Although I've lived all over the country, I'm actually a Southerner, born and raised in Alabama and descended from a long line of Alabama natives.  Very often the deep South is portrayed as caricature on TV. So imagine my surprise when AMERICAN GOTHIC aired in 1995 and got everything about the South right without resorting to parody and stereotype. 

And not only did it get the South right, but it was a fantastic show featuring one of the best child actors to ever grace the small screen--Lucas Black as Caleb Temple.  Gary Cole turns in a phenomenal performance as the charming, yet deadly, Sheriff Lucas Buck.  The rest of the cast is stellar and authentic.

Written by former Hardy Boy Shaun Cassidy and produced/directed by Sam Raimi of EVIL DEAD and SPIDERMAN fame, the award-winning show was a lucious treat of Southern Gothic, mystery, suspense, romance, and the paranormal.  Rolling Stone called it a collaboration between Stephen King and Tennessee Williams.  The New York Times said it was a cross between Mayberry and Twin Peaks. 

And yet, not enough viewers watched it to keep it going past a season.  Like Firefly, Twin Peaks, Pushing Daisies, and Dark Shadows: Resurrection, the show was canceled before it could ever build viewer momentum.  Part of the problem might have been network meddling.  Shaun Cassidy penned half a season of nuanced scripts before the network execs stepped in and messed up his winning formula with heavy handedness.  Another problem could have been the Friday night time slot.  Or that the network did not air the episodes in their intended order.  But whatever the problem, the show was still too good to be canceled in its infancy.  The last four episodes weren't even shown until the SciFi Channel picked up the show and aired all 22 episodes in the correct order.  (FYI: if you order the DVD, the shows are NOT arranged in the right sequence.)

So, if you wanna take a little trip to Trinity, South Carolina sometime to enjoy a good spook tale,  check out American Gothic.  The words "Someone's at the door," will never seem so innocent.  And the devil will never be as charming as Sheriff Lucas Buck..   

I read fiction and watch TV shows and movies to escape and enjoy a good story, but I also like a healthy dose of reality mixed with my entertainment.  There are some plots that are so sanitized from real life that I have to wonder: Don't these characters ever take a crap or need a box of tissues nearby after making love or wake up without any make-up on?  And even though I'm a fan of Robert Jordan's THE EYE OF THE WORLD series, I've often wondered: Aren't the women ever inconvenienced with menstruation during their long travels, and if so, how do they deal with it? 

There *are* stories that deal with these sorts of realities that are not to be talked of in polite society.  THE RED TENT by Anita Diamant comes to mind.  So does Anne Rice's MEMNOCH THE DEVIL and Chuck Palahniuk's short story "Guts."

I recently re-watched Peter Jackson's THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy and I applaud Jackson for not sanitizing his movies ala the 1950s.  Aragorn, the hobbits, and the rest of the company trek through the woods or fight battles for most of the trilogy.  Their hair is lank and greasy, their skin and clothes filthy with dirt and sweat.  You can practically smell the body odor and bad breath.  And it's totoally realistic.  Living in a pre-technological society is not pretty nor easy.  Taking a bath or conducting personal hygiene is a luxury, not a right.

 But in many books/movies set in a time before indoor plumbing, the characters are always clean, their clothes bright and crisp, their hair full of luster and body, the women's legs and armpits shorn of hair as if they had stepped out of a time machine from the present into the past.  

But I like to see the stark nitty gritty in my entertainment.  Because otherwise, it's a big fat lie.  People sweat, menstruate, and smell bad if they don't bathe.  Their hair gets greasy if they don't wash it.  They have messy sex. They urinate and defecate.  And they don't wake up in full make-up with fresh breath (unless they use magic).  That's what I call fantasy and if it's your cup of tea, then great.  But I like to know how people live, even if those people are fictional.  Because finding the truth in fiction is what it's all about.  Otherwise, it's just a sanitized version that presents a false assumption. And I say no thank you to that.

Today I'm the guest blogger at Fang-tastic Books.  Find out why I'm afraid of zombies and yet still write about them.

http://fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com/