fellow patient, Izzy (Stanley Simmons). Noah and Izzy break into Lucie's office and find an antique book showing devil worshippers.

Izzy has a seizure and is whisked off. Lucie keeps assuring Noah he'll soon be strong enough to withstand anything and anyone. Noah calls Isaac to come get him, and Isaac says he will if Noah makes a final decision to leave. After Noah finds a pentagram under his bed and passes out, he wakes up to find himself surrounded by robed figures. Lucie is among them, as are Noah's parents. Lucie tells Noah she gives certain families power, and in return, they give her their offspring. Some of them embrace her child, like Izzy, who steps out in a new suit with a spiffy haircut. Some of them reject her child, like the janitor.

Lucie tells Noah all he has to do is take her hand, and he'll be stronger than he can imagine. He does so, and later leaves with his parents. Isaac is waiting, and Noah tells him they have to go their separate ways. Noah's eyes turn snakelike and he leaves. What did you expect in a 30-minute show? The Omen?

There's nothing wrong with "Scion", and it hits all the 2019 check boxes. Noah and Isaac are gay, the heavily implied Devil--Lucie--is a woman, and the rich are devil worshippers who gain their money by making deals with the Devil. It's just kind of... eh. All of the episodes of Two Sentence Horror Stories strike me as the kind of episodes made by someone who thinks, "Wow, I've just discovered horror stories and someone is going to pay me to make a horror anthology TV series. Cool beans!"

The problem is Two Sentence isn't the first horror anthology series ever made. There's Twilight Zone (and its three reboots), there's Thriller, there's Night Gallery, there's Darkroom, there's Tales From the Darkside, there's Monsters, there's Night Visions, there's Tales From the Crypt, there's Black Mirror, there's Channel Zero, and at least a dozen more.

The creative team of Two Sentence seem content to get story ideas from two-sentence Internet horror stories, turn them into somewhat blah (at best) 30-minute episodes, tack on some 2019 elements (Immigrants! Gay men! ICE! A minority female protagonist! #MeToo!) and settle for that. There's no sense they're trying for something bigger. None of the aforementioned shows were classics every episode. But with all of them, there was a sense at least occasionally the creative team was trying to pull off something major and earth-shattering. The Two Sentence creative team... not so much.

So "Scion" hits all the right notes. Rich kid is dying of cancer. Rich kid experiences strange phenomenon. Rich kid finds elements of the supernatural. It turns out rich kid is dealing with the Devil. It's not a particularly interesting Devil, although Ms. Grant does her best. But it's basic "Authority figure acts sinister yet sincere enough to seem legitimate, but we all know they're not." And Lucie = Lucifer. Get it?

Ditto for the other actors. For instance Noah is sympathetic enough in a generic sort of way. No offense to Mr. Schelsinger, but he's no Jack Klugman, or William Shatner, or Keenan Wynn. Heaven help us, he's no Jerry O'Connell (Night Visions) or David McCallum (Monsters) or Christopher Titus (The Twilight Zone (2002)). A "bigger" actor could sketch out a sympathetic well-rounded character in one 30-minute anthology episode. But none of the actors in Two Sentence can do that. Maybe it's the budget rather than the acting. I don't doubt the actors involved are talented, but they're just not suited to 30-minute anthology work.

Overall, the five episodes of Two Sentence have been average anthology horror stories. The best you can say about them is they're mediocre with moments of above-averageness. Like last week's "Legacy" and "Hide", which had a couple of decent performances, some directorial flourishes, and decent music. "Scion" didn't seem to have any of them. Instead, what we got was a "Devil" story made by people who directed and wrote like they've never seen horror shows with the Devil.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?

-----

One thing I'd add to my review of last week's "Hide". I often wonder what the writers think of the message they're sending out. Clearly some kind of anti-ICE message is intended: ICE agents are in the last scene at the protagonist's door, and immediately after is a line about monsters at the door. But... it's a message on Two Sentence Horror Stories. Are people standing around the water cooler Friday morning saying, "Wow! Did you see that powerful anti-ICE message on last night's disposable late-summer CW show?" Not at the water coolers I hang out at.

In other words, what the 'point of doing a "message" episode on a show that is so obscure, and barely watched, that nobody will get the message?