'Monster Man' Syfy Channel Series Premiere Review

-Monster Man series premiere aired last Wednesday and I had to check it out...  and at the moment, I'm on the bubble about this new make-up/EFX series.  And I suspect others are on that same bubble.

Monster Man follows Goth-looking Cleve Hall and his family as they take on contracts to create make-up or EFX for various clients.  Cleve drives a hearse from job to job.

I have to admit, if it weren't' for Face Off, this show would have a ton of value to the behind-the-scenes mystique of the world of EFX.  But it's not unique and the series premiere didn't show the viewers anything totally incredible yet, though it seems there might be potential for such down the road, judging from the previews.

But this is just like Face Off with all the time constraints and potentials of deadline failures... yet it has an attempted quirky sense of humor that I presume is how Monster Man tries to differentiate itself from Face Off.  The humor wasn't a failure, but it felt pandering to the viewer.  It felt forced.

Plus Cleve's first client was an Asylum production, and if anyone who has watched Syfy knows, Asylum is a very prolific & horrific production company.  It pumps out quickie TV projects that are frightening... as in frighteningly bad and panderous.  (Is that even a word?)  The two movies of theirs that traumatized me emotionally was Battle of Los Angeles... which looked like it was filmed on a day and they didn't use an editor... and one of my all-time faves, Almighty Thor, where Thor was cranking out the action... with his uzi.

OK... that was a sidetrack I wasn't expecting.

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Despite following Face Off's record setting season finale, Monster Man only pulled in 1.35 million viewers.  Within those numbers are the sagging stats of 729,000 Adults 18-49 and 700,000 Adults 25-54.

Now those numbers seemed bleak, but they did more than double the TV ratings performance for the time slot Monster Man was in, (Wed, 11pm), by 123% in total viewers.

Monster Man also set its mark in Syfy as being the best premiere for one of their original series since Face Off showed up in January of 2011.

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I recommend Monster Man if reality TV competitions like Face Off aren't for you, because if you're interested in the behind-the-scenes world of make-up and EFX, this will show you what goes on there in that field.  That stuff is always interesting to me.

Me personally, I will probably go ahead and catch it for a while and see if things improve as they settle into the realm of being followed around by cameras while they do their job.  And I hope some of their quirky humor settles down too.  I don't think that's necessary for this show to be a hit, but I see why they do it...  that and well, he looks like one of his own creations in the get-up he wears for the show.  (I presume it's for the show... but then again...  maybe that's just how he is.)

Monster Man, premiered last Wed at 11PM, but will take over Face Off's time slot of Wednesdays at 10PM starting on March 21, 2012.


[Ratings, via a Syfy press release]

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