Beached (TV)
The Wail is the hero we need right now. I’m not saying that facetiously, either. In a time where hope can fade pretty easily into despair, it helps to have something to entertain us, and make us feel as though we’re not alone. The Wail, the main character of Nic Collins’s “Beached,” looks like a monster, but he comes to help people. Quite a contrast to people who look like friends, but actually intend to harm us. This is one of the interesting things genre can do- twist expectations and show us truths about life. They don’t have to be deep truths; they just have to be honest.
The first of three episodes in Collins’s series begins with a woman on the beach. We overhear a message from her roommate about working, and then, she hears a wail on the beach. She goes to investigate. Later on, we see her roommate come home to some strange things, and The Wail (played by co-writer Sean Godsey) in the shower. It means no harm, but on the surface, it’s hard not to think otherwise.
Collins builds his story out over each of the three episodes, developing a mythology for The Wail that seems as inspired by pulp detective stories as it is from horror conventions. The combination fits well with the type of story he wants to tell, which is centered on characters and situations, and has a nice sense of style, as well. There’s a lot of imagination in the 23 minutes of the story we get in these three episodes, and I’d definitely like to see more of it.
