The Tale of Apartment 214

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Midnight Society

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Air Date: Saturday, January 15, 1994

Intro: As the Midnight Society gathers around the campfire, Tucker (Daniel DeSanto) is caught messing with the "midnight dust." Meanwhile, Frank (Jason Alisharan) walks in, aching, due to helping his brother move all day. The group discuss how much moving sucks, but Kiki (Jodie Resther) ends up using the concept of moving into a new place to introduce her story. As she does so, she reaches into an empty bag, as Tucker stole the "midnight dust" as a gag. This is quickly corrected, however, and Kiki carries on with her story.

Story: Stacy Cooper (Lea-Helen Weir) and her mom Bonnie (Denise McLeod) move into a new apartment complex, complete with a strict landlord (Paul Mackan), and a lonely old woman who resides across the hall named Madeline Koegel (Beth Amos). One day, Stacy and Madeline meet, and agree to visit one another as friends. But when Stacy's new friend, Angela (Marie-Chantal Savard) gets them tickets to a Battle of the Bands, one missed visit makes for one upset old lady neighbour.

Review: I have to say, I can give this one a bit of credit for being genuinely creepy at times, but it does take a little bit for things to pick up. By the way, when I say genuinely creepy, I do mean for younger audiences at the time. At this point, a lot of it is pretty ironically funny. Beth Amos puts on a great performance here, playing both sides of the coin between sweet, friendly lady and crazy, lonesome crone. I'd say, despite a few accidental laughs, this is one of the better ones, complete with an interesting ending. Perhaps a bit slow at first, but once it gets going, it gets kinda spooky. I think this was well-executed.

Closing/Moral: Kiki ends her story, and Tucker compliments her on a good one. Gary is subjected to a couple more Tucker gags, though, including having the water bucket hidden on him. So, morally, one can simply takeaway the standard "don't break your promises" lesson from this, but I'm also gonna have to tack on "only you can prevent forest fires."

4/5

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