Freddy, le cauchemar de vos nuits

I remember being a kid and seeing commercials for this show but, since it was on late at night, I never had the pleasure of watching it. Chiller TV ran marathons of this 7 or 8 years ago and, being the low budget, schlock loving individual that I am, came to enjoy this series greatly.

Season one shines far brighter than season two with episodes such as "It's A Miserable Life", "Sister's Keeper", "Do Dreams Bleed" and "Identity Crisis" standing out amongst the pack. Almost all of the episodes are cheesy as all get-out but still just kind of have that weird 80's vibe compounded by random and bizarre stories that make them enjoyable nonetheless.

I'd love to see this series get a full release on video. It's a classic among schlock mongers and utilizes standard 80's stereotypes that would likely be considered weird by those born long after the series originally aired.

I remember the Freddy's Nightmares series very well (and recently looked into some videos that were released years ago). True, they did sell out after the third movie and turned Freddy into a cartoonish character, but the cartoonish character was perfect for the small screen. The first episode, "No More Mr. Nice Guy," mistells the story in every way (you'd think Tobe Hooper would've watched the first movie before he shot the episode), but after the show took off, the stories became more entertaining. The sequel to "Mr. Nice Guy," "Sister's Keeper," was one of my favorite episodes (though I haven't seen it in years). Some shows had little-known guest stars (such as Brad Pitt) and some featured old favorites (such as Tony Dow). Most Elm Street fans say this show was a huge disappointment (and in a way it was), but it gave Freddy another medium to wreak havok in, so I applaud their efforts.

I'm not surprised that there was a television series of Freddy Kruegar. After all, out of him, Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, Kruegar was the only one with any personality. Hence, why he had his own series. There was some potential but the low budget, the lack of talented actors (except for Robert Englund) and poor storytelling all ensured that the results would be disappointing. The sets in the episodes look so bland and non- descript, they don't resemble anything from real life. Robert Englund is billed first and that was the correct decision as he is the one who sells the series. Each episode begins with Freddy introducing the story from his boiler room and makes an occasional appearance during the episode. For obvious reasons, Freddy's evil behaviour is toned down for television audiences. I don't really like the episodes that I have seen. The only one I can think of that was remotely watchable, was the opening one when Freddy tells his own story about how he ended up the way he did. The show does have a dark and macabre sense of humour which is made bearable by Robert Englund. He is great to watch but the rest is poor.

Of course, the fact that it is different than that series is both good and bad. This one is more of the "Tales from the Darkside" type of storytelling to it, and it actually had something to do with the movie. The Friday series had nothing to do with the movie, but had a nice running story. Freddy starred in this one, but a lot of the times he was more the host of the show rather than an actual participant. However, he did appear as the star of some of the episodes...think "Tales from the Crypt", but with the crypt keeper occasionally doing some of the dirty work himself. The stories varied in type and such as I remember one about survivors of a plane crash or something becoming cannibals and I also remember one involving Freddy and a cop, kind of a look back on how Freddy became Freddy. In the end a bit of an unnecessary show, there were already plenty of shows like this at the time that were superior in storytelling, the only thing new this one brought to the table was having the famous Freddy Krueger as a host.

i know technically this isn't the greatest TV show ever,i mean it was shot on video and its limitations show in both the audio and visual aspect of it.the acting can at time be also a little crumby.but,i love this show so much.it scared the hell out of me when it first aired in 1988.of course it would i was 5 years old.but i recently purchased the DVD of the first 3 episodes,which unfortunately i hear is now deleted.and i also heard warner's aren't going to release any more due to the first DVD's bad sales.also the TV show didn't have the same feel as the movies,in fact i thought it had a more sinister tone.even though the colour palette is similar to nightmare on elm street 4(both that film and the TV show were made the same year),this has more of a serious tone whereas the fims were progressively getting more and more sardonic and jokey.not a bad thing,i like freddy as the clown wise cracker.but i think that was the strenght of this TV show,you didn't have freddy popping up every minutes cracking a joke before and after he kills somebody.in fact this has more of a dream feel to it,reinforced by the soft focus of the lense.im not sure if its deliberate on the part of the shows creators or just to the limitations of being shot on video. i love this show,and taken not as a companion piece to the movies can be very enjoyable.much better than anything on TV today.