I like bad films. I also love to watch cheesy TV series. I was a teen in the mid 90s and an awkward and geeky teen at that which meant...well I have no idea what it meant but 90s television provided ample sustenance for my geeky teen mind. So, I've decided to revisit some of them and introduce them back to the world.
A little backstory - I’ve struggled with mild insomnia since I was a kid and often found myself going for walks on the farm in the middle of the night or sneaking into the lounge, turning the telly on really low and watching the strange shows that would air after the witching hour. It was through this that I stumbled upon some truly brilliant, but truly strange shows.
Today's review will be...Poltergeist: The Legacy. I have to mention that this show has nothing to do with the 80s film series so there is no Carol Ann contacting spirits through the television. And no weird tequila worm if I remember correctly.
Instead, the series is focused around the members of a secret society that are tasked with protecting the world from supernatural occurrences. The Legacy (as the secret society was so creatively named) was founded in London but spread across the world like the Freemasons but with more demons...? The show focuses on the Legacy House located in San Fransisco and currently run by Dr. Derek Rayne. Derek is a Dutch scholar whose father, Winston, was a member until his death at the hands of a demonic entity which would later come back to torment Derek. Derek has precognitive abilities allowing him to see some events before they happen.
Other members of the team included Nick Boyle, the military man of the group who often plays the straight man who does not always believe in the paranormal. Alex Moreau, another psychic who is descended from an old creole family. Father Callaghan, a man who struggles with his faith. Dr Rachel Corrigan and her daughter Kat who may have latent psychic abilities as well. There are other members as well but these are the core for at least the first two seasons.
They would often go out and collect strange artefacts and then accidentally unleash some horror that they had to clean up after. There was an overarching mythos, much like other shows set around the same time (The X Files, Charmed etc). And they had the same kind of stock characters that we find in numerous other shows. Still, there was enough going on to really draw me in - enough so that I bought the first series on DVD a few years ago and did a rewatch.
It was definitely a show that tried to ride on the success of The X Files but wanted to move more into the horror realm and did so in some ways. It generated an ongoing arc that followed the danger that hounded the members of the team while also building the relationships between them. There were troubled characters that had hidden depths and it dealt with some dark subject matter outside of the paranormal such as abuse. In a way it had some great dynamics that you see in shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The X Files though it lacked some of the dark humour that helped propel the later into cult classic status.
Overall, it was a fun series and inspired some of my writing later on. In fact, writing about it now makes me want to re-watch the series. I mean, who doesn't like angsty dramas with psychic powers, demons, and 90s fashion?
If you want to learn more check out LegacyWeb An Unofficial Website a fansite started in 1996.
Are there any strange shows from the 90s that you think I should watch? Leave a comment and I will seek out the weirdest of the weird and review them as well.
xoJaime