Scary is boring

 

I don’t know what I expected when I threw on the first episode of Lore, but it wasn’t this.

Based on the popular podcast hosted by Aaron Mahnke, Lore is all about true scary stories from the past, some of which helped to influence the fictional horror we indulge in today, whether it’s demon possession or creepy dolls.

This episode (also the first ever episode of the podcast) starts with a pretty neat animated short about a woman being buried alive, overlayed with Mahnke’s dialogue as he tells the story. Then it’s a bunch of what looks to be stock footage and historical images before we finally get to the live action and meet the unfortunate Brown family, who one by one are falling dead to a mysterious illness.

But the illusion of this world is completely shattered when Mahnke talks over the scenes describing our character’s feelings and motivations. Not that the scenes are worth writing home about either, they look and sound like those re-enactments you find on the CI channel, albeit in a period setting. As well as narration, the story is broken up with photos and pretend archival footage, which seems redundant when you’re already re-enacting the story anyway.

Forget scared, I spent the rest of the episode feeling bored and counted down the minutes until it would end. Sure, Amazon has a couple of good shows under its belt (Transparent, Fleabag), but the Whole Foods juggernaut still has a long way to go if it wants to catch up to Netflix—who do not seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Lore, at least in this first episode, does not translate well to screen. A podcast with images, does not a show make.

Show Lore: Season One

Network Amazon Prime Video

Release Date 13 October 2017

Episodes S01E01 “They Made a Tonic”