Peter
Rake acts like Gordon Ramsay when he films his cooking show and he behaves like
Harvey Weinstein when [mis]conducting the rest of his business. He is
definitely a jerkheel, who is cruising for an EC Comics-style bruising in James
Roday’s Treehouse, the Ides of March
installment of Blumhouse’s monthly anthology series, Into the Dark, which premieres today on Hulu.
It
has been a longtime since Rake has visited his family home (where there is
indeed a tree house on the sprawling grounds), but he has returned, so he can lay
low, while his lawyer settles his most recent harassment suit. He is not so
psyched to be back, until he meets the bachelorette party staying nearby. He intends
to woo them with a fancy dinner, but his excessive drinking and natural obnoxiousness
nearly sabotage his plans. Yet, the women stick around anyway. In fact, they
seem to know him better than he realizes and they have plans of their own: the
payback kind. They might even have supernatural means to accomplish them.
Presumably,
Treehouse was conceived as the #metoo
edition of Into the Dark, but the
execution is decidedly questionable. On one hand, most viewers will find
themselves identifying with Rake, regardless of their biases, because the film
shows events unfolding from his perspective, including some harrowing acts of
torture perpetrated by the mystery women. However, if Rake did half the things
he is accused of—and he never persuasively denies anything—than he gets off
appallingly easy, all things considered.
Despite
the tonal misfires, Jimmi Simpson shows great range and commitment as the
sleazy Rake. Julianna Guill, Sophia Del Pizzo, and Stephanie Beatriz have their
moments as the avenging women, but Nancy Linehan Charles upstages everyone as
Agnes, the tart-tongued, judgmental family servant. She chews the scenery and
her wonderfully caustic lines with relish.
Roday
does a decent job building suspense and paranoia, but he lets it all deflate
with a mediocre ending. It bears direct comparison to Sophia Takal’s New Year, New You in several ways, but
the New Year’s edition was far better. Anyone interested in a genre take on the
issues #metoo phenomenon will also find Natalia Leite’s MFA much more compelling. Only for series completists, Into the Dark: Treehouse starts
streaming today (3/1) on Hulu.
