If you haven’t heard of Channel Zero on SYFY channel, you should go check it out. The first season, Candle Cove, was creepy fun as a childhood terror refused to be forgotten, as a lost brother was found. The second season, No-End House, dove into the pain of the past, of how…just maybe…we’d rather live without it. The third season, Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block has just finished, the final episode played last night. I haven’t watched it yet…but I will, then return to share my thoughts.
SYFY channel’s newest horror show…Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block logo (photo by: Syfy)
SyFy channel describes their show as…
BUTCHER’S BLOCK, the third installment of the Channel Zero anthology series introduces us to Alice Woods and her schizophrenic sister Zoe who have moved to a small town to start over. Alice lives in constant fear of inheriting Zoe’s illness. On the outskirts of town lies Butcher’s Block, a hellish neighborhood where junkies roam and lawlessness abounds. It is here the sisters encounter Joseph Peach and his eerily charismatic family. The Peach’s are not your ordinary family; they live above the Butcher’s Block in a dimension that is dark utopia. They offer the sisters a place at their table with promise of a world without worry and without illness. The sisters soon find that the cost of living the good life comes at an unimaginable price and there is a fine line between escaping insanity and embracing true madness.
Synopsis found on syfy.com.
A great cast, including Rutger Hauer… go check them out here at syfy.com.
The first five episodes have been a delight. Character set-up, story lines…everything solidly placed. The first episode gave me just enough weird to run back for more. Each episode builds the creepy, the story, the characters. Episode three grabbed me by the face and didn’t let go. The “Dude” factor was high. The fourth…the fifth…WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN HOW WILL THIS END??!?!?!?!!!
This show explores fear. Fear that you have no control over your mind. Maybe it’s not outside forces, not the choices made, not nurture…but nature that, maybe, the thing you fear the most is already stitched into your DNA. It is very clear at the beginning that what Alice fears most is that she can’t avoid mental illness, that since her mother and her sister have it, then so will she.
She studies how to help people and works to be an advocate for those who need one. Though she lives in a world of mental health, of knowing the words to say, the path to take, she constantly runs from places of pain. She will do anything to not fall into the dark where her mom and sister dwell. Anything.
I love this struggle.
And Zoe, Alice’s sister, who lives with schizophrenia, wants to be free, but the price is too high. Want to know the cost? Just watch.
You chase Father Time…or run from it.
All this emotional struggle is wrapped in the creepy story of the Peach family, who live above the world and worship…well, something awesomely terrifying. Want to visit them, I know the way…
CHANNEL ZERO: BUTCHER’S BLOCK — “Insidious Onset” Episode 201 — Pictured: Mysterious Staircase — (Photo by: Syfy)
Would you go up there?
Would you go up there if your sister was up there…your kid, your mom, your best friend?
After learning what’s up there, would you stay?
Alice has a decision to make…Zoe has made hers.
I’ll be back after I watch the final episode for hopefully all the flailing. Bye for now!
*cue elevator music*
Wait right here…just…
don’t…
blink…
I’m back.
You all still here?
Great.
OMG
I loved that finale. All the emotion, all the mystery…all wrapped up in a showdown between facing evil and hiding behind fear.
Let me just say…don’t ever let fear dictate your path or guide your choices. Nope.
Warning: this show is a bit bloody.
Go! Go now…you’ll find all the episodes here at syfy.com.
Then come back and tell me what you think.