This episode 6 from "Hulu's" "Monsterland" called "Palacios, Texas" is one that's strange as it blends a monster like see creature with love. Set on the gulf coast area of Texas the story involves a down on his luck and fed up fisherman who's dealing with the struggles of life, water pollution, and political corruption. Only all