Swamp Thing is half Southern gothic mystery tale, half sci-fi body horror, and 100% worth your time (and a subscription to DC Universe, if you haven’t gotten one already).
I know I’m biased, but DC Universe has been absolutely killing it with their live-action shows so far. Titans had its detractors, but even if it was better in its parts — the cast, the production values, the fight choreography — than as a whole, it was still an incredibly strong first season that shows signs of only getting better in the second.
While the Doom Patrol team had its introduction in the fourth episode of Titans, the two shows couldn’t be more different. Whereas Titans is all grim fight scenes and real-world grittiness, Doom Patrol is a strange, delightfully goofy show about a group of misfit superheroes that leans hard into its absurdity.
Still, they do share a few things between them — both have equally strong casts, high production values and embrace each of their respective worlds and genres with open arms.
Swamp Thing, DC Universe’s third live-action show, is also gifted with a strong cast, high production values and embrace of genre, but is as different from the two shows preceding it as they are to one another.
It’s horror to the highest degree, embedding itself in the dim, fog-filled dampness of the Louisiana swamps, where the darkness hides murder and monsters.
It’s a Southern gothic mystery tale, unspooling itself out slowly, methodically — the slow pace adding to the dread and dramatic tension of the story.
It’s far from your standard — or even absurd — superhero story. Instead, Swamp Thing is (at least in these first two episodes) the tragic origin story of a monster who lurks at the edges of all your scariest nightmares.
And it’s DC Universe’s best premiere yet.
Full disclosure — I’m rather horror-averse because I’m a complete wimp when it comes to getting scared, so I know next to nothing about Swamp Thing as a comicbook character.
Which means I can’t really tell you how good or accurate of an adaptation this show is based on the comics. However, I can tell you that as a show — in terms of its story, its sets, its writing and its acting — it is incredibly good (and my favorite DC Universe premiere so far).
The story centers around Crystal Reed’s Abby Arcane, a doctor with the CDC who returns to her hometown of Marais to investigate a puzzling illness — one which causes nose bleeds, fainting, and, in extreme cases, having your body completely ravaged by plantlife — that seems to be connected to the local swamps.
She teams up with biologist Alec Holland, who was hired by the wealthy and incredibly shady Avery Sunderland to do research on the swamp, then fired for digging too deeply into what he found there.
Alec shows Abby the crazy swamp mutagens, which makes plants grow at an accelerated — some might even say aggressive — rate, and which could hold the answer to a cure for the illness working its way through Marais.
That, of course, is all surface level plot. There’s also the mystery of Abby’s past, an underhanded conspiracy that involves the Sunderlands, a patient zero with seemingly paranormal connections to the swamp, and, of course, the rise of the Swamp Thing himself.
The heart of the story firmly rests on Crystal Reed’s more than capable shoulders. She does fantastic work as Dr. Abigail Arcane, doctor extraordinaire, who doesn’t flinch in the face of mysterious illnesses, gloomy swamps, or scaringly sentient plantlife.
She does equally great work as Abby Arcane, hometown pariah, a grown woman who left Marais as a teen after a yet-unexplained event that resulted in the death of her best friend and only daughter to the wealthy Sunderlands.
Andy Bean, who plays Alec Holland, is just as fantastic in these first two episodes. He’s driven, slightly goofy and wholly endearing, and his chemistry with Crystal Reed makes the genesis of Swamp Thing all the more tragic.
The actors aren’t the only stars of Swamp Thing — the swamp itself is another thing that shines in the show. Director Len Wiseman, of Lucifer and Sleepy Hollow fame, knows just what kind of show he wants to make — a full on horror show.
The swamp’s dim gloominess, even without the creeping, sentient vines and moss, seems like a character of its own — a rotting, claustrophobic place that seems intent on dragging anyone who ventures into it into its murky depths.
There’s something ancient, almost primeval, about swamps, and Swamp Thing uses that setting to great effect. The swamp is constantly shrouded in fog and mist, the darkness obscuring movement and cloaking threats until it’s too late to do anything about it.
Make no mistake, this is a horror story in every sense of the word.
The first scene of the pilot features three individuals in a boat in the middle of the swamp; only one of them ends up alive by the end of it — and his fate is the worst of the three.
Later on, there’s a scene with a dead body at the morgue which is part John Carpenter’s The Thing, part my worst nightmare, as the branches of a plant rip through a dead body and make it move in some kind of macabre mockery of a dance. It’s a marvel of practical effects and makeup artistry — like many of the scarier parts of the show.
If you’re a veteran of horror films, there are at least two places in these first two episodes that will make you grin with appreciation. If you’re a wimp like me, there are no fewer than five places that will make you yelp out loud and grab onto your significant other (or whatever thing or person is closest to you).
Then, of course, there’s Swamp Thing himself. We don’t catch a glimpse of the creature until the very end of the first episode, and he’s used pretty sparingly in the second one — and that feels like just the exact right amount.
Despite being the titular character, it’s obvious that this is very much Abby Arcane’s story, with Swamp Thing being only a part of her overall arc — especially in these first two episodes.
In terms of Swamp Thing himself, it’s immediately obvious that DC spared no expense in his creation (and, really, that it spared on expense no the show itself). The creature himself is a fantastic, creepy, monstrous thing that will make your hair stand up on end.
Yet despite the obvious terror he’s meant to inspire, Derek Mears (who played Jason Vorhees!) likewise manages to imbue his Swamp Thing with a sort of confused anger and deep sadness that immediately draws us in, even as viscerally we are repelled.
It’s an incredibly strong two episodes, and I found myself drawn into the show in every way, from the characters to the writing to the setting.
In fact, in a way, I’m glad that I knew so little about the story and the characters — it meant that I was surprised at the turns the story took and where the characters went. Most of all, it makes me excited to see where the rest of the season takes us.