The Nightmare Worlds of H.G. Wells (TV Mini Series) The Purple Pileus (2016) User Reviews

"Serve her right if I kill myself."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 7 February 2022]

After marrying, a shopkeeper experiences 'rank disaffection' with his wife, and the idea of killing her becomes an obsession. When Eveline Coombes (Leanne Best) has her best friend and her paramour over for entertaining, James Coombes thinks it's best to head off to the serenity of nature, where he invariably decides to partake of some hallucinogenic mushrooms. This mellows him out to the point of becoming a nuisance to his wife and her guests, for which she exacts her revenge in a most unappealing manner. Perhaps the more outlandish component of the story has to do with the Coombes being an inter-racial couple in Victorian England, an idea that almost takes you right out of the picture before it even gets under way.

A Nightmare of an interpretation

[flwrestle · 1/10 · 22 April 2018]

HG Wells was a charming and entertaining writer. His short stories are well worth bringing to the screen. So why did this misguided series feel it was necessary to reimagine a sweet and fanciful story like the Purple Pileus into a dreary and pathetic horror tale? The casting is dreadful. Wells describes his characters elegantly, but the descriptions are all but ignored by the casting director; and the idea of an inter-racial couple in Victorian England is laughably embarrassing. But far worse is the ridiculous and pointless "shock" ending which, besides being completely predictable, is totally antithetical to the idea and point of Wells' charming fable of redemption. Go read the original short story and forget about this awful British piece of television trash.

Just Plain Disjointed

[Hitchcoc · 3/10 · 22 April 2020]

A man marries a woman who takes advantage of his docile nature to dominate him. He wants to kill her but it's not in his nature. One day he can't stand to be around her and her friends. He goes into the woods and decides to take his own life. He eats mushrooms, thinking they are poisonous. Instead, they cause deep changes in personality. The fourth episode is as bad as the other three.