That sense of foreboding was upon as I watched TNT's new miniseries/horror anthology "Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King." The series consists of eight episodes, shown in two-hour blocks over the course of four weeks, starting at 9 p.m. Wednesday.
That first block consists of "Battleground," starring William Hurt and "Crouch End," with Claire Forlani and Eion Bailey. Of the two, "Battleground" (which will be shown commercial-free) is the clear winner, with an intense and witty performance by Hurt as a hitman who assasinates a toymaker, then is delivered a mysterious from that same toymaker. Ok -- I'm going to spoil it right now, because the ads already have.
The package contains a bunch of toy army men who come to life and try to kill hurt. Think of it as a nightmare version of the kid's story "The Indian in the Cupboard." Yes, it sounds silly, but it's wierdly absorbing.
That's due to two things -- the always reliable Hurt, and the fact that the episode contains not one word of spoken dialogue. It's kind of eerie and fascinating.
Less interesting is "Crouch End," which stars Forlani and Bailey and joyful newlyweds who coo and kiss and love each other to pieces. Needless to say, hell awaits them. They're honeymooning in England and go to visit friends in a place called Crouch End. They get lost.
I don't need to tell you that it doesn't end well. In fact, it ends rather abruptly, as do a number of the episodes.
Maybe their truncated feel comes from the fact that they're based on short stories. Well, no matter. In spite of being depressing and a little abrupt, the seven episodes I was sent are, in general, pretty good. In addition to Hurt, Forlani and Bailey, episodes feature such solid actors as William H. Macy, Tom Berenger, Ron Livingston and Samantha Mathis.
Other than "Battleground," my favorites were "Umney's Last Case" and "The Fifth Quarter."
"Umney," starring Macy, is about an old-timey private eye who finds out that he is actually the main character of novel. Macy plays both the character and the author, and appears to be having a blast.
"Quarter," with Mathis and Jeremy Sisto, is a fairly straightforward story about an ex-con who searches for a buried treasure.
The story is pretty basic, but is noteworthy due to the performances by Sisto and especially Mathis, who is wonderful as the con's emotionally bruised wife.
Overall, the series is pretty solid, and I must admit I enjoyed it.
Even though it bummed me out.