Swamp Thing 2019: Glorious Hokum

"I found Season 2...!"

The Man Thing Swamp Thing franchise has never had much luck. A TV series in the 90s got cancelled in its prime. A crappy cartoon spin-off vanished without a trace. 

The only two successes of sorts were B-movies, the first being directed by Wes Craven in 1982. The other, 1990’s “Return of the Swamp Thing”, was a gloriously camped up cheese fest, much removed from the comic book’s more avant garde, high brow tone.

So it is that the latest attempt to bring ol’ Swampy to a bigger audience has carried on the tradition. As in, it got cancelled right after the first episode's premiere. But did it deserve such a fate? No.

The Green, Green Death of Home

On paper, it’s pure hokum. The setting is a small Louisianan town, conveniently placed next to a creepy swamp and just as conveniently pumped full of Southern Gothic. (Right down to a blind fortune teller with voodoo powers, and a gaga grieving mother being haunted by her dead daughter.)

A strange plant-based disease has befallen the town, and a renegade scientist, who holds the key to the mystery, has been murdered and (apparently) brought back as a shambling mound of mutant veg. The town’s evil Lord of the Manor, replete with links to a sinister ‘conclave’, is behind it all. Riding to the rescue is a CDC doctor with a tortured past, a very convenient link to all the town’s dramatis personae, and a saintly vibe. Hilarity ensues.

The Creeping Moss from the Shores of Shuggoth

Much of the problem is that a big chunk of the show takes place in a hospital and so the ‘Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place’ flashbacks come thick and fast. There are even scenes which all but repeat gags from the show word for word, but without any comedy.

Darkplace, of course, took apart genre TV and its over-reliance on cliches, stock characters and schlock. Swamp Thing 2019 is, meanwhile, doomed to repeat them. Yes, expect boo-hiss villains, mad scientists, drama for the sake of drama, and monsters of the week.

And yet… Part of the show’s genius is that the entire cast do an amazing job of salvaging it. Even the cringeist lines, the most blatantly wooden exposition, is delivered with verve and skill. The scenes of brooding body horror, including bodies ripped apart by roots and tendrils, are very well done and fittingly vile. The pacing, building of atmosphere, set design and direction is superb. It works both as horror and pulp superhero romp.

Loving The Alien

The show, of course, depends mainly on whether Swamp Thing himself is well executed. And he is. The costume and VFX are excellent, and the big green brute (with feelings) is played with a deft turn by Derek Mears, who does justice to the legacy of previous Swampy, the late, great Dick Durock.

So, you have a hammy TV show that’s great fun, well made and satisfying, Needless to say, it gets cancelled for… reasons? Alas, we will now never get to see Swamp Thing being shagged half to death by a broody space island. This happened in the comics. It’s canon, people!

Swamp Thing, Season One, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime in the UK. It will also be released on Blu Ray and DVD in February 2020.

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