Season one of Friday the 13th: The Series saw some interesting episodes and a lot of surprises along the way. Little did viewers know that the one person the focus of the show is centered on really isn’t as dead as everyone thought he was. Micki and Ryan traveled all over the place trying to recover the antiques before they caused too much trouble for those that purchased them. All those and more lead to a great second season that actually improved over the first by leaps and bounds which is a welcome change from series that have a successful debut and then flounder into oblivion. And in case you’re wondering; no there is still no hockey mask.
Micki Foster and her distant cousin Ryan Dallion have inherited an antique shop that was owned by their late uncle Lewis Vendredi. They believe they’ve simply got a business to run or one to sell off once everything is settled, but there’s something they don’t know. Uncle Lewis made a deal with the devil long ago to gain the ultimate fortune he has long wished for. The deal though is that Vendredi must sell cursed objects in his store that will do the devil’s bidding. For a while all was running smoothly, but when Vendredi broke the deal; his death occurred and his soul belonged to the devil. The antique shop still has cursed objects that Micki and Ryan unknowingly sell to happy buyers.
Along the way of making their business work, an old friend of their uncle named Jack Marshak approached them and advised them of the awful things they were selling. The group now is determined to get the items back and store them safely in a vault underneath the shop that will keep the evil powers at bay. Their only hope is to track down all those who purchased items from the shop, buy them back, and put them in the vault before anything too horrible happens. The only problem is that there are only three of them and way too many items to get back quickly so some evil and awful things are already going on.
Let me just be the first to tell you that fans of the films hoping they’ll get random appearances by Jason or maybe even hoping he’s going to kill countless people each episode, are setting themselves up for disappointment. He’s not going to show up. People aren’t going to go camping at Crystal Lake. And it was way too early for Jason to appear in space after being cryogenically frozen for years. In fact, there isn’t even a real reason for the series to have the title it does, but true horror fans will understand why. If you take the original owner of the antique shop and translate his last name, Vendredi, into English then you have “Friday.” TA-DA! Kind of neat huh? Hold on everyone and don’t get your panties in a bunch because it has nothing to do with the film franchise. Believe you’ll be missing out on some good stuff if you give up on it before even checking it out.
Season two of Friday the 13th brought much of the same but also many different things. All of the episodes still go down the same path with the kids trying to recover the antiques but dealing with ghosts and other horrible beings along the way. Hell, that is the main premise of the series so of course it’s going to be similar every single season. Things really start off kind of slow with a rather subpar opener that makes you think this series takes a turn for the worse, but then the action and mystery picks up very quickly after that with great episodes like “The Voodoo Mambo” and “Face Of Evil.” Sadly, the season starts off almost as poorly as it began because “Coven Of Darkness” just seems to end season two with a lackluster bang. Kind of sad too because we’ve only got one more season of this series and perhaps a bad season finale helped its demise come more quickly.
Episodes
Disc One:
Doorway To Hell
The Voodoo Mambo
And Now The News
Tails i Live, Heads You Die
Disc Two:
Symphony In B#
Master Of Disguise
Wax Magic
Read My Lips
13 O’Clock
Disc Three:
Night Hunger
The Sweetest Sting
The Playhouse
Eye Of Death
Face Of Evil
Disc Four:
Better Off Dead
Scarlet Cinema
The Mephisto Ring
A Friend To The End
Disc Five:
The Butcher
Mesmer’s Bauble
Wedding In Black
Wedding Bell Blues
Disc Six:
The Maestro
The Shaman’s Apprentice
The Prisoner
Coven Of Darkness
Friday the 13th: The Series‘ episodes are shown in 4:3 and they really show their age a lot in this set. Not much has been done to fix them up obviously, and it is evident that they’re twenty years old. Still, they get the job done and are adequate enough for the material presented.
The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital Mono Sound and it also isn’t much to get excited about. Sadly these aren’t in surround sound to get the full effect of some spooky music and sound effects all around the room which is what horror truly is all about.
Trailers – Dexter: The Complete First Season, Twin Peaks: The Definitive Gold Box Edition, and Ghost Whisperer: The Second Season
We’re through two of the three seasons of the much maligned series of Friday the 13th and it is still continuing to entertain me twenty years after its original run. Things have gotten more interesting and fun in this season making for a very successful second go-around, but it’s too bad that the finale came through as so unappealing. I don’t necessarily remember how the third and final season was so it will be enjoyable finding out when it comes through. If it’s anything like this one or the first one then it will at least please me. This is still not a series that all will enjoy and even most horror fans will like because they’re going to go into every episode expecting Jason and when he’s not there, everyone is just going to scream “FOUL” and give up on it. Oh well, more for me! No special features are included on this set, but perhaps that’s because they put out too much (that sounds wrong) on the first set. Have an open mind and rent this folks. You’ll thank me later (probably) and want to go out and purchase your own set (maybe).
Chh-chh-chh! Ahh-ahh-ahh! I keep doing that don’t I?
………………………………………
Paramount presents Friday The 13th The Series: The 2nd Season. Created by: Frank Mancuso Jr. & Larry B. Williams. Starring: Louise Robey, Chris Wiggins, John D. LeMay, and more. Running time: 1181 minutes on 6 discs. Rating: Not Rated. Released on DVD: February 10, 2009. Available at Amazon.com
