TV Review: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series “Place of Dead Roads”
By: Brandon Wolfe
‘From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series’ hits a stride of sorts in its sixth episode. This is the first episode of the series thus far that truly distinguishes itself from the film that spawned it. Apart from the simple act of placing the characters inside the Titty Twister, there is very little in “Place of Dead Roads” that feels like merely an inflated retread of what we’ve seen before.
We begin with a flashback to Richie living in the wilderness, bearded, crazed and hunting for food. Unable to snare any big game, he settles for a nearby snake as his dinner. It is strongly implied that eating this snake is what gives him his psychic abilities, and the fact that the series opened on another flashback, to the woman who would become Santanico Pandemonium being thrown into a snake pit in the woods as part of a sacrifice, is probably not a coincidence. And if this does play out in this way, then it’s pretty funny that Richie’s psychic powers hinge entirely on the fact that he ate a random snake. The WRONG snake.
Entering the Titty Twister in the present day (and it should be noted that this version of the bar seems a bit less seedy of a dive than the previous one), the Geckos and the Fullers encounter the PG-13 equivalent of the hilarious barker played by Cheech Marin in the film (the nastiest he gets is when he alludes to an “all you can lick” buffet), whom Seth punches in the face. As in the film, Seth will not allow the Fullers to leave until after the deal with Carlos is completed. However, once inside and over drinks, the partnership between the brothers and the family is much more hostile than it was before. Jacob and Seth reached a tense sort of peace, even begrudging respect, over shots in the film, where here, Seth remains aggressive, needling Jacob, picking at familial wounds and making the wedge already existing between the two parties even greater.
But Seth has his own troubles. Where the George Clooney version of the character felt right at home amid the bar’s rowdiness, this Seth doesn’t get a good feeling from the place at all. Richie seems to enjoy himself, keeping entertained by knife-throwing for money, but Seth can’t get Carlos on the phone and starts to worry. He decides to stash the money outside, and while out there, he is jumped by the barker and his friends, and finds himself chained between two motorcycles and almost ripped apart. He is saved by a mystery man who calls himself Narciso, who also informs Seth that Carlos’ promise to take the Geckos to the promised land of El Rey is a lie.
Ranger Gonzalez arrives in Mexico and finds three severed heads mounted on pikes. One head speaks to him, pointing him in the direction of where to go, and Gonzalez doesn’t know whether or not he’s going insane. Gonzalez then stops into a diner that coincidentally has an altar in the backroom that Carlos uses as a lair. He is then apprehended by Carlos and his men, who take the mysterious knife, once owned by Richie, from him. Gonzalez tells Carlos that a war is coming, and names Narciso as someone Carlos should worry about, but Carlos is unfazed and orders the ranger to be tortured. But Gonzalez is able to free himself and kill Carlos’ vampiric henchmen before setting out for the Titty Twister.
The Fullers spend the episode attempting to figure out how to extricate themselves from their situation. Unable to reason with Seth, Kate attempts to sway Richie to let them go, even going so far as to kiss him. Jacob, meanwhile, attempts to bribe another patron to drive the family out of there, only to learn the man is a pedophile with designs on Scott. Finding no success, the family joins the brothers as they all settle in to watch as Santanico Pandemonium finally takes the stage.
As I said, “Place of Dead Roads” is where the show finally goes its own way. Technically we’re still watching the basic framework of ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ play out, but there’s very little onscreen that directly calls attention to the parallel this week. The events and circumstances are starting to bend in their own unique directions, something that should have happened sooner than this, but is still gratifying to have happen now. Even when “Place of Dead Roads” does bring in a familiar touch, as it does with the introduction of the Sex Machine character from the film, he’s now played by Jake Busey and looks very different from the version played by Tom Savini (though he still has that same Crotch Rocket gun, but that thing pops up in everything Rodriguez does, so no big surprise). Busey has already played a character on the series, Professor Tanner from the episode ‘Mistress’, so it’s not immediately clear if Sex Machine is an alias of Tanner’s or if Busey is pulling double duty, much like how Cheech Marin played three separate characters in the film.
The ‘Dusk’ series still is far from perfect. It’s schlocky and frequently leaden in its dialogue. Also, Rodriguez could stand to cool it a bit with his characters constantly making movie references. Even the music goes a bit too reference-heavy, as when an entire scene plays out with “Malagueña Salerosa”, the song that famously played over the end credits of ‘Kill Bill: Volume 2’, playing in the background. But as it parts company more dramatically with the film, it’s becoming less tedious of an exercise and more assured in its own skin.
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