Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.17 “Jack-In-The-Box”

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The entire series can be found on YouTube!

This week’s episode is a sad one.

Episode 3.17 “Jack-In-The-Box”

(Dir by David Winning, originally aired on April 23rd, 1990)

After her lifeguard father drowns, a young girl named Megan (Marsha Moreau) uses a cursed jack-in-the-box to get revenge of those who she blames for his death. Seeing the jack in the box when it opens leads to people drowning. A janitor drowns in a pool. One guy drowns in a car wash. The deaths are grisly but it brings back the spirit of Megan’s death father. Or, at least, that’s what Megan thinks. Personally, I think the spirt was a demon in disguise because some of the things he suggested were really out there.

This was a really sad episode. In an amazing coincidence, Micki knew the lifeguard’s family and she spent most of this episode on the verge of tears. Meanwhile, Megan’s mother dealt with her sadness by becoming an alcoholic and Megan killed a number of people just so she could spend some time with her “father.” This episode was well-acted and well-written and really not the right sort of thing for me to watch at a time when the one-year anniversary of my Dad’s passing is quickly approaching. This was an episode that not only left Micki in tears but it left me in tears as well.

Okay, enough sadness! This was a good episode. The third season has been uneven and I still miss Ryan’s character but this episode showed that Friday the 13th was still capable of being effective even as the show came to a close.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 3.5 “Stick It In Your Ear”

Posted on March 7, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, a hearing aide turns into a snake and heads explode all over wherever this show is supposed to be taking place. I always assumed this show took place in Canada but some people insist it was set in Chicago. I just know it’s taking place somewhere cold.

Episode 3.5 “Stick In Your Ear”

(Dir by Douglas Jackson, originally aired on October 16th, 1989)

Hack stage mentalist Adam Cole (Wayne Best) has come into possession of a cursed hearing aid that allows him to hear the thoughts of other people. This is great for act! However, the hearing aid also sometimes becomes so full of other people’s thoughts that Adam has to commit murder to keep his head from exploding. Yikes!

This is yet another episode where more time is spent with the person using the cursed object than with Jack, Micki, and ~~Ryan~~ Johnny. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that and Wayne Best does fine in the role of the not-particularly sympathetic Adam Cole. But, watching this episode, I still found myself missing the old days — let’s call them the Ryan days — when the chemistry between the three leads was often just as important as the gore and the horror. As a character, Johnny still often feels a bit half-baked, as if the show’s writers still weren’t quite sure who he was. When he was first introduced, he was cocky and streetwise. Then he went to prison for a murder he didn’t commit! Then, he was revealed to be a baseball fan who liked to build ships in bottles. And now, in this episode, he’s suddenly an aspiring writer who enjoys reading the tabloids. Steven Monarque does what he can but the character is so inconsistent that Johnny still feels a bit out-of-place in the show’s world. At the very least, Ryan had a reason for sticking with the often grisly hunt for the antiques. He wanted to do it with his cousin. (I know, I know …. ewwww! But it was also Ryan’s most defining motivation.) Johnny’s motivations are a bit more opaque.

This episode did feature some Cronenbergian body horror, a nice reminder of Friday the 13th‘s Canadian origins. Not clearing out the hearing aid leads to some exploding head action which is quite graphic even for this show. That said, it bothers me that one person’s head more or less implodes in front of an entire studio audience and you really do have to wonder how exactly that’s going to be explained to the press. I would think an exploding head and a snake-like hearing aid would lead to a lot of people saying, “Hey, maybe there is something out there.”

This was a gory episode, nicely acted and featuring an intriguing antique. That said, I still miss Ryan.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Friday the 13th: The Series 2.12 “The Playhouse”

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a new feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past! On Fridays, I will be reviewing Friday the 13th: The Series, a show which ran in syndication from 1987 to 1990. The show can be found on YouTube!

Agck! Stranger danger!

Episode 2.12 “The Playhouse”

(Dir by Tom McLoughlin, originally aired on January 28th, 1989)

Mike and Janine Carlson (played by Robert Oliveri and Lisa Jakub) are two young siblings living in the suburbs. They don’t have much of a life. Their mother (Belinda Metz) is neglectful and continually complains that her children are the reason why she can’t find a rich boyfriend. Mike and Janine don’t appear to have any close friends. Children are vanishing all over town and parents are telling their kids, “Don’t go off with strangers!” but no one seems to care enough about Mike and Janine to even check to make sure that they haven’t been kidnapped.

Mike and Janine have a playhouse, a gift that was given to them by one of their mother’s former boyfriends. The playhouse is the only place where they feel happy. It’s a place where they literally get anything that they wish for. But sometimes, the door to the playhouse is locked. When that happens, Mike and Janine have to convince someone else to go into the playhouse. Once someone enters the playhouse, they find themselves trapped in a nightmarish world that is full of evil clowns and other circus figures. Mike and Janine have to chant, “I hate you! I hate you!” while the playhouse claims its victims.

Agck! Seriously, this is a disturbing episode! Not only are Mike and Janine terribly abused but almost all of their victims are children. Perhaps because of the age of the people involved, this is the only episode of Friday the 13th: The Series in which no one dies. They’re held prisoner in the playhouse and probably traumatized for life but they don’t die. Fortunately, that means that they can be freed once Jack convinces Mike to chant, “I love you!” instead of “I hate you!”

Yep, this episode is all about the power of love but you really have to wonder if all of Mike and Janine’s problems can be solved by chanting, “I love you!” I mean, aren’t the other kids going to remember that Mike and Janine held them prisoner in a nightmare universe? The episode may end with the playhouse defeated by Mike and Janine are still living in that terrible suburb and their mother is still a resentful alcoholic. Even though this episode has what would most would consider to be a happy ending — the kids are free! — it’s still incredibly dark.

This episode definitely left me feeling a bit shaken. I hate seeing children in danger and that’s what this episode was all about. Even things that sound kind of silly — like Mike chanting “I hate you!” while the playhouse does its thing — are actually rather disturbing when viewed. The child actors are almost too convincing in this episode. In the end, Jack says that all you need is love but this episode leaves you wondering if he’s correct.