S01.E02: Eugene, Oregon

[AnimeMania]

A lonely teen encounters an unwelcome guest.

[yourdreamer]

I didn’t understand the ending, if it was supposed to be understandable. Was the shadow and the other people real? I know they were never really at his house, but I didn’t know how much, if anything, was in his head. Also I was wondering if the vision of his dad was true or just a planted piece of knowledge. 

[calliope1975]

I'm reading the book and watching the episodes as I finish each story. This was wildly different from the short, though I could see the inspiration they took. I don't think it worked for me though. It seemed like the shadow people were convenient scape goats for an individual's responsibility

Spoiler

and sorta, kinda, maybe tied into the white supremacy angle in the original short.

The hands up don't shoot pose from the shadow at the end had to mean something. 

[Visby]

Actor Charlie Tahan does a great job of vulnerability, loneliness and he is very interesting to watch on screen.  I thought he was being catfished for ridicule.  I want more of these shadow people.

[tennisgurl]

The lead actor was really compelling, and its interesting that both of the first two episodes dealt with someone being the sole caretaker of a sick family member despite a lack of funds and them starting to crumble under the stress. 

So I am not totally sure what was going on here, was it all supposed to be a metaphor for how people look for scapegoats and bad guys picking on them instead of just life sucking sometimes and its just random and crappy? Were they supposed to be like internet conspiracy theorists looking to blame shadowy (pun intended) conspiracies and causing vulnerable people to snap? I kept waiting to find out that these people were just assholes screwing with this kid and that he would track them down and realize that they were just random idiots who never believed any of the shadow stuff and it was all in his head. 

I think that these episodes so far could benefit from a shorter run time, maybe shaving off ten minutes or so. There is a reason that most of the Twilight Zone episodes that people remember are the half hour ones and not the hour long ones. 

[Starchild]

My take was that it was a commentary on radicalization. How a young person who is decent but lonely and isolated can be perverted by people exploiting some fear, and how that can ultimately lead them to dehumanization and violence. I suspect the end sequence with Nick shooting a shadow with his lightgun was a fantasy overlay and what really happened is him shooting his mom with a real gun (hence the sound of the light gun supplanted with the sound of real gunfire). Presumably after that he went out into the world, perhaps to the school, and eventually got himself killed by the cops.

Edited October 31, 2020 by Starchild

[natyxg]

On 10/31/2020 at 3:12 PM, Starchild said:

My take was that it was a commentary on radicalization. How a young person who is decent but lonely and isolated can be perverted by people exploiting some fear, and how that can ultimately lead them to dehumanization and violence. I suspect the end sequence with Nick shooting a shadow with his lightgun was a fantasy overlay and what really happened is him shooting his mom with a real gun (hence the sound of the light gun supplanted with the sound of real gunfire). Presumably after that he went out into the world, perhaps to the school, and eventually got himself killed by the cops.

^This.