S01.E01: It's Thursday

[helenamonster]

Original airdate: 10/15/21

[TeeVee329]

The "twist" with the twins - that Lennon was actually the one who got run over and Alison has now taken her place - was almost obnoxiously obvious.  It honestly took me out of the episode because I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for them to reveal it.  Are we supposed to think Alison purposely hit Lennon, though?  I wasn't sure from the staging of the accident.

It was also a little hard to get a handle on the relationships in the group.  For example, first I thought Margot and Lennon were a couple, then I thought Margot was with Johnny, but then someone made a comment in the cave about him being gay?  Same with Dylan and Riley, they seemed kinda couple-y at the party at first, but then he was clearly into Alison and/or Lennon.

Noticed that the mom's name carved in the cave wall was Helen, presumably a nod to the character from the book/film.

I dunno, this was fine?  It had a lot of table setting to do so we'll see where it goes in the next one.

Edited October 15, 2021 by TeeVee329

[paulvdb]

2 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

The "twist" with the twins - that Lennon was actually the one who got run over and Alison has now taken her place - was almost obnoxiously obvious.  It honestly took me out of the episode because I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for them to reveal it. 

Wasn't that "twist" already mentioned in the pre-show publicity? I'm sure I already heard about it somewhere before I watched this episode.

[TeeVee329]

4 hours ago, paulvdb said:

Wasn't that "twist" already mentioned in the pre-show publicity? I'm sure I already heard about it somewhere before I watched this episode.

Not as far as I know, I saw a few reviews that mentioned a "twist" at the end of the pilot they were asked not to spoil.

And even if they had, the episode still suffered IMO from how blatant it was and the way they dragged it out.

Edited October 15, 2021 by TeeVee329

[Cranberry]

The "twist" reminds me of a movie I once watched called The Pretty One. It was billed as a dramedy and it ended up being seriously depressing!

I also had trouble figuring out the relationships between the group members. I don't find any of them likable so far, either. Hopefully they grow on me... or maybe hopefully they don't, so I don't care when they die!

Also, was the original premise too simple for the writers? Did they really have to add all this stuff about the twins' mom committing suicide in the same cave where a bunch of cult members died?

[TeeVee329]

Something pretty similar to the twins "twist" also happened (I'll put it behind spoilers just in case) 

Spoiler

on the third season of the "Scream" TV series.

ETA...come to think of it, there's also twins on another horror series that premiered this week, "Chucky".  What a weird trend.

Edited October 15, 2021 by TeeVee329

[Mabinogia]

Regarding the relationships, I think they are trying to show that they are all fairly shallow in their romances and that they are all screwing each other because they are soo "cool" and "cosmopolitan" and above such things as pedestrian relationship. It goes with all the casual drugs and drinking and partying. I'm assuming that, at least for now, they are not meant to be likable. 

The thing that struck me was seeing them smoke, which is funny. I've seen so many teen shows and there's always tons of drug use, rampant sex and drinking like alcoholic fish but I haven't seen actual cigarette smoking in a long time. It was weird. 

While they are all pretty unlikable, I am liking the show so far. 

[Keywestclubkid]

Wasn’t there a Sarah Michelle Geller show back in the day called Ringer with this “dead twin” switch plot line? I swear to god if the “dead twin’ pops back up I’m gonna laugh 

Edited October 17, 2021 by Keywestclubkid

[Bobcatkitten]

So why was Lennon the one everyone loved? She seemed shitty to me. What exactly was wrong with Allison? 

[ybrik]

I think Lennon was the extrovert and Allison was the introvert by their nature. Things only got worse with their mother’s death. Allison seems to have distanced herself after that while Lennon probably sought attention more after that. 

[TeeVee329]

10 hours ago, Keywestclubkid said:

Wasn’t there a Sarah Michelle Geller show back in the day called Ringer with this “dead twin” switch plot line?

There was indeed!

