Title: SCARE
TACTICS: Season Premiere Episodes “Satan’s Baby” & “3:10 To Hell”
Host: Tracy Morgan
Running Time: 30
minutes with commercials
Media: SCI FI
Channel Original Series (NTSC DVD Screener)
Season Premiere
Wednesday, July 9, 2008 at 10pm (ET/PT)
Network: SCI FI
Channel (Check your local cable/satellite listings for channel)
TV Rating: Not
Available At The Time Of Review
Reviewer: Mark A.
Rivera
Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock star and
comedian Tracy Morgan hosts this season of SCARE TACTICS, which premieres
with back to back new episodes on Wednesday, July 9, 2008 with “Satan’s
Baby” at 10pm (ET/PT) and “3:10
To Hell” at 10:30pm (ET/PT). Like previous seasons, Morgan is merely there to
introduce the segments and make a comment after the fact or tease the next one
before the commercial breaks. This was the same manner the show was presented
with previous hosts, but one sometimes wishes especially with someone as gifted
as Tracy Morgan that somehow he might participate in one of the pranks instead
of just host from a stage where one guesses all the hosting segments were
probably shot for this season already. This is not a strike against SCARE
TACTICS because a lot of television from game shows to talk shows and more
are all shot back to back and my stating of how it appears is not something that
is a definite fact, but just my speculating. However there is something
pedestrian about the hosting clips as if they lack energy.
While this
season’s pranks are funny and the cast of regular character actors participate
in various setups, sometimes without even any significant makeup to disguise
them between the segments, it makes me wonder if the ones being scared are
familiar enough with the show know they are already on SCARE TACTICS by
recognizing a recurring cast member before they are informed and a friend of
theirs pops up to reassure them. Why don’t they recognize any of the character
actors in the setup? Some of the scares are based on such popular films that are
a part of American pop culture like Rosemary’s Baby or Stephen
King’s Firestarter, how could they possibly believe what is going on is
real? I can think of some scary things that can be shot on location that don’t
even require special effects. I mean to me the more ordinary the threat might
seem, the scarier because we all have phobias and we all have a natural instinct
to avoid discomfort in any form if we can so if that’s the case, the more
primal the fear, the more one can cringe even while they might be laughing
because it is more believable.
Yet I would be a
hypocrite if I did not state that there’s a big difference between watching
and being there so there is no way to truly quantify how one would feel if they
were in the controlled situations the people about to be scared are put in so in
the end SCARE TACTICS retains it’s entertainment value because as much
as anyone might laugh and think differently, we never know who will be next…
© Copyright
2008 By Mark Rivera AKA The Brooklyn Critic
All Rights Reserved.