Fall 2012 Television: Mockingbird Lane

By LR Simon

I decided to keep an open mind about Mockingbird Lane in order to make as fair an assessment of it as I could. Then I learned that Eddie Izzard plays Grampa Munster. It’s possible that I may have opened my mind just enough to let part of my brain fall out. Izzard perfectly balances humor and menace, and his scenes are the best in the show.

The characters look like they’re inspired more by post-Munsters monsters than the original Munsters did. The original Herman Munster was modeled after the Boris Karloff Frankenstein creature; here, Jerry O’Connell looks like he’d be more at home in a Tim Burton animated feature (think Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas). Izzard’s Grampa looks more reminiscent of Gary Oldman’s Dracula than Bela Lugosi’s. Portia deRossi’s Lily looks like any number of hot vampire brides—Yvonne de Carlo’s Vampyra-inspired long black hair with the white streak is long gone. The decision not to follow the original series too closely was wise, and paid off.

The show is still campy, and the actors are obviously enjoying themselves, though there are a few more chills and scares than in the original. The Munsters was sheer silly fun—much of the show’s humor derived from the family’s delusion that the more monstrous of the clan were normal and Marilyn was the scary one. In the reboot, the family is aware of its differences from normal society, with the exception of Eddie, who does not know at the start that he is a werewolf.

All in all, Mockingbird Lane is entertaining without being particularly thought-provoking, exactly what it sets out to be. We'll see if NBC orders any more episodes. The network seems unsure about its potential (understandably), but its ratings last week helped Grimm.