A couple finds a nightmare in a dream home in a seemingly perfect neighborhood.
Meh. I swear I’ve seen this story done in at least five suspense anthology series, including that one back just a couple of years.
And the villain’s motivations NEVER make any sense.
I’ve only seen two episodes of this show: The zombie episode, which was great, and this episode, which sucked.
None of the character’s actions made the tiniest shred of sense.
Yep. With all the focus on wanting people to spawn, you’d of thought they’d have like, a use for the kids.
For giggles, let’s list those other anthologies who’ve done nearly identical episodes. I’ll start:
Twilight Zone (2002) - “Evergreen”
Night Visions - “Harmony”
What sort of numbwits don’t read something before they sign it? Especially when you question why you’re getting such a good deal and you get a song and dance answer about how “we’re all a community, and we want you here because you fit in with our desired demographic”?
I think we need a shorthand term for this type of story. I propose: HOA from Hell.
I just had an idea for a possibly amusing variant on this – why should it always be the community that is the villain?
It starts with the usual setup: glorious, perfect housing development, our Hero and Heroine (and a sprout or two, why not?) are thrilled to buy in.
And the place turns out to be even more wonderful than expected – there are lush community flower gardens everywhere, free riding and ballet and soccer and whatever lessons for the kids, everyone is helpful, pitching in to help the new couple get their house redecorated, the yard groomed, on and on.
And then little tiny annoyances appear – BUT this time it’s the newbies who are the source of the disharmony. They simply aren’t as disciplined and perfect as they pretended to be on their application forms. The husband is lazy, and lets the lawn grow too long. The neighbors hint about it, then finally one of them mows for him. The wife is a secret drinker. She gets a bit tipsy and rowdy at a party and hits on another husband and uses coarse language, much to the disapproval of everyone else at the party. Their son punches another kid on the soccer team for no good reason. Their daughter breaks the unwritten dress code at school. On and on. Nothing major, but others in town notice, and try to urge the newbies to mend their ways.
Then, instead of the Newbies being trapped and forced to remain there, the HOA simply wants them gone. They offer to buy them out. They point out that the contract might be void since the Newbies lied about smoking and drinking. “You just don’t fit in.” The Newbies don’t want to leave: THEY have no problems because their neighbors are perfect, and if it bothers the neighbors that their own kids throw candy wrappers everywhere? To bad. Our kids are free spirits, we don’t believe in crushing their naturalness.
The HOA up their offer, add in moving expenses, help in finding a new home. Nope. The Newbies refuse to go. “We like it here. Get used to us, because we’re staying.”
Finally the community has had it. The Newbies end up dead (let’s go with pressing them to death, stonings are over done) and added to the town compost piles. End shot, the garden club is tending to the grounds of the Newbies house, mowing, pruning…mulching. The Newbies will finally be improving the neighborhood.