[ZeeEnnui]

On 10/14/2021 at 9:07 PM, TeeVee329 said:

The "twist" with the twins - that Lennon was actually the one who got run over and Alison has now taken her place - was almost obnoxiously obvious.  It honestly took me out of the episode because I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for them to reveal it.  Are we supposed to think Alison purposely hit Lennon, though?  I wasn't sure from the staging of the accident.

100%! The writers of this show didn't even bother attempting the OG Shyamalan with the "twist" that was less twisty and more floppy. Other than the jackets and the red herring (as played in this show by a very obvious necklace) it was pretty easy to figure out that we were dealing with a twin swap situation. I mean I guess that will make Lennison an even more tortured character because of the whole twin-and-run thing, but we'll see.

I guess while Lennison was taking over her sister's life, she got a driver's license which is probably the least one can do after committing vehicular homicide. My question is....was her car just parked at the airport for a year while she was at college? Like, why wouldn't that bad boy be parked at home.

Not great, but I'm intrigued enough to keep going. What can I say, I do love teens in peril. 

[peachmangosteen]

On 10/17/2021 at 11:42 AM, Keywestclubkid said:

I swear to god if the “dead twin’ pops back up I’m gonna laugh 

I was waiting for the body to twitch or something and imply she wasn’t dead dead lol.

I knew it was actually Allison in the car immediately. I cant believe they really thought no one would figure that out until the end lol.

It wasn’t great but I’m intrigued.

 

[azshadowwalker]

So heavy-handed. This has to be one of the worst rip-offs of classic material yet. It's not just about disliking all these dipshits. It's about not believing they could exist. 

[MaggieG]

On 10/17/2021 at 10:39 PM, ZeeEnnui said:

100%! The writers of this show didn't even bother attempting the OG Shyamalan with the "twist" that was less twisty and more floppy. Other than the jackets and the red herring (as played in this show by a very obvious necklace) it was pretty easy to figure out that we were dealing with a twin swap situation. I mean I guess that will make Lennison an even more tortured character because of the whole twin-and-run thing, but we'll see.

I guess while Lennison was taking over her sister's life, she got a driver's license which is probably the least one can do after committing vehicular homicide. My question is....was her car just parked at the airport for a year while she was at college? Like, why wouldn't that bad boy be parked at home.

Not great, but I'm intrigued enough to keep going. What can I say, I do love teens in peril. 

This bothered me more than anything! I was like "she obviously didn't drive that car home from college because it's in Hawaii, so where was the car the whole time??" I guess in the long term parking lot at the airport.

I'm somewhat intrigued so I'll watch the next episode but I agree nobody was likeable, besides the twin's dad 

[truthaboutluv]

On 10/20/2021 at 12:51 AM, azshadowwalker said:

So heavy-handed. This has to be one of the worst rip-offs of classic material yet. It's not just about disliking all these dipshits. It's about not believing they could exist. 

I watch and read a lot of true crime and I believe assholes like this can exist. The types of random, senseless murders I've heard about committed by teenagers, to someone who at times was a friend, it didn't make these assholes' actions that crazy to me. Lennon did seem at point in the episode almost cartoonishly evil but psychopaths do exist. 

That said, it is interesting watching a show when you don't like any of the characters. I wonder if as someone noted, it'll make it a lot easier to watch them all get murdered. I'm sure the writers will attempt some redemption down the line but yeah, first impressions, all these characters seemed like people I'd never want to be around for five minutes. 

 

On 10/17/2021 at 10:39 PM, ZeeEnnui said:

My question is....was her car just parked at the airport for a year while she was at college? Like, why wouldn't that bad boy be parked at home.

Based on her father stating how he wished she'd let him pick her up, my guess (and possible fanwanking) was that she said she wanted to drive herself from the airport and so he dropped the car off at the airport, perhaps the day before she arrived. It's not so odd to assume he has a spare key. 

Like others, I too saw the twist coming a million miles away. The biggest giveaway was the writers having Lennon and Alison, who were supposedly be all accounts, two very different people, wearing pretty much the exact same outfit at a high school graduation party. Yeah, that seemed plausible.