Alternative title: Demented re-imagining of a wholesome series with lovable leads, relies too heavily on camera tricks & despicable new characters.
Oh boy! Where to begin? This could have had promise, but this pilot is a mess! Malcolm McDowell and his 3 minions are all wrong for the part, and I'm guessing, that's why this show here tanked faster than the titanic! The story starts with a man caught in heavy pouring rain. He enters a business, that kind of resembles an antique bookstore. There's some thought to the decor here, so, ok, I'm can go with that. This elderly lady, whom I can't remember where I've seen her before, is smoking a cigarette (yuck!) and Fivush Finkel (or whatever!) comes out with a bit of humor. Ok. Show me what you got.
Sadly, as soon as we hit the island, it all goes downhill from there. (Maybe they should have forgotten the island, and simply made a spinoff revolving upon this quirky old couple and their business?) McDowell is all wrong for the part. Looks & acting. His 3 helpers aren't much better. The show depends too much on action and rapid camera switches and trick editing and it's all downhill from there. At times, the editing resembles a soap opera (the Jeopardy sequence) and takes you out of "movie magic".
3 stories, one equally as despicable as the other. The guy who wants death-defying thrills. Bo-ring! And the reason why I quit going to movies decades ago: it's all action-oriented, or should I say editing-disorienting. The man who wanted to recapture a lost love? The twist of his cheating wife and him caring what she does, when it's been established he doesn't care about her and is really in love with the high-school sweetheart, was an uninteresting plot device to me. And the girl who wants to know "everything"? (Seriously? Everything!) After what she figures out she knows, don't lecture your audience about no "forgiveness"! Bleep that! You don't do that to family and you don't forgive scum like that.
Best line: "Now, you know everything!" LOL!
Special thumbs down for the show: calling the lead "Mr. Roarke" and him telling his aide to burn his "dated" white suits. Really?? Slap in the face of the original fans of the series. WHO exactly did you figure was gonna tune in to watch this, ye bunch of dum-dums!?
Look, what these idiot creators should have done is call it something else and give the lead a new name and slap on the screen "Based on the original series Fantasy Island" and then fans of the original show wouldn't have had to feel insulted nor offended about what you do with your own show. Make this Ekraor character (that's Roarke reversed to you!) the anti-thesis of our beloved '70s protagonist, and THEN we could have understood why evil wants to burn whiteness, because goodness burns him. (NOTE: only going by the era's accepted symbols for the colors, here. Plus Roarke & Tattoo's suits were never white: they were cream-hued. Take a second look and notice how mired that "white" of their suits was, compared to their white shirts! Mr. Roarke was no angel... or was he?!)
All in all, a show that had promise with its tackling the dark side of the island but was too full of its own self-importance, and that was its downfall. (We, original fans, all loved the Halloween-themed episodes the best, except for females who watched for romance, I guess, so we were willing to give you a go.) But...! When you trash the original, or basically what feeds your hefty salaries, prepare for the backlash! And what's with the stupidity of re-using an original series' name, if you're gonna mess it up like that?! Get creative and use a new title. "Dark Island Dreams", "Be Careful What You Wish For"... the possibilities were endless here!
There's nothing wrong with trying to re-imagine something for modern audiences and failing miserably. There's something terribly wrong with insulting the original fans by trashing the work you're copying and which was supposed to enable you to become rich and famous.
And that, my dear friends, is the fantastic punishment for the entire cast & crew of this flop: be careful what you wish indeed! Dark fantasy? Granted. MWAHAHAHAHA!
Oh boy! Where to begin? This could have had promise, but this pilot is a mess! Malcolm McDowell and his 3 minions are all wrong for the part, and I'm guessing, that's why this show here tanked faster than the titanic! The story starts with a man caught in heavy pouring rain. He enters a business, that kind of resembles an antique bookstore. There's some thought to the decor here, so, ok, I'm can go with that. This elderly lady, whom I can't remember where I've seen her before, is smoking a cigarette (yuck!) and Fivush Finkel (or whatever!) comes out with a bit of humor. Ok. Show me what you got.
Sadly, as soon as we hit the island, it all goes downhill from there. (Maybe they should have forgotten the island, and simply made a spinoff revolving upon this quirky old couple and their business?) McDowell is all wrong for the part. Looks & acting. His 3 helpers aren't much better. The show depends too much on action and rapid camera switches and trick editing and it's all downhill from there. At times, the editing resembles a soap opera (the Jeopardy sequence) and takes you out of "movie magic".
3 stories, one equally as despicable as the other. The guy who wants death-defying thrills. Bo-ring! And the reason why I quit going to movies decades ago: it's all action-oriented, or should I say editing-disorienting. The man who wanted to recapture a lost love? The twist of his cheating wife and him caring what she does, when it's been established he doesn't care about her and is really in love with the high-school sweetheart, was an uninteresting plot device to me. And the girl who wants to know "everything"? (Seriously? Everything!) After what she figures out she knows, don't lecture your audience about no "forgiveness"! Bleep that! You don't do that to family and you don't forgive scum like that.
Best line: "Now, you know everything!" LOL!
Special thumbs down for the show: calling the lead "Mr. Roarke" and him telling his aide to burn his "dated" white suits. Really?? Slap in the face of the original fans of the series. WHO exactly did you figure was gonna tune in to watch this, ye bunch of dum-dums!?
Look, what these idiot creators should have done is call it something else and give the lead a new name and slap on the screen "Based on the original series Fantasy Island" and then fans of the original show wouldn't have had to feel insulted nor offended about what you do with your own show. Make this Ekraor character (that's Roarke reversed to you!) the anti-thesis of our beloved '70s protagonist, and THEN we could have understood why evil wants to burn whiteness, because goodness burns him. (NOTE: only going by the era's accepted symbols for the colors, here. Plus Roarke & Tattoo's suits were never white: they were cream-hued. Take a second look and notice how mired that "white" of their suits was, compared to their white shirts! Mr. Roarke was no angel... or was he?!)
All in all, a show that had promise with its tackling the dark side of the island but was too full of its own self-importance, and that was its downfall. (We, original fans, all loved the Halloween-themed episodes the best, except for females who watched for romance, I guess, so we were willing to give you a go.) But...! When you trash the original, or basically what feeds your hefty salaries, prepare for the backlash! And what's with the stupidity of re-using an original series' name, if you're gonna mess it up like that?! Get creative and use a new title. "Dark Island Dreams", "Be Careful What You Wish For"... the possibilities were endless here!
There's nothing wrong with trying to re-imagine something for modern audiences and failing miserably. There's something terribly wrong with insulting the original fans by trashing the work you're copying and which was supposed to enable you to become rich and famous.
And that, my dear friends, is the fantastic punishment for the entire cast & crew of this flop: be careful what you wish indeed! Dark fantasy? Granted. MWAHAHAHAHA!
