I rarely write reviews but I felt compelled to follow up on this episode. I am fairly new to Tales From the Darkside, I probably caught a few episodes in my youth but memories are vague. Being a fan of anthology series this show came highly recommended to me. So far it's been a mixed bag but if I had seen Mookie and Pookie first I would've likely dropped it from my playlist entirely! It's so bad I'm shocked that the script was even considered in the first place, like no one had any objections. Unlike previous episodes, horror is not the theme here, I suppose it's drama? Albeit weak drama.
The episode starts with the family playing Scrabble while their terminally ill son is dying upstairs and communicating via intercom. This alone speaks volumes about how painfully stupid this episode is. Why would their terminally ill son be located upstairs? If he's entered into the stages of requiring palliative care he would be located on the main floor where he's accessible and one would think his family would almost never leave his side given the severity of the situation. But no. We're playing Scrabble with the equivalent of a glorified walkie talkie. This is good quality family time. It only gets worse from here. The intercom alerts them to Kevin's untimely passing and as we come to see, a formerly perfectly healthy specimen of youth, has collapsed in his bed. But how did the machine in the family room pick up that he's passed away? He isn't hooked up to anything! There's not even an IV drip, no electrodes, no monitor, he's just laying in bed. There's suspension of disbelief and then there's just garbage writing. And this isn't even getting into the weak technology they try to pass off as high tech. My personal highlight from this episode is when the parents casually discuss the possibility that the daughter must've hacked into a bank database... Like that's not exceptional or worrying? It's hilarious!
The sentiments are cheesy, the characters are weak and one dimensional, the ensuing arguments are roundabout, the whole thing is a pretty boring exercise in fantasy. And the names...I hate their nicknames. Why couldn't they just call them Kevin and Susan? Like the nicknames are supposed to drive home the fact that they're twins and they're really really close (they like to beat you over the head with the whole twins thing). This is not worth watching unless you're into 80's kitsch. It doesn't belong in this anthology series and takes it down a notch. I would skip it if you're new to the series.