The Grayscale is produced by Critical Point Theatre and has all the makings of a great Twilight Zone homage, from the opening of the opening and closing to the meat of the story. If there was one problem this first story has its with the story’s conclusion.

Let me explain. See, the opening few minutes sets up the series, and then slowly focuses in on a single character. This character is the one we follow for most of the story. It’s straight-up horror of the Lovecraftian variety, but the writing is nowhere near the pinnacle of that sub genre. It’s not bad, but at times it can be bland. Other times, in particular, the metaphors the writer used to describe the monster were simple, but do its job quite well.

Everything was good until the sappy, it was all just a dream ending. The falling action and denouement was rushed, making the climax feel just like every other Lovecraftian horror story. I can understand not straying too far away from the genre, but there’s an homage and then there’s downright rehashing of tropes.

By far the best part of this episode was the opening and the slow zoom in on a single character. The “voice in your head’s” The middle and meat of the episode was okay and the ending felt like every other Lovecraftian story out there. Still, this is definitely on my list of things to listen to when I have downtime.

4/5 Stars