Hysteria Season One Review

Hysteria! the new horror thriller series on Peacock has a lot going for it. One look at the cast list – Julie Bowen (Modern Family), Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead), Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect, True Blood), Nolan North (a prolific voice actor who is making a welcome return to TV), and Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood, among many other excellent supporting roles) – and you’ll be contemplating just how good the series must be to pull in so many excellent actors (I know I was – the cast list was largely the reason why I wanted to give the series a look). And the central conceit is also intriguing: In 1989, after the star quarterback is found dead in an apparent satanic killing, a small town becomes embroiled in Satanic Panic, leading to various citizens accusing others of being in league with the Devil and bringing a demonic presence into the town.

Now, if you’re an Elder Millennial or a Gen-Xer (or older), you probably have some memory of how the Satanic Panic of the 80s and early 90s led to a lot of pretty messed up things – especially seeing as how most of it was simply kids goofing off and pretending to worship Satan as a means of getting back at their straitlaced parents (who had, in their own youth, participated in their own counter-culture movements and now couldn’t accept that their own kids were doing the same). So, since we’re at the time wherein nostalgia for the 80s and 90s is reaching its zenith, the Satanic Panic era is ripe for the picking. But when confronting it, one has to have a clear focus in mind. And, that’s why, despite a stellar cast (which also includes a set of excellent younger actors – I’ll get to them in a moment), Hysteria! can’t quite elevate itself to a really great horror series.

The central issue preventing Hysteria! from moving into the pantheon of great Halloween thriller fare is the structure of its plot. Without giving too much of the game away (although I suspect most viewers will be able to see the major twists and turns coming as I was), the story sets up one central arc, only to try and piggyback another large arc onto it midway through the story, pulling focus from what could be a solid look at parents, their kids, and the pressures of teenage life and making it a much more muddled and unsatisfying story on the whole.

Here’s what I mean. Our story appears to be about solving the apparent murder of the star quarterback, who was found dead in the woods with organs missing. We witness his abduction – he was over at the house of Faith Whitehead (a truly exceptional Nikki Hahn), a sheltered girl who is trying to break out of her oppressive mother’s control (said mother is played by Camp, with commitment even when the story asks her to stand by some pretty crazy tenets) – when masked men storm the home, abducting him and Faith; but we don’t know who was responsible. Once he is found dead, the town searches for something and someone to blame. The missing organs and other elements at the location of the body lead the adults in the town to suspect that perhaps there’s a Satanic cult amongst the teens at the high school. The local death metal band become the natural scapegoats – something that isn’t helped when one member, Dylan (Emjay Anthony, great at playing a wide-eyed teen in way over his head), goes along with the rumors because it means the girl he’s got a crush on will think he’s cool and want to date him.

And if that were the main thrust of the plot, this would be a pretty solid series. As it is, there’s some great commentary on the disconnect between parents and their teenage children (so much of what the teens are up to happens in basements and when their parents aren’t home – usually off somewhere, meeting to worry about just what their kids are getting up to in their absences). And the series really shines when it starts to dig into the sense of alienation and loneliness experienced by the teens themselves – Jordy (Chiara Aurelia in a moving and complex performance that I wish got a bit more screen time), a member of the band, has a couple of great moments where she stresses how alone she has felt over the years, being ostracized by her former friends and classmates for not wanting to conform to what’s cool or acceptable. She feels at home with goth make-up and dark clothes and being in the band gave her a place to fit in and friends she could be herself with – and the thought of that being taken away from the outward panic over the band somehow being able to open portals to hell is a terrifying prospect for her. Listening to that speech, and other moments like that from other characters, the series feels like more than just a holiday thriller. There’s depth to some of these characters – unfortunately, there’s not nearly enough time to allow them the chance to breathe and grow in the ways they could potentially do so if given the chance.

Because, like I said, the story isn’t simply the story you think it is at the start. There’s an entire second major arc introduced halfway through the proceedings which takes the focus off the main arc, eventually linking to it, yes, but serving to muddle things in a disappointing manner along the way. And that’s not the only element of the wider story that gave me pause – there are tonal issues riddled throughout the series as well. For every interesting, character driven moment like the one I referenced above, there are a host of sequences that are meant to parody or satirize traditional horror tropes in terms of demons possessing folks and conservative parents railing against the dangers of drugs, sex, and rock and roll. Sure, they are funny – and yes, poking fun at how characters are acting ridiculously in light of the smallest potential of demonic activity does work knowing what we know now about how prevalent those scares were in that time period, meta commentary is almost impossible not to have in a series seeped in nostalgic call outs – but it’s hard to suss out just what the series is trying to say overall. Satanic Panic was a real thing. It was a dangerous thing. It caused normally even keeled folks to act extremely out of character in disturbing ways. But this is also a horror series and there are more than a few indications that perhaps there’s something wicked going on – outside of the demented nature of humanity as a whole.

So, is Hysteria! worth a look this spooky season? It’s a couple episodes too long and that additional plot line doesn’t shoehorn into the story as neatly as the writers seem to think it does. I was impressed with the performances, on the whole, but also found myself wishing certain characters (mainly Faith and Jordy, whose past and present relationship also could have used a bit more time spent unpacking it – there was something interesting there that the series never really delved deep enough into) had more to do throughout the series. If you’re looking for a different spooky show this Halloween, you could absolutely do worse than this one. There are some strong performances, a mostly interesting central arc, and I found myself emotionally invested in a couple of the character’s arcs. Which, really, is more than enough to turn a Halloween series into something worth a look.

Hysteria! premieres on October 18 on Peacock. All eight episodes of the season were provided for review.