TV Review - Tell Me a Story (2018)

Kevin Williamson is probably best known for writing the horror film Scream (1996). Pretty much every film he's penned after that has been a scary movie. He clearly loves the genre. With the exception of Dawson's Creek (1998), all of the TV shows he's created have also been in the horror genre. With shows like The Following (2013), Stalker (2014) and Time After Time (2017), Williamson has had a particular fascination with serial killers. However, with those previous shows, his villains have generally been homicidal maniacs, just psychotic or irrational monsters. He's not dealing with serial killers here, but he is dealing with people who commit multiple murders. At least with this series, he gives some sense of humanity or depth to his murderers. They're not just one psycho after another. At least, he maintains that illusion of humanity and perhaps even some empathy for most of the series.

It's only after the eighth episode does things veer into crazy-town. Williamson had a decent yarn, a good B-movie thriller that was working on a very believable level, but, by episode eight, Williamson decides to give us a soap opera-like twist that instead of ratcheting up the tension and excitement only makes things seem more ridiculous. He essentially makes the back-story and motives of one character even more insidious and weird that it needed to be. It might not be any more ridiculous than the twists or dramatic surprises in Scream or any of the other horror features he's written, but it took this series farther away from any realism the series had. The other twist has the various story lines here converge in a way that's such an obvious plot convenience. Yet, sometimes when it comes to criminals, stranger things have happened.

Williamson has constructed three story-lines to be exact. Each one was inspired by a fairy tale, particularly famous tales gathered by the Brothers Grimm. One of those tales is The Three Little Pigs. The second is Little Red Riding Hood and the third is Hansel and Gretal. Instead of setting this series in the 1800's and faithfully adapting those fairy tales, Williamson takes ideas or images from those tales and puts them in a crime story set in New York City. Yet, if you recognize those ideas or images, he also subverts expectations, so that the narratives play out not necessarily as the Brothers Grimm saw them or in some instances even more grim than the Brothers Grimm.

James Wolk (Zoo and Mad Men) stars as Jordan Evans, the owner of a restaurant who is trying to have a baby with his fiancée. He recently proposed to her and he takes her out one day to go shopping for a wedding ring. The day that he does, the jewelry store is robbed and his fiancée is shot and killed. This prompts Jordan to hunt down the men responsible for the robbery. He isn't a comic book hero, but if he were, his story would be accused of "fridging," but it's fine because his fiancée isn't the only female character. This story is the adaptation of The Three Little Pigs. This is evident because the jewelry store is robbed by three men all wearing pig masks.

Danielle Campbell (Runaways and The Originals) co-stars as Kayla Powell. It's not evident at first, but Kayla is the niece of Jordan. She's a high school student who is upset at her father, so she goes to stay with her grandmother, Colleen, played by Kim Cattrall (Sex and the City and Mannequin). Kayla ends up having an affair with an older guy named Nick Sullivan, played by Billy Magnussen (Into the Woods and Game Night). Nick is revealed to be Kayla's English teacher, which another student named Ethan Davies, played by Rarmian Newton (Rise and The Family), discovers and then blackmails them. Kayla's story is the adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood. This is evident because Kayla is seen wearing her red hooded-jacket.

Davi Santos (Law & Order: True Crime and Power Rangers Dino Charge) and Dania Ramirez (Once Upon a Time and Heroes) also co-star as Gabe Perez and Hannah Perez respectively. Gabe is gay and a former drug addict. Hannah is a former war veteran. They're brother and sister. They're poor and struggling. When they come upon a bag full of two million dollars that was being held by the fence working with the jewel thieves, they go on the run for their lives. However, they never encounter the jewel thieves, they instead deal with the gangsters who were going to get the jewels. The gangsters are deadly and led by a woman who is like a wicked witch. Gabe and Hannah's story is the adaptation of Hansel and Gretal. Their initials are even the same but gender swapped.

The three story lines converge in a way that again felt contrived and wasn't as compelling. Until then, the narratives do escalate in their danger and become rather engaging, thrill rides. It's pulpy entertainment. It's titillating and sexy, nothing to be debated, something to pass the time, which it does without ever being boring.

Rated TV-MA-LVS.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 10 eps.

Available on CBS All Access.