I wasn't sure if I wanted to review Slasher: Guilty Party or not. I just finished watching it last week and decided not to review it, but I changed my mind. I tried to review a television show one before but not many actually read it. I was trying to review each episode but this time I'm reviewing the whole season, so maybe that will make a difference. I'm reviewing the second season because I haven't watched the first season yet. This is a series on Netflix, and for whatever reason, it started me on the second season instead of the first one. I didn't realize what happened until I was a few episodes in already. From what I can tell, even though some of the actors are the same, the two seasons aren't connected.
Five years ago at a summer camp, a few of the camp counselors welcome in Talvinder (Melinda Shankar). Things go well for a while, but then the group of friends begins to realize that Talvinder will do whatever it takes to get her way. They decide to teach her a lesson she won't soon forget, but things go south and Talvinder ends up dead. In the present day, in the middle of winter, the group of friends returns to the camp when they learn that a resort will be expanding into the area where they hid Talvinder's body. Even though one of the other counselors was pinned for Talvinder's disappearance, they feel it is best to move the body just in case there is some evidence that will go against them. The problem is that the camp closed down because of the controversy and now a group of people who have started a communal living resort and they are wondering why this group of friends want to return to their old campgrounds in the middle of winter. An even bigger problem is that someone has decided to kill the group of friends and they aren't picky about who they kill if they get in the way.
On further reflection, I think Netflix started me on the second season because that one is produced by Netflix, whereas the first season was made for a different streaming service but it is now also on Netflix. Season two is sight episodes long with each roughly 50 minutes in length. I'm not much of a binge watcher, though I will some at times. With Slasher: Guilty Party, I watched it over eight weeks, one episode each week. I have selected seven shows and I watch one episode from each on a scheduled day. It takes longer, but I feel I don't get as bored with a series doing it that way. I usually just watch an episode a day just because there are a lot of other things I need to get done after work as well.
I was impressed with the story as it doesn't mess around much at the start. It isn't long before we know what is going on and a little about each character. It also doesn't mess around with kills as there is at least one kill each episode. There is a fairly large cast so we don't learn a lot about each character, but enough to know why each person is there. The backstory is told in a series of flashbacks. There are some flashbacks for a few of the communal living folks as well, which surprised me a little. They aren't there just to up the body count. They get involved with the overall story early since one of their own is the first victim. There are smaller flashbacks for some of these people which surprised me some. They aren't much really, just a short explanation as to how they ended up in this community. Not all of those characters get a flashback though, as some just explain how they got there while talking to someone. The main flashback has to do with Talvinder mostly and how the friends came to hate her for various reasons. It takes a long time for this flashback to play out. It is broken up over most of the episodes. I'm pretty sure the main flashback didn't show up in every episode at least.
While I enjoyed the story, I did think that eight episodes ended up being too many. Even though each episode had its share of surprises in them, it did start to feel dragged out by the 5th or 6th episode. I couldn't help but wonder if the story wouldn't have been better if contained in a single movie. We wouldn't have gotten near as much detail with a lot of the characters, but I don't think it would have felt as dragged out. The story has plenty of red herrings as to who the killer might be and there are a few sub-plots along the way as well. I did feel that the story spent too long on one guy that was used as a red herring. From what we could see of the killer, this guy was just way too big to be the killer. This lasted for two episodes, which was one episode too many. It was around that time that I started to feel that the story was being dragged out too much. Even with the surprises and fun little sub-plots, I was ready to get to the end of the story.
If I was limited to saying one good thing about Slasher: Guilty Party, that would be that it can be a very gory show at times. There are some nice kills along the way and some of them were pretty gory. From being killed from a chainsaw to a type of drill, there is lots of blood and guts at times. It all looks very well done as well. The acting was also pretty good. While I liked everyone that was involved with the show, it was Madison Cheeatow who really stood out to me. I didn't notice her too much at the start of the series, but she ends up with a lot of screen time by the end of the series and does a wonderful job with it. Tough when she needs to be and still caring. You can also find Leslie Hope, Paula Brancati, Christopher Jacot, Lovell Adams-Gray, Paulino Nunes, Sebastian Pigott, Joanne Vannicola, Kaitlyn Leeb, Ty Olsson, and Rebecca Liddiard.
Jim Watson's character also stood out but that had more to do with the total hell his character goes through during the series. I don't know why they picked on his character so much, but you can't help but feel sorry for the guy even if he did do some wrongs in the past. It takes right up to the last couple of episodes before the story really starts to clear up who the killer is. There is even a twist to who it is as well. I was taken by surprise with the twist when it happened and there is an episode I wanted to watch part of again so I could remember what happened during it. Overall, the twist made sense and I'm pretty sure I might have caught on to it if I had binge-watched the show. I can't say that I forgot things between episodes, but I think I would have remembered finer details that involved the twist better. I enjoyed watching Slasher: Guilty Party and I will likely watch it again someday. I wasn't real impressed with it, outside of how gory it could get, just because it felt like it was being dragged out too much. Either they should have considered fewer episodes or just made it into a film, either would have worked for me better I think. It would depend on how you like your shows, but I think if you enjoy the slasher genre, then you will want to check out this series. With only eight episodes, there are worse ways to spend your time.
3 out of 5 All set for the first season now
Five years ago at a summer camp, a few of the camp counselors welcome in Talvinder (Melinda Shankar). Things go well for a while, but then the group of friends begins to realize that Talvinder will do whatever it takes to get her way. They decide to teach her a lesson she won't soon forget, but things go south and Talvinder ends up dead. In the present day, in the middle of winter, the group of friends returns to the camp when they learn that a resort will be expanding into the area where they hid Talvinder's body. Even though one of the other counselors was pinned for Talvinder's disappearance, they feel it is best to move the body just in case there is some evidence that will go against them. The problem is that the camp closed down because of the controversy and now a group of people who have started a communal living resort and they are wondering why this group of friends want to return to their old campgrounds in the middle of winter. An even bigger problem is that someone has decided to kill the group of friends and they aren't picky about who they kill if they get in the way.
On further reflection, I think Netflix started me on the second season because that one is produced by Netflix, whereas the first season was made for a different streaming service but it is now also on Netflix. Season two is sight episodes long with each roughly 50 minutes in length. I'm not much of a binge watcher, though I will some at times. With Slasher: Guilty Party, I watched it over eight weeks, one episode each week. I have selected seven shows and I watch one episode from each on a scheduled day. It takes longer, but I feel I don't get as bored with a series doing it that way. I usually just watch an episode a day just because there are a lot of other things I need to get done after work as well.
I was impressed with the story as it doesn't mess around much at the start. It isn't long before we know what is going on and a little about each character. It also doesn't mess around with kills as there is at least one kill each episode. There is a fairly large cast so we don't learn a lot about each character, but enough to know why each person is there. The backstory is told in a series of flashbacks. There are some flashbacks for a few of the communal living folks as well, which surprised me a little. They aren't there just to up the body count. They get involved with the overall story early since one of their own is the first victim. There are smaller flashbacks for some of these people which surprised me some. They aren't much really, just a short explanation as to how they ended up in this community. Not all of those characters get a flashback though, as some just explain how they got there while talking to someone. The main flashback has to do with Talvinder mostly and how the friends came to hate her for various reasons. It takes a long time for this flashback to play out. It is broken up over most of the episodes. I'm pretty sure the main flashback didn't show up in every episode at least.
While I enjoyed the story, I did think that eight episodes ended up being too many. Even though each episode had its share of surprises in them, it did start to feel dragged out by the 5th or 6th episode. I couldn't help but wonder if the story wouldn't have been better if contained in a single movie. We wouldn't have gotten near as much detail with a lot of the characters, but I don't think it would have felt as dragged out. The story has plenty of red herrings as to who the killer might be and there are a few sub-plots along the way as well. I did feel that the story spent too long on one guy that was used as a red herring. From what we could see of the killer, this guy was just way too big to be the killer. This lasted for two episodes, which was one episode too many. It was around that time that I started to feel that the story was being dragged out too much. Even with the surprises and fun little sub-plots, I was ready to get to the end of the story.
If I was limited to saying one good thing about Slasher: Guilty Party, that would be that it can be a very gory show at times. There are some nice kills along the way and some of them were pretty gory. From being killed from a chainsaw to a type of drill, there is lots of blood and guts at times. It all looks very well done as well. The acting was also pretty good. While I liked everyone that was involved with the show, it was Madison Cheeatow who really stood out to me. I didn't notice her too much at the start of the series, but she ends up with a lot of screen time by the end of the series and does a wonderful job with it. Tough when she needs to be and still caring. You can also find Leslie Hope, Paula Brancati, Christopher Jacot, Lovell Adams-Gray, Paulino Nunes, Sebastian Pigott, Joanne Vannicola, Kaitlyn Leeb, Ty Olsson, and Rebecca Liddiard.
Jim Watson's character also stood out but that had more to do with the total hell his character goes through during the series. I don't know why they picked on his character so much, but you can't help but feel sorry for the guy even if he did do some wrongs in the past. It takes right up to the last couple of episodes before the story really starts to clear up who the killer is. There is even a twist to who it is as well. I was taken by surprise with the twist when it happened and there is an episode I wanted to watch part of again so I could remember what happened during it. Overall, the twist made sense and I'm pretty sure I might have caught on to it if I had binge-watched the show. I can't say that I forgot things between episodes, but I think I would have remembered finer details that involved the twist better. I enjoyed watching Slasher: Guilty Party and I will likely watch it again someday. I wasn't real impressed with it, outside of how gory it could get, just because it felt like it was being dragged out too much. Either they should have considered fewer episodes or just made it into a film, either would have worked for me better I think. It would depend on how you like your shows, but I think if you enjoy the slasher genre, then you will want to check out this series. With only eight episodes, there are worse ways to spend your time.
3 out of 5 All set for the first season now
