Halloween TV Series Could Be Perfect, Here’s How

If I were to fully extol the virtues of Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal, we’d be here all day. It’s perfectly cast, beautifully shot, and impossibly well-written. When it comes to what a Halloween TV show could learn from Fuller’s show, it’s this: a willingness to bring in even the goofiest parts of the canon to create something new.

For example, Hannibal was primarily a prequel show to the first Hannibal Lecter book, Red Dragon; because of this, fans thought they knew what to expect. Before it was done, though, Fuller brought in elements of the later Lecter novels and films, including the memorable menace of the maimed Mason Verger and Hannibal’s European adventures impersonating Dr. Fell. For superfans of the cannibal serial killer, this show was the ultimate celebration of all his previous novels and films.

This approach is the exact one that a Halloween TV show needs to take. It’s an open secret that Miramax wants the show to be a “creative reset” because nobody knows quite what to do with the otherwise streamlined story of Michael Myers going on a killing spree. That’s why so many previous films have tried to reboot the franchise, but I think the TV show needs to actually lean into the lore and fully embrace as much of this schizophrenic franchise as possible.

For example, the biggest hurdle of a Halloween TV show is the need to explain why it doesn’t end after one episode of stalking and stabbing. But what if Myers keeps getting waylaid because he has run afoul of the bad guys from Halloween III who are trying to perfect their killer mask gimmick? Instead of those baddies being driven by technology, maybe they could be more mystical in nature and try to figure out how to use the evil in Myers’ own mask for their own nefarious purpose?

Speaking of the evil inside Michael Myers, it would be cool if a Halloween TV show picked up the thread from the fourth film about the killer’s niece inheriting his murderous tendencies. This could allow the show to channel the best part of Halloween Ends (Myers having an evil protege) while more firmly aligning the young blood to series lore. Furthermore, having Myers train the next generation of evil would provide an additional explanation for why he might be lurking around town while refraining from his usual nonstop killing spree.

Earlier, I touched on Hannibal inspiring the Halloween TV show, and this could happen in the most direct way if the series takes a cue from the otherwise awful Halloween: Resurrection and has Laurie Strode institutionalized. She could be a bitter Hannibal Lecter-type advisor to the one detective who believes what she has to say about the threat of Hannibal Lecter. Speaking of Resurrection, that movie’s plot about youngsters who want to achieve viral fame with an internet reality show seems more relevant than ever in a post-Twitch era of online content.

These are just a few of the franchise elements a Halloween TV series could incorporate from the tangled web of its constantly rebooted lore. We’d particularly love it if the show did a long-form examination of whether Michael Myers is truly pure evil or just a murderous man. All of this may sound like a long shot, but in a world where the Alien franchise is getting yet another chance to shine, we think a Halloween show in the Hannibal mode could take an obscenely delicious bite into a genre hungry for good horror.