Night Stalker ongoing thread (now cancelled) (1 Viewer)

[Mikel_Cooperman]

I forgot to tivo it. Damn.

 

[Tommy G]

If anyone DVR'd this and can burn to disc, I'd gladly pay for the disc and shipping to be able to see it. Just PM or e-mail me.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Dammit. Now I have to "acquire" the episode again in order to see the McGavin footage.

 

[Malcolm R]

I was thinking the same thing. His co-worker's place was high class too. Looked like a penthouse with a killer view. Journalism must pay a lot better than I'd heard.

 

[Greg_S_H]

It seemed to be kind of a mistake to have the newsroom, Reed's house, and Kolchak's house all almost solid glass. They look too similar. It probably saves money if they're the same set redressed.

Kolchak's house actually looked a lot like a house I recently saw in an episode of Adam-12. It had a similar pool and everything. Assuming Universal is the studio for this Kolchak, maybe it was filmed on the same set.

 

[Garrett Adams]

The concept of Night Stalker predates The X Files by twenty years.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> The concept of Night Stalker predates The X Files by twenty years.

Yeah, and it inspired it, too, although I don't remember reporters on the X Files.

 

[Randy Tennison]

Pretty cool part in the newsroom where they digitally inserted Darrin McGavin into the shot. I liked that.

I didn't get into the show, though. Took it off my TIVO to do list. Sorry!

 

[SteveJKo]

I'll give the show a few more episodes but I don't hold out much hope. Not that I thought is was awful, just sort of generic. Why it's called The Night Stalker I don't know. It has nothing to do with the original in any way. It's totally devoid of the sense of humor that went hand in hand with the horror in the original series. And aren't there enough bad digital effects in todays movie theatres that we had to have poor Darrin McGavin digitally (and badly) pasted into a scene for no reason?

 

[Robert Floto]

Well, I finally got to see this last night. I know I was pretty vocal about not having a lot of faith in this new series...but while I thought it wasn't terrible, I don't think I cared for it very much...

For one thing, it seemed to me that the lead character was Reed. We saw everything from her point of view. We didn't seem to get into Kolchak's character at all. I liked The X-Files quite a bit, but that's not what I wanted from this series...and I feel that it had much more of an X-Files vibe than a Kolchak: The Night Stalker vibe.

I was completely pulled out of the episode by the bad digital insertion of Darrin McGavin. At first I thought it was something on someone's television screen, but then I backed it up and saw that McGavin was supposed to be in the scene just standing there. I don't think this worked at all. I'm sure new viewers may have blinked and missed it, but long time fans might just find this distracting. I did.

I may or may not watch the next episode. I will probably record it and wait to see what is said about it here before actually viewing it.

 

[Greg_S_H]

No one watched tonight? I thought it was better than the pilot. Not helping people's comparisons to the X-Files, it was directed by frequent X-Files director Rob Bowman (I don't know how apt the comparison is, as I never watched X-Files). I like the show's production values, but there are too many glass houses. Does everyone in LA live like that?

 

[Jordan_E]

It had a real X-Files vibe to it, from the look to the storyline, but agreed it was better than the pilot. But, having watched the original series recently, the voice-overs throughout is sorely missed in this variation.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I'm watching the original, too, and this new one really does just take the names and the supernatural premise, and that's about it. It is exceedingly grim, without even a hint of levity to be found. That's kind of a good thing, since so many of today's shows throw one-liners at you ad nauseum, but it sure doesn't capture the feel of the original. Taken on it's own merit, it's worth my continuing to watch it. But, as I said, I never saw the X-Files. And if this is complete retread of that, I can see why others are ambivalent towards it.

 

[Malcolm R]

That bugged me too all through the episode. Everyone's home/apartment/office is all glass with beautiful panoramic views.

I liked this episode OK, but psychic phenomena/possession really doesn't interest me (this was also my issue with this week's "Supernatural") so I wasn't as engaged as I might have been with some other supernatual subject.

Then again, I also like to watch "Ghost Whisperer." Go figure.

 

[GuruAskew]

I still haven't watched either episode (they're on a tape waiting for me to get through the "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" DVD set, only two episodes to go) but a name appeared on the second episode that should be enough to give everyone a little bit of hope: Darin Morgan was credited as "consulting producer". This means he should be writing a script or two this season, providing that the show lasts long enough. In case you don't know who he is, he wrote 4 and 2 of the best "X-Files" and "Millennium" episodes, respectively. The episodes in question are "Humbug", "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose", "War of the Coprophages" and "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" in the case of "X-Files" and "Jose Chung's 'Doomsday Defense'" and "Somehow, Satan Got Behind Me" in the case of "Millennium". Nothing he's written has been produced since he was working on "Millennium" in early '98. I wouldn't count on more than three episodes, though. He wrote one "X-Files" in Season 2 (not counting his "story by" credit on "Blood"), though I believe he was only freelance at the time. He was a story editor during Season 3, during which time he wrote his last three episodes for that show and did an uncredited rewrite on the final act of "Quagmire". His year on "Millennium" only produced two episodes, though. I hear bad things about the show, and as brilliant as Darin is, two or three of his episodes aren't going to save the show when there are 20 that aren't written by him, even if he does uncredited rewrites. Still, I'll support a less-than-stellar show if it means we'll be seeing the first Darin Morgan content in over 7 years.

 

[Todd Stout]

I just watched the second episode of Night Stalker this evening and I think I'm starting to like it. To me it really has a Millennium/X-Files vibe to it and I really like the overall atmosphere of the show. I hope that ABC allows the show enough time to find an audience.


That's about my only complaint about the show (besides the time slot it's aired in). There is no way in hell a newspaper reporter is going to be able to afford a house like that in our overinflated real estate market! I really love mid-century modern architecture so I think it's pretty cool seeing all of the hilltop homes they keep showing but I keep wondering to myself how on earth Kolchak is living in one.

 

[derek]

Well Night Stalker is off my ReplayTV recording list. The intro for this 2nd epsiode was just too violent for my tastes.

 

[Jason Walstrom]

"You know what you need to do."

 

[Greg_S_H]

Sort of Flatliners-esque this week, but I liked it. I'm actually enjoying this show. It's probably in third place of the four I'm watching, but that's alright. I don't know if it's already been picked up for a full season, but I'm betting the show won't survive.

 

[Jordan_E]

To me, the stories so far seem so familiar, but since it is October, I'm still keeping it on the schedule.