- Directed by: Casper Kelly
- Written by: Casper Kelly, Jamie King
- Stars: Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1fNEHX9tSM
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s a fun and colorful kid’s show full of joy and fun. Until cracks appear in the happiness that start to show the horror underneath. The pacing is a bit clunky, but that aside it’s really weird and darkly funny and well put together. After a bit of a slow start, it gets going nicely. We both liked it quite a bit.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on the intro to the “Buddy” children’s show; it’s like Barney the Dinosaur, but Buddy’s a big unicorn. The mailman comes around, and the talking mailbox announces the mail. Buddy shows up to give the kids courage about dancing at a party. Josh doesn’t want to dance, even with magic dancing shoes, and he won’t cooperate with the big unicorn. Something bad happens to Josh offscreen. After everyone does a little dance, the show is over and the 199 in-story credits roll.
Then it’s time for another episode and the credits roll for that one. This time, Freddy and Wade discuss what happened to Josh; his book is covered in blood. Mt. Mailbox, who saw what happened, has lost his mouth. Buddy has excuses for the “red paint” on the book. Freddy isn’t convinced, and Strappy the Backpack agrees with her.
Freddy and Wade go to Nurse Nancy and talk about Josh and Buddy. When the nurse confronts Buddy, he kills her. Then that episode ends.
For the next episode, the two kids delay summoning Buddy and try to do an episode without Buddy, but that’s not as easy as it sounds. They try to tell Oliver and Hannah, the other kids on the show, what they’ve seen, and the four kids try to make it to Charlie the Train to leave town. Buddy stops them. Buddy rips Charlie’s face off. Freddy tells Betty Bunny that Buddy’s going to kill Wade.
Freddy and Wade set Buddy on fire instead. Burned, he then stabs the mailman to death in front of the kids. He does manage to kill Wade as the others climb over the fence. The episode tries to end, but it’s not working, the credits are all wonky.
Out in the real world, Grace fixes Timothy’s scraped knee. Other son Derek and husband Ben join them for dinner. Grace looks at an empty chair and screams; she doesn’t understand why. She decides that she needs a therapist, and Ben doesn’t argue. She feels as if she’s missing or forgotten one of her children.
The therapist doesn’t help, so she brings in a psychic instead. She senses something and has the family do a seance. Suddenly, the Buddy show comes on TV, and Grace recognizes it but Ben shuts it off fast. Grace looks for the Buddy show and can’t find that it exists. She comes to the conclusion that the unicorn on TV kidnapped her child and then made the whole world forget the child ever existed. Ben, for some reason, thinks that’s a weird theory.
That night, the show comes back on TV, and this time, Buddy pulls Grace right through the TV. The house changes like she never existed.
Freddy, Oliver, and Hannah are lost in the woods, and they all argue. They also talk about not remembering ever going to the bathroom before. Oliver pees on a flower, and the flower isn’t pleased. None of the kids remember life before Buddy.
Buddy goes to see the new nurse, Nurse Grace, about his burns. He complains that he can’t end the episode and heal unless he hugs the kids onscreen, but they’re gone now. Buddy then gets sexually inappropriate with the new nurse.
The kids run into a puppet named Willy and George, a weird cowboy. They tell their story; a guy named Larry sang “The Buddy Song” and used mean words instead of the lyrics; it changed Buddy. The whole group eats psychedelic flower petals and goes on a trip.
In the morning, the two newcomers are gone, and they’ve taken Strappy with them. Buddy catches up with Willie and George and tries to use them to end the show, but they’re too old. He kills them both. The kids, however, manage to rescue Strappy. They’ve been making their way to Diamond City, but it’s not a real place.
Buddy catches them, hugs them, and the episode ends. Finally!
Next episode, Buddy’s been restored, and Wade has been replaced with Tyler, a new kid (who’s always been there). The trio of escapees still remember what’s really going on, so it’s pretty awkward. Freddy has to go see the nurse, who is actually her mother, and they sort of recognize each other.
The children attack Buddy by singing the nasty version of the theme song, and he screams. He sprouts horns, sheds his colorful fur, and turns into a demonic looking thing. Nurse Grace stabs it and grabs Freddy; she remembers her now. They shelter in the clubhouse, Mr. Mailbox points to the Worry Well, and they get the idea that may be the portal out. Some of the other characters meet messy ends.
Grace distracts Buddy as the kids crawl down the well; she dies. Tyler hugs Buddy, which resets him into his unicorn form again. He’s too big to fit down the well, but he cuts his hips off to fix that.
Buddy catches up and kills Hannah and Oliver, leaving Freddy by herself. Freddy ends up impaling Buddy on Mr. Mailbox’s post. He dies.
Freddy climbs through a TV into the real world. Strappy and Mr. Mailbox become inanimate objects. The Mexican man comes into the room and has no idea who she is.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s obviously playing off Barney and all the other similar children’s shows, and they get the look and visuals just right.
I like that even at the end, the big monster still looks like a guy in a cheap rubber suit.
It’s a little slow getting started, but once it gets moving, it’s really good.
Kevin’s Commentary
I liked the concept and it connected with me, but I thought the pacing was a bit too long and drawn out. When things do kick in, they kick in good. Overall, I really enjoyed it. The look and vibe of the kids show was right on with the colorful sets and living inanimate objects. And the trick of forced perspective with Diamond City was a hilarious surprise. There was loads of dark humor.
I’d recommend it.
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