3 out of 5

Created by: Bede Blake and Robert Butler

I’m not sure why there’s not always some type of show like this on: the Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Tales From the Crypt-lite aimed at youngsters.  The ever-presence of the Goosebumps series (and those similar to it) prove there’s a market, though, I suppose, just like Tales From the Crypt, there only ends up being so many variations you can do on spooky stuff, and with the PG-esque limitations, there’s less to fall back on.  Still, I’d watch the heck out of these shows, eh, now, and would have when I was a kid.

Creeped Out, a Canadian / UK co-production of exactly the genre I described above, is a pretty good addition to the small handful of shows of which I’m aware that’ve scratched its particular itch.  Like Are You Afraid, it edges towards legitimately spooky here and there (though, whether it’s my age or that I no longer watch these in a basement with all the lights out, nothing as scary as some select episodes of that classic series), and has something that all of these shows should have: a mascot.  ‘The Curious,’ who’s got a danged creepy mask and never speaks, explores items related to that episodes events while a voiceover mentions that hearing his whistle – which is the show’s theme, and starts to play – means something odd is gonna go down, and then 30 minutes later, it has.

Episodes that are more character focused as opposed to just hanging on a quirky concept tend to be better, and our creators and (most episode’s) writers, Bede Blake and Robert Butler, have a good ear for age-appropriate dialogue that gets the exposition down while sounding pretty natural.  Of course, actors who aren’t winking at the camera are needed for delivering such dialogue, and Creeped Out manages to stock most of its entries with just that.  Nonetheless, the middle of the first season starts to feel like its getting away from some of the more interesting ideas and production for predictable plots, but the double-wide ending episode proves that the show can be really effective when it gives itself a bit more room to grow.