The episode was good, Crystal Reed remains delightful, the actors all did fine work, and the ending was what it needed to be. A good script goes a long way. Hey! I used to have that 8 Legged Freaks movie poster! The effects works was top notch. But-- wow! Did this episode look expensive with all those widescreen shots.
Even the jump scares were decent.
Funny thing about genre tv. It doesn’t run on the Nielsen ratings no more-- or at least, not completely.
Sometimes, even a lot of the time-- it operates on a wider spectrum of demographics-- the primary one being a good old-fashioned concept-- no, not the watercooler, though that helps–
It’s called BUZZ.
How do you think the CW stays on the air? Product resale and BUZZ. How does that little show adjacent to the competition’s cinematic universe stay on ABC for 7 seasons-- you know the one, about some secret agent called Coulman or Coldson or whatever-- epic resale and years of epic BUZZ.
Now, screaming blue bloody murder when you don’t like something-- that is NEGATIVE BUZZ. It’s your brain smashed up in the kitchen.
Praising Crystal Reed, Derek Mears, the writing, and/or the production values-- that is POSITIVE BUZZ. It appears as PASSION-- and has kept Star Trek on the air in one form or another since 1966.
So… why not create only POSITIVE BUZZ to make yourselves heard?
. There’s everything else, and this limited-income old fart is getting his money’s worth.