TV REVIEW: ‘FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, Season 1 Episode 1: PILOT’

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“What do you know?”

“Well, it’s a hot goddamn day.”

Yes, sir, Earl, it is indeed a hot goddamn day.

I have to admit, up front, that I was afraid to sit down and watch “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series,” despite being geeked when I first heard Robert Rodriguez was turning into a show. Fear, you ask? It seems, over the years and through countless discussions that you either love the film or you hate it. I’m in the love camp and have been since I sat down with my brother to watch the movie at Ronnies Theatre out in South County. The movie was pretty open and closed as far as what happens from the point after the robbery in Abilene to the morning after the Titty Twister. What exactly was Rodriguez going to do to my beloved movie?

The way I saw it, there were two options: expand or ignore what came before. Both paths have their pitfalls and benefits, but I wasn’t ready to deal with either. So my punk ass DVR’d the series and there it sat, collecting dust amongst the second half of “Revolution” and the full season of “True Detective,” among others. When the opportunity came along to do this review for DTB, I was super busy and let it pass. Fear definitely played a part in that, too, you know, because I’d have to sit down and watch the show. When my personal schedule settled (for the record, Little League schedules that change daily kind of suck) and no one had taken the show, I hopped on board.

And you know what, I’m glad I did.

Rodriquez chose to expand on the movie, filling in details and character stories on the way. Like any remake, though, some things work and some don’t. Let’s talk about the first episode, titled Pilot. I have to say, though, Benny’s World of Blood would have been better.

Just saying.

If you’ve seen the movie, then you get that reference, and this episode plays out much like you’d expect, but not without first thrusting us into the past. I do believe we get to see the beginnings of Santanico Pandemonium as she runs from Aztec warriors or priests or poets… I can’t be sure, I wasn’t around back then. They force her into a pit of snakes and, well, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, even when the giant one goes down her throat.

Flash forward to now and we’re treated to Earl McGraw, played expertly here by Don Johnson. I’m big fan of Michael Parks, but I think he can rest easy knowing how Johnson so easily filled those boots. Here’s where we get another difference from the movie, which is McGraw has a partner, Texas Ranger Freddie Gonzalez. They’re working the Cartel Killer case and Gonzalez is flipping through the case file while the two talk about holy water. It seems like an uncomfortable conversation for McGraw, though we’re not really sure what they’re talking about. Earl stops at Benny’s World of Liquor to “drain his lizard” and things start to look familiar for fans of the movie.

Earl and Pete’s conversation isn’t nearly as fun as it is in the movie, but we’ll forgive the writers for that. You can’t quite bring all that back and would you really want to? Interesting plot point here: we follow McGraw into the bathroom and he finds a knife on the edge of the sink. He comes out of the bathroom, talks to Pete some more, and gets shot.

Then we go into flashback mode and learn about Earl and his counting days and who his partner is and what the conversation in the car is about. Apparently, Earl doesn’t want to be a godfather, and that’s a damn good thing, considering. It’s a nice bit of character for Earl’s fans (he’s been in a few flicks now), but it also serves to give us more on Gonzalez, too. It seems Frederico is going to be play a big role in the series.

We finally meet the Gecko brothers as they’re keeping a low profile and picking up provisions at Benny’s World of Liquor. In the movie, they were after a map, here it’s food and beverages. Bottom line, they needed to stop, so they stopped. Said low profile is shot to shit (literally) when Richie puts a bullet into Texas Ranger Earl McGraw. After being shot, Earl doesn’t immediately die and there’s a Mexican standoff of sorts between the Gecko brothers and Gonzalez. During this heavy dialogue section of the episode, watch Cotrona closely. He makes Seth look good and there are times when you think you’re watching Clooney again. Seth goes into the bathroom quite a bit to call Carlos (played here by Wilmer Valderrama) for an escape route. This isn’t the confident Seth from the movie, but a lesser version, and we’ll have to see how it all plays out in the long run.

I wish I could say I enjoyed Holtz, who has stepped into Tarantino’s shoes as Richie, as much. And you know, it’s not really Holtz’s fault, but the writers. In the movie, you kind of loved Richie despite his crazy. He had charm and wit, was a little bit whiney (“like some Mexican hole in the wall is gonna have my prescription…”) and the show’s Richie isn’t really any of that. He’s just crazy, but now there’s a point to the crazy (other than tension) that ties into the plot.

Remember earlier when I said most people either love or hated the movie? Well, most often, when you ask a hater what they didn’t like, it’s usually the vampires. What in the actual fuck were vampires doing in this action/crime/thriller movie with no warning. All of a sudden there are vampires! Well, Richie’s crazy in the show is connected to those very vampires. The visions he’s seeing are of Santanico Pandemonium and yeah, she’s telling him all sorts of fun things. The two girls that are used as hostages appear as vampires several times. He seems to be connected to Santanico through the knife (the very one Earl found), but since he’s no longer in possession of it, we’ll have to see how that plays out. All in all, Rodriguez addressed one of the major criticisms of the film and did it well.

Once Benny’s World of Liquor has been renamed and the Gecko brothers are on the move again, Ranger Gonzalez wakes up. Kevlar, it’s for saving lives.

This episode definitely set the stage for a lot of interesting twists and turns to come. How is Richie connected to Santanico? Why? Does it matter? At least we have a reason for the vampires now. But really, the best part is we’re only one episode into the series and maybe ten minutes of the film.

When you’re a fan of the movie like I am, that’s like pussy for a penny.