The Tale of the Unfinished Painting

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Midnight Society

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Air Date: Saturday, January 14, 1995
Storyteller: Gary (Ross Hull)

Frame: As Gary wanders into the Midnight Society meeting, he's first distracted by Tucker (Daniel DeSanto), hiding in the bushes, confessing to him that even though it's his turn to tell a story that night, he hasn't come up with anything quite yet. Gary, however, sees this as an opportunity to tell a story that he has been working on in the meantime. The group agrees to let Gary go instead and give Tucker until the following week to finish his, reminding us all that, since Frank is the next storyteller, there really isn't much continuity to the series.

Story: Cody (Jewel Staite, returning from 'Watcher's Woods') is an aspiring artist who isn't quite connecting with her artwork as she thinks she should. One day, while sketching in a park, Cody sees a little girl who runs off when Cody addresses her, leaving her hat behind. Cody tries to return her hat and, while tracking the little girl down, stumbles into an art gallery full of paintings of people, evidently done by Mrs. Briar (Vivian Reis), who soon invites Cody to finish a work she has already started. Little does Cody know, however, that within the brushes Mrs. Briar supplies, lies some dark, mystical power that keeps her young.

Review: On the surface, this one feels light, as it remains a kid's show, but in the details, the whole concept is creepy and harrowing. The idea here is that the painters, once finished, get trapped in a sort of eternal limbo within the painting, playing out like a dream on a loop. Conceptually, this episode is nightmarish, and it comes complete with a creepy-looking shrunken head. So the creep factor is on point. However, the story feels incomplete and rushed in a few places, leaving me, more than a few times, thinking I had missed something, only to realize upon a second watch that I hadn't. This one has its moments, but altogether, it's weak.

Final Rating: Nervous

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