The Tale of the Phantom Cab

 

Description: Season 1, Episode 1

Storyteller: Frank

Description: Two brothers lost in the woods stumble across a mad scientist.

Review: So kicking things off is one of the more average episodes in the greater context of the series. The main highlight is the initiation of Frank into the group which gives the audience a glimpse of the Midnight Society as a whole. No one really says or does anything in particular, but each character is given a line or two in order to establish their personality. Despite surface level things like showing Frank to be a hothead, or that Gary is balanced, it's still a respectable tactic to convey to the audience how the characters would be when not telling the stories. We will see more initiations in the future so we will revisit this idea down the line.

As for the tale itself, it's workable but on the cornball side of the spectrum. To be fair, it did have the pressure of being the opening act to the franchise so I do cut it some slack. It's also worth mentioning that this is the first appearance of the Dr. Vink character. Anyway, the story involves two brothers hiking(?) in the woods and become lost. The two don't get along which begs the question further of what these two are even doing in the first place? My main gripe has always been the bad acting of the little brother; his line delivery is way off. Beyond this, the idea of a crazy doctor living in a cabin, asking riddles, and then killing people or taking their organs and limbs...it clashes with this notion of a ghostly taxicab roaming the woods. On some level I appreciate the weirdness, but, on the other hand, things feel rushed and with little context; they utilize a character to explain all the exposition in one conversation since we wouldn't know why anything was happening otherwise. The riddle itself that was perplexing the characters was clever enough though.

Maybe I've been quoting the riddles for too many years, because I think the next three episodes of the show all would have served better as the first story than The Phantom Cab. Nonetheless, this is still a decent episode for what it is, and the spinning head part was scary for the era and audience. As far as setting a proper tone for things to come, I do think The Phantom cab fared (that pun, baby!) well in that regard.