TV Tuesdays: Perversions of Science (1997)

In our sporadic feature, known as TV Tuesdays, we take a long look at short-lived television shows. Some may have been forgotten for good reason, while others just might have been prematurely killed by impatient networks. Every week, we will review an episode of said show, in chronological order, from beginning to end.  At the end of the series, we'll summarize our thoughts on the show as a whole, giving it a final score.  Without further adieu, let's get started with the intro for our next televised failure.

I stumbled across “Perversions of Science” as a horny, teenaged boy way back when the series first aired. As a kid, I never had access to cable at home, because my mom never wanted to pay for it (looking back, she probably couldn't afford to).  But then I got a babysitting job watching two neighbors down the street, who happened to have HBO. Thankfully, by the time these episodes aired, in the wee hours of the morning, the kids would always be asleep--unfortunately, in most cases, so would I. Nevertheless, I always tried to stay up to watch it every night that I knew it was on.

To put it bluntly, “Perversions of Science” was a pretty bad show, at least, from what I remember. Even my fifteen-year-old self remembers the general cheesiness of the costumes and prosthetic effects, not to mention the ‘90s era CGI which looks awful when compared to the computer effects of today (which still look completely unconvincing, though in a much different way). I almost always ended up disappointed at the utter lack of violence and/or nudity across most episodes, which always struck me as kind of odd; it's a show, made for a network known for pushing the boundaries, that absolutely refused to push any of its own. I wasn't shocked when it came to an end after only one ten-episode season, and, like most everyone else who had seen it (a number that could probably fit into one city bus), had blocked out its very existence from my mind by the time I hit my twenties.

Despite my personal, teenaged memories that I have of the show, I must confess that I'm still rather shocked that this series has never had an official DVD release. In the age of the Internet, where everything is available at the push of a button, I'm also kind of surprised that “Perversions of Science” has still been relegated to cable television obscurity. Could a show that was produced by the likes of Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, Joel Silver, and Richard Donner really be all that bad? Tobe Hooper and Walter Hill even direct episodes, for goodness sakes!  What about a show with the acting talents of Ron Perlman, Jeffrey Combs, Keith Carradine, and Jason Lee? (Seriously, this show will probably set a record for the number of times you'll exclaim, “Where have I seen that guy/girl before?”)  I would think HBO could make some money selling units (and rentals) just by putting all the famous people involved with it on the front cover; it really reads as a who's-who of horror and cult films.

I guess I'm about to find out the answers to all of these questions, and more.  I must admit that this little journey will be my second attempt: I burnt them to a few DVDs a while back after downloading them online (remember, this has still never been officially released to DVD), and after watching two of the episodes, I was disinterested and my wife was bored out of her mind, so we just kind of let them fall by the wayside. This time, I've learned my lesson and am going through the entire series by myself, to prevent problems like that from cropping up again.

Almost twenty years after it originally aired, is the world finally ready for “Perversions of Science”? Or is the series' lack of an official release merely HBO's attempt at covering up a catastrophic failure? Let's dive in and see for ourselves...