Death Comes to Town Review: “Dead Man Walking”

The Kids in the Hall’s mini-series concludes with the strongest episode.

Cast and Crew

Writers: Bruce McCulloch and David Foley

Director: Kelly Makin

As Various Characters:

Bruce McCulloch
Dave Foley
Kevin McDonald
Mark McKinney
Scott Thompson

Full cast and crew available at the imdb.

Synopsis

The town of Shuckton hope that glitzy public executions will put their name on the map. They even have a deal pending with an American theme park chain– a sort of “Six Flags at Half Mast.” As Crim goes to his death, revelations come to light about the actual murderer and Death’s corporeal presence in the small town.

High Points

This represents the best writing on the show to date. The execution features cleverly satiric, carnivalesque elements. Death’s character—is this the Grim Reaper, or one of many representatives of Death?—and motivations make a kind of sense.

Low Points

The series comes to a strong conclusion, but it should have just been a two-hour Kids in the Hall tv movie. It had two few laughs for its four-hour, eight-episode running time

The Scores

Originality: 4/6.

Effects: 3/6. The cat-puppet is awful, though they clearly knew this to be the case. Whether or not it’s entertainingly awful is, of course, a matter of perspective.

Story: 5/6. I give them credit for bringing every obscure element of the series together in the conclusion.

Acting: 5/6.

Production: 4/6.

Emotional response: 4/6.

Overall: 5/6.

“Dead Man Walking” receives 30/42.