THE STORY – Trapped on a farm in rural Georgia, a group of neighbors must put aside their differences and unite in the face of a mysterious and deadly threat.
THE CAST – Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman, Chaske Spencer, Kathy Baker, Boris McGiver, Caleb Dolden, Émilie Bierre & Luciano Leroux
The TEAM – E. L. Katz (Director) & Ian McCulloch (Writer/Creator)
“We’re not going anywhere until you tell us what the f—k is going on.”
This line would, frankly, be a kick-ass conclusion to a season regardless of any larger and deeper meaning. Still, in this particular usage, it also perfectly encapsulates the experience of the characters of the new Peacock horror series “Teacup” and that of its audience. It’s hard not to be fully invested in this puzzling turn of events that just happens to a group of quiet folks in a rural Georgia town one day, simply because it just happens to them. Thankfully, this new show delivers.
The show is great at disseminating information to the audience, really taking its time to immerse you before revealing the true matter at hand. It works well to keep us properly invested. After seeing the first two episodes premiere at Fantastic Fest last month, I was pretty easily hooked on figuring out what was plaguing these people. The first two episodes set that desire up very well, and the two-episode-a-week schedule will keep viewers attached via bite-sized half-hour servings of the show’s arc that hit new, more intense stakes with each set that airs. It’s a well-written show that pays attention to timing, a crucial element that sometimes goes forgotten in stories with lesser talents at the helm.
But the entire weight of this show’s story rests on timing, so there’s really no room for error there, both in the narrative and in the writer’s room. Showrunner Ian McCulloch and his writer’s room—Francisca X. Hu, Michael O’Shea, and Zoe Cooper—manage several key achievements that make this show work: a major sense of intrigue, a compelling big bad that seems to defy convention, and a strong foundation of ordinary people and families that feel lived in and authentic. In adapting Robert McCammon’s “Stinger,“ a mammoth of a book that feels grandiose in scale, McCulloch’s team pared things down in a way that purposefully tackles the human side of being thrust into this kind of upending nightmare.
The big bad of the series is quite complex, which certainly lends itself to how much deciphering this story requires. But the mystery behind it is engrossing enough to keep us on the hook, and the more we learn, the more we want to learn. All of this especially rings true when, most of the season, this antagonistic force is invisible. The unknown is a weapon within the story as much as it is an asset to the show in the real world. Keeping our characters clueless, only letting them discover bits and pieces of what’s necessary to survive, forces them into precarious situations, but it’s successful in baiting the viewer’s need to know how a situation resolves or doesn’t. The show’s evil presence is a top-notch antagonist because of how the writers of “Teacup“ leveraged it to achieve a twofold win.
The show is also full of excellent tense performances that both bolster the stakes and support the narrative’s foundational cornerstone of humanistic characters that feel real—because, in turn, we see their struggles as real, which is crucial for genre stories with otherworldly elements. “Teacup“ centers around Yvonne Strahovski’s Maggie, a mother grappling with a crumbling marriage. Strahovski is perhaps best known nowadays for her icy turn as Serena Joy in “The Handmaid’s Tale,“ and her work as Maggie unearths an interesting halfway point between the coldness of a character like Serena Joy in the early years of the Hulu series and the rushing wave of compassion that is unlocked from within her in the later seasons. Strahovski’s performance in “Teacup“ is a highlight because of the emotional tightrope she expertly walks, and it’s just as exciting to see her act from within as it is to watch her let loose in choice moments.
Diana Rodriguez and Rob Morgan also stand out as Valeria and McNab, respectively. Rodriguez’s character is also fascinating because of the emotional tightrope she walks on, portraying a neighboring wife and friend to Maggie’s family, and the actor handles that dichotomy with a rich and strong connection to Valeria’s own conflicted heart. Morgan’s character also must play both sides of the emotional coin—and it should come as no surprise that he’s quite good at it, too. This sort of juxtaposition is all over this series, bringing out the strengths of many facets of the story and production.
Most horror series would be incomplete without some great gore, and thankfully, the few moments we do get of intense bloodshed and body horror are pretty gnarly and well done. But the VFX for the show’s central antagonistic force, a structure crucial to the story’s core, comes off quite tacky, making the fact that it doesn’t look as sophisticated as the other effects work stand out. It can take you out of the action for a second, but ultimately, the moments where “Teacup“ falters don’t detract from the show’s overall impact—and most of that is owed to good writing and smart acting. This series will lure you in much in the same ways these characters are, slowly and then all at once. In fact, it feels nearly impossible to resist its grasp.
THE GOOD – The acting and writing are a perfect match, building a more humanistic version of an utterly grand novel that still manages to lead audiences down a mysteriously terrifying trail they won’t be able to help being invested in.
THE BAD – The VFX for the show’s central evil is nowhere near as well done as its effects for the body horror elements, which can be quite distracting from an otherwise intense and compelling narrative mystery.
THE EMMY PROSPECTS – None
THE FINAL SCORE – 8/10
You can follow Lex and hear more of her thoughts on the Emmys & TV on her X account @nikoamerica
