The Hobo Murder House

When I first heard about The Munsters reboot, I thought to myself, Really? Why? But then I heard that Bryan Fuller will be the one of the creative minds behind it, and I thought to myself, Bryan Fuller!(!!!1!!11!) Yes!

Then the usual Bryan Fuller-related television drama came out (the network wants to kill it, maybe not, wants to make changes, maybe not, test audience viewing first, maybe not) until the network finally decided to just air the pilot for Halloween.

I was underwhelmed. It was... not as all-encompassingly awesome as I had expected. It was not quite as riveting as the pilots of Dead Like Me, Wonderfalls, and Pushing Daisies.



I think it was Bryan Singer's fault.


Because the writing was there, and the open sequence was enough to make me want to continue watching. But then the rest of the pilot was me just waiting for the Bryan Fuller character magic to happen and every time it was just within reach, the payoff didn't quite happen.

The magic of Bryan Fuller shows has always been his ability to make the lead characters, despite how apathetic and seemingly unlikable they are (ahem, George and Jaye), someone that the audience wouldn't mind learning more about. And maybe it's just me, but I did not get that feeling with Mockingbird Lane.

So far The Munsters don't feel like outsiders I would want to hang out with week after week. There's no Rube, no Mason. There's no Wax Lion, or Eric, or even a Bronze Monkey. There's no Olive Snook, no Aunts Lily and Vivian, no Emerson Cod.

Yes, it has Eddie Izzard. It even has Portia De Rossi and Jerry O'Connell (I'm so glad they've learned to focus on working in comedy). It even has Marianne Marie Beetle (Beth Grant).

And yet.

What I don't understand is Bryan Singer. Bryan. Please. I know you're trying to do your "alienated/outsider" story with Eddie Munster, but you can be a little bit more subtle in telling that story.

The tragedy of the Mockingbird Lane pilot is that it works as an introduction, yes. It works in setting up the world, yes.

But it worked a little too well in being a pilot, in that little in the episode made me curious to learn more of it.

But it's Bryan Fuller, so I know it can only improve, and become more interesting as he goes along. Yes, I do mean he, as it is imperative that Fuller stays on because as we all saw with Dead Like Me, people don't know what to do with his show/characters once he leaves.

Maybe they can get some Whedonverse writers on. That usually works.