Main cast: Margot Kidder (Helen Sloan), Clare Sims (Judith), Gregory Calpakis (Herman Sloan), and Terence Stamp (The Host)
Director: Darrell Wasyk
Judith and Herman Sloan are a pair of happy engaged couple about to face the true test of their relationship: he is bringing her to meet his parents.
Needless to say, because The Sloan Men is very loosely based on David Nickle’s story of the same name and not some heartwarming romantic tale, Judith isn’t going to be thrilled at meeting the future in-laws.
I say “loosely based” because while the screenwriter uses some lines that are lifted straight out of the source material, the Sloan men and Helen are on the surface attractive people and Helen has all her fingers intact. We can’t have ugly people on TV, you know!
This greatly diminishes the premise of the source material, which for some reason this episode keeps intact in spite of the whole thing completely undermined by the Sloan men appearing as hot and hence they shouldn’t need to use woo-woo to get women to sleep with them.
Then again, the source material isn’t the best story anyway. It’s mostly a scree about how feminism is a lie, and while women may claim to be allies with one another, they will sell their fellow women out for a man for the very promise of a man’s affection, marinated in clunky prose and abrupt, ill-explained plot developments.
Perhaps if they tweaked the premise and turn the Sloan men into cult leaders, for example, I feel that would make more sense than what they did here. Then again, if it were me, I’d personally not try to adapt the story for a TV show unless a lot of money is promised to me, as it’s just not a memorable or entertaining story. Surely there are other stories that could be adapted for this show!
Because this episode takes all the wrong creative liberties here, the episode ends up being an unsatisfying one, made more grating by Margot Kidder’s constant overacting and screaming. Sure, it’s not as bad as her gig on Curiosity Killed, but that’s like saying that a nail through one’s hand is less painful than a nail between the eyes. Do we really have to pick one?
So, all in all, this one is a simple, obvious skip.
