After the strong efforts in the previous two episodes ("The Bogeyman Will Get You" and "Uncle George"), "Darkroom" again comes crashing back to earth with this turkey of an episode, one which covers repeated trod ground and is badly underwritten to boot. In a relatively short vignette, a young man (Hilton-Jacobs), suffering mysterious head pains, comes to see the elderly woman (Rolle) he believes are causing them through voodoo.
To be sure, the voodoo vengeance angle has been done hundreds of times before in practically every sci-fi/horror/thriller show aired on TV. When well-written, this plotline can be extremely effective, but when done badly, can be excruciating (not to mention racist). "Needlepoint" suffers from being badly underwritten -- or at least, the script was so badly carved up as to make it unintelligible -- and unimaginatively played. For example, while the plot summary states that Hilton-Jacobs' character is a pimp who presumably caused the death of Rolle's granddaughter by running her as a prostitute, the script doesn't really provide us much in the way of context for that, telling us only that Hilton-Jacobs was responsible for the death, without more. Likewise, the script gives neither actor anything to work with, leading to an uncharacteristically bad performance from Rolle; to Hilton-Jacobs' credit, he shies far enough away from caricature to at least start to pique my interest as to what actually happened between him and the granddaughter, though the script never gives the viewer enough time or exposition to warrant that interest.
How much of the problem was the original script and how much was the result of machete-like script editing is anybody's guess. Suffice to say that the result is a huge letdown.
To be sure, the voodoo vengeance angle has been done hundreds of times before in practically every sci-fi/horror/thriller show aired on TV. When well-written, this plotline can be extremely effective, but when done badly, can be excruciating (not to mention racist). "Needlepoint" suffers from being badly underwritten -- or at least, the script was so badly carved up as to make it unintelligible -- and unimaginatively played. For example, while the plot summary states that Hilton-Jacobs' character is a pimp who presumably caused the death of Rolle's granddaughter by running her as a prostitute, the script doesn't really provide us much in the way of context for that, telling us only that Hilton-Jacobs was responsible for the death, without more. Likewise, the script gives neither actor anything to work with, leading to an uncharacteristically bad performance from Rolle; to Hilton-Jacobs' credit, he shies far enough away from caricature to at least start to pique my interest as to what actually happened between him and the granddaughter, though the script never gives the viewer enough time or exposition to warrant that interest.
How much of the problem was the original script and how much was the result of machete-like script editing is anybody's guess. Suffice to say that the result is a huge letdown.
