Into the Dark - New Year, New You - Advance Preview

Rejoice! We're getting the new episode of Into the Dark a little early. Even though we already got the Christmas episode at the beginning of December, Hulu will be releasing the New Years episode a few days before the holiday. The sad thing is we won't get another episode until February now but honestly, after this episode, I'm not too upset about getting a break.

I had so much fun with the Christmas episode, "Pooka", that I was inclined to believe Into the Dark was raising its quality going into the middle of its debut season. Unfortunately, "New Year, New You" brings the heights reached by the former episode crashing down. I really wanted to like this episode too because I'm a fan of Carley Chaiken and Blumhouse finally hired their first female director (which is absolutely ridiculous given how long they've been in the production-business). But, this episode was a massive disappointment.

It's New Years Eve and a group of young millennial women gather reunite to reminisce and wax nostalgic about their time together when they were young. One of the girls, Danielle (Chaiken's character) has become a successful health mogul and rubs elbows with the rich and famous on the regular. She's a bonafide YouTube celebrity and hasn't made much time for her friends.

Tonight is meant to change all of that but when the alcohol starts pouring and dubious party games like "Never, Have I Ever" get played, dark secrets begin to poison the friendship well and things take a decidedly nasty turn.

All of that sounds great in theory. But if you're expecting an interesting storyline, a cohesive plot, or even any answers to some of the episodes biggest questions, well don't expect them!

For starters, "New Year, New You" has an hour and twenty minute long run time but it's not until we hit the 45 minute mark does the real conflict even begin.

Over half the episode is filled with vapid, shallow conversations from a thoroughly diluted script where we learn little to nothing about these characters and Suki Waterhouse stares around in quiet sullenness for no reason.

The flashbacks are blurry, intangible, and impossible to make out. We only get the vaguest ideas and implications of what happened in the past between these girls.

This episode appeared to have a shoestring budget but that isn't an excuse for the weak story since there was the spine of something intriguing about how women get caught up in societal expectations and lose track of what really matters, there were glimpses of genuine female friendship.

At the end of the day I didn't believe these girls ever cared about each other. They barely seemed to like each other honestly.

I wish I liked the episode more and could recommend it but for now it's definitely one of the weakest of the season.

"New Year, New You" will begin streaming Dec. 28th on Hulu.