Shining Vale is more fun than scary and that is a good thing

In an episode from Lionsgate Play’s Shining Vale , Pat, played by Courteney Cox runs into her middle-aged estate agent at a coffee shop. Asked to join, she hesitantly agrees to become part of the girl’s club, at least for the moment. The awkwardness with which Pat momentarily embraces this group dynamic echoes the undercurrent that powers the comedy-horror series. It’s really a woman fighting the challenges of domesticity. Shining Vale is a comedy crossover that merges cheeky horror with satire and sharp comedy, and it poses as a spiritual successor the fantastic Only Murders in the Building. Though there isn’t enough horror or mystery to chew on in the show, its edginess, crisp dialogue and ability to act unhinged in tense situations works perfectly well for a series you’re likely to watch in one go.

The series follows the Phelps family as they move out of the city after Pat, a writer of exotic literature, literalises her imagination and sleeps with a plumber. Terry, played by the excellent Greg Kinnear is a hilariously naïve husband who regularly struggles to seize the moment. He can neither process his anger, nor let go of his resentment. The two are joined in their new mansion-like home by Jake and Gaynor, two Gen-Z kids who seem to embody the worst isms of their age. Jake is perpetually staring into his gaming console, while Gaynor’s sexuality is so loud and visible, it has to be reined in by conceit and incentive. Nothing is treated seriously in this show and the consistency with which the characters look unimpressed by what’s happening around them contributes to the deadpan humour at times.

The mansion that the family moves into is possibly haunted, with its jump scares and flirtatious mirrors reserved for Pat to witness. As she struggles to finish her second novel against a looming deadline, soon, the part-trauma, part-intrigue of this new force in her life, turns muse. Pat powers through her writing, in bursts of possibly being possessed by this nefarious presence in the house. It becomes both her source of power and discomfort. As the wife juggles between her role of mother and writer, Terry flirts with awkward disasters at work with stunning consistency. His inaptitude is an impressively choreographed fall, and every time he slips, it looks and sounds funnier than the last. In one scene, Terry tries to hug a colleague in a friendly manner and for some reason accidentally kisses her shoulder. It’s a bizarre, yet understandable trait of a man without confidence, guile or even charisma. And yet, you can’t take your eyes off Kinnear.

Cox, for whom this has been billed as her return to TV, is adequate, often channeling Monica’s stiffness and penchant for loudness. The similarities don’t wane easily and you can’t help but compare her to the role that she is most known for. The fact that after a point you don’t really care for the mystery, but are happy to just see the Phelps family fit, or rather struggle to fit into their new life is part achievement of the show. It really doesn’t build into a crescendo like most clever shows do towards a finale, but in being consistently witty, if uneven in its exploration of horror, the series manages to hold onto your attention. A scene where Terry confronts the handyman his wife has slept with, is followed by hilarious jibes and confessions that are treated as ordinary reveals, as if this is the world where Pat’s exotic stories actually play out. Without retribution or revenge.

The only problem with Shining Vale is that it never quite accomplishes the heights of horror that its self-effacement could have created the grounds for. By serving as the portal for the Phelps’ new life, the vale represents churn and change, and yet it seldom feels that significant as an experience. The family saunters through this new life with the lifelessness of a group having endured worse. This family intentionally trivialises conflict to get past it, and though it heightens the pleasures of guilt-free indifference, there is little to emotionally hold onto. It’s Schitt’s Creek but without the uneasy, but palpable chemistry, the bizarreness without the necessary emotional core that makes it tragically weird. In Vale, the toughness of challenges, the depth of conflicts is never really illustrated because it is in the fabric of the series to sidestep them by embracing its own inadequacy to deal with them. It’s funny to a point but then you hope the people will grow up. The fact that they don’t works for the most part, but doesn’t necessarily say or do anything memorable. That said, there are plenty of laughs here to fill that weekend void of binge-watching.

Manik Sharma writes on art and culture, cinema, books, and everything in between.

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