Title: SurrealEstate
Starring: Tim Rozon, Sarah Levy, Adam Korson
,Maurice Dean Wint
, Savannah Basley
, Tennille Read
Category: Horror
TV Horror series used to be cheesy. This was because the budget was low. While low budget horror often drew their own fans, TV horror series usually didn't have such following. Low budget horror movies relied on shock and lots of fake blood and gore which appealed to horror fans or movie goes looking for a cheap thrill. TV horror series on the other hand were hampered by TV rules, which frowned on blood and gore. With that gone, all that was left was either comedic horror or cross-genre efforts like those with sci-fi to become something like certain X-Files episodes. Or pre-teen horror which focused on scare but never posed too much peril of the characters involved.
But TV horror series have seen a resurgence, most notably by focusing on interesting stories and takes. None is a better example than American Horror story with each season changing the entire story. Streaming services looking for unique content were willing to invest in series, bringing up their quality. They saw the success of Premium Cable channels like HBO who invested in quality TV. Basic Cable channels, are more cost conscious because they have costs to local cable carriers. Try being a cable carrier without HBO and see how difficult it is to get customers.
Basic cable channels are now wising up. They now see the investment in quality shows as they compete against streaming channels that don't have to pay local cable companies. We are now seeing rising quality in the TV series from these channels.
SyFy has always been a reliable source ridicule for their cheesiness factor in their movies and content. But their recent offering of Resident Alien has seen the quality rise. Good acting and actors. Coherent storyline and interesting characters. Character development.
SurrealEstate continues this trend. The only way the writers could think of this concepts was perhaps to tap into our obsessions with home remodeling and real estate reality shows. Put a horror spin on it by dealing with 'troubled' properties and you have a show where real-estate agents that work to sell haunted properties.
The concept shouldn't really work. Having a haunted house of the week to sell does seem like a trap to become episodic, where the house is sold at the end of the episode, wrapping up each episode nicely. But this series does two things right. First, have a story arc that continues from episode to episode and second, have interesting characters that while at first seem to be caricatures, are fleshed out bit by bit in each episode.
The audience's surrogate is the new real estate agent to the agency, Susan. She gets introduced to the team by the Roman, the owner of the agency and is brought up to speed on the type of clients they deal with. Often, other agencies hire them to take care and sell the haunted properties. As the series progresses, each team member's past and secrets are exposed. None more interesting though than Roman and Susan who both have abilities which make them most suited for their jobs. The supporting team don't disappoint but the joy in the series is in the discovery, so no spoilers here.
It's not too heavy nor is it to gory but the horror beats are real and can be unnerving if you have kids.
