The Scooby Gang Versus The Apocalypse

That's how I imagine this show might have been pitched during a Hollywood meeting. And it doesn't sound like such a bad idea. Basically a comedy with the scary Apocalypse thrown in to spice things up.

The trouble with 'The Fades' though is that it's version of the Scooby Gang wasn't funny, or endearing or entertaining in any way:

Paul looked and behaved (and even dressed) like someone who is mentally challenged. How on earth anyone could conceive of this poor sap as the hero of the piece is beyond me.

Mac rabbits on and on with his endless film references that I guess are supposed to be cute but I found irritating and occasionally incredibly inappropriate and offensive. In fact Mac could have been cut out of the show completely and it wouldn't have made the slightest difference (except to viewers who can't remember what happens from one episode to the next and so needed his "quirky" recaps).

Anna is a watered down Vicky Pollard type.

Jay was Paul's love interest and provided a totally gratuitous "heavily emotional" moment.

I suspect that the main reason for the Scooby Gang was to provide the large quantities of filler that were required to pad this show out to an excruciatingly long and too often tedious six episodes.

On the upside the Apocalypse side of the story was actually quite interesting and with all of the Scooby Gang nonsense cut away so as to leave it as a straight drama it would probably make for quite a good feature film if anyone wanted to have a go at adapting it.





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