REVIEW: Hysteria! – Season One [2024]

Rating: TV-MA | Episodes: 8 | Runtime: 60 minutes
Release Date: October 18th, 2024 (USA)
Studio: Peacock
Creator(s): Matthew Scott Kane

The fear was real.

As soon as the doctor sees Linda Campbell’s (Julie Bowen) rash, she clocks it as being psychosomatic. It’s easy for her to say considering it’s the first case she’s seen, but Linda knows better after seeing the same rash being hastily hidden by Aubrey Hudson. She’s seen it slowly creeping up Police Chief Dandridge’s (Bruce Campbell) neck too. So, unless whatever is happening proves to be a town-wide delusion, they all have a reason to be scared. Not just because the Hudson boy is dead. Not just because of a rumored Satanic cult. It’s because it’s often easier to fear the unknown than it is to believe the truth.

That’s the hook inherent to Matthew Scott Kane’s Hysteria! The crazy events occurring on-screen are just as easily explained by criminal acts as they are demonic infestation. The question is thus posed to the audience about which makes more sense in context with what we’ve seen. Where does a reliable cause and effect lie? What part of what we’ve experienced is tainted by the perception of Happy Hollow residents hanging at the end of their respective ropes? Because people are committing crimes. And kids are starting a cult. Is the crossover a coincidence? Intentional? An unfortunate consequence?

The result proves a lot of fun while also being a smart subversion of the Satanic Panic era wherein parents believed everything from heavy metal to Dungeons and Dragons was a sign of the Devil’s corruption. Kane, his writing room, and their producers (including familiar names like Jordan Vogt-Roberts, John Francis Daley, and Jonathan Goldstein) understand the hypocrisy religion wields by declaring itself arbiters of good despite its own proactive violence (physical, emotional, or psychological) towards that end inherently making it evil. So, they ensure bad things are happening on both ends of the spectrum to cloud the truth.

They demand characters on either side to bend their moral compasses. What better way to allow them that opportunity than through branding. We’re talking about fandoms and deprogramming after all. It’s all a product of identity and marketing. It’s about finding community and purpose whether we’re talking about Dylan (Emjay Anthony) and his friends’ (Chiara Aurelia’s Jordy and Kezii Curtis’ Spud) fledgling band Deth Krunch or Tracy Whitehead’s (Anna Camp) fledgling church group against Satan. A serenely boring town like theirs doesn’t need either because it exists within the static of complacency. Then tragedy changes everything.

Why? Because the way the victim’s body is found appears ritualistic in nature. Throw that on the news and everyone pays attention. Here’s Dylan and company’s chance to profit off the allure of counterculture by leaning into the Satanic aspects of their music to coax in kids looking to rebel. And it’s Tracy’s chance to rebrand herself from church nut to prophet. This murder provides them the fuel to set two opposition fires to get everyone frothing at the mouth. Teens seeking the power of darkness. Adults ready to satisfy bloodlust in God’s name. It’s a wonder Chief Dandridge doesn’t retire and get the heck out of town the moment he realizes this powder keg is forming.

That’s precisely where Hysteria! excels. Because just as we know Satan isn’t real, so does Dandridge. It doesn’t matter how many parents want Dylan’s head on a pike, he knows this dweeb playing dress-up isn’t a threat. Except he doesn’t really have any other leads and everyone in town is experiencing weird hallucinations alongside the aforementioned rashes. He can only divert his attention so long once images of winged demons start showing up in his line of sight. And the same goes for us. Maybe Dylan’s “cult” didn’t start with serious intent, but his new girlfriend (Jessica Treska’s Judith) and their troubled friend (Elijah Richardson’s Cliff) aren’t joking. Maybe they accidentally opened a door for a demon to wreak havoc.

This compelling duality helps get us through the first two or three episodes of exposition because they can drag a bit (especially in the pilot). Once we get into the swing of things and intention becomes hijacked by new characters in new ways, however, the show starts to hit its comedic and dramatic stride. It helps that the enigmatic Reverend’s (Garret Dillahunt) role becomes fleshed out more alongside Tracy’s daughter Faith (Nikki Hahn) while supporting cast members like Hereditary’s Milly Shapiro are allowed the room to overcome parts that initially feel like one-note punch lines. The more we know, the more entertaining and mysterious things get.

Just know that everything has an over-the-top edge—one I wish Kane and company took even further. When Bruce Campbell is your pragmatic straight man, you get an idea of how unhinged the rest can become. That means Camp and Dillahunt have the space to provide more arch villainy (although still nuanced in the sense that they “mean well”) while the twenty-somethings playing teenagers can ramp up the earnestness to feel young despite appearances (there’s definitely a “Cobra Kai” through line in that regard). The big swings don’t always work considering the script’s desire to keep things grounded even as they spiral out of control, but that only adds to the truth’s uncertainty.

Because part of the fun is wondering just how supernatural Kane will go. Will he let these humans off the hook by introducing a malevolent force as puppet master? Or will he hold their feet to the fire and turn a mirror onto our own present-day politicized fearmongering? That he’s kind of able to do both should feel like a cop-out and yet it’s actually the strongest part of the whole because it reminds us that fantasy is rooted in real world events. The evil we read about in storybooks like the Bible didn’t manifest out of thin air. They’re written from experience.