In Review: Amazing Stories (S1 – Ep1) The Cellar

Synopsis: While restoring an old Iowa farmhouse, Sam discovers a time portal in the storm cellar that transports him to 1919.

The Story

While Sam and his Brother are restoring an old Farm House they stumble across a bunch of old stuff in the Cellar, but before they get a real chance to look a storm hits and Sam finds himself whisked off to 1919 Prohibition America. Confused and somewhat bewildered Sam meets Evelyn a young woman with dreams of becoming a singer but is instead going to marry into a life she does not want. Over the course of the story, Sam begins to fall in love with Evelyn and promises to take her back to 2019 when the next big storm hits.

The Acting

Victoria Pedretti puts in a really nice performance as Evelyn who has dreams of becoming a singer. I really liked one of her establishing scenes where we see her sneak down to the cellar in order to listen to some of her brother’s old vinyl records or phonograms as they were called back then. We see her sat in an old chair lip-syncing to the music and doing a much better job of it than most contemporary performers. I also thought the scene where Sam takes Evelyn into the SpeakEasy was rather fun as well.

Overall

Before I sum up. I’m one of those people that remember the original series of ‘Amazing Stories’. So I’m not going to do what the CNN reviewer did and try and compare this with the edgier and more contemporary ‘Black Mirror’ because that would be unfair to both shows.  What I will say is that this first episode felt very much like it could have been written specifically as an ‘Amazing Stories’ episode. It felt like the type of story that you’d get on the classic show. This means that the writers and the creatives behind this new series seem to be very much respectful of the type of whimsical fantasy stories that ‘Amazing Stories’ told.

The fact is. Back in its day. ‘Amazing Stories’ was an anthology series that was made for the family audience and it seems that this new version is aiming for the same broad demographic. My one concern is whether it will last beyond a single season. Given that everything has to have a bit more edge to it when it comes to modern audiences. I kind of hope that it can buck that trend.

‘Amazing Stories’ is available to view now on The Apple Streaming Service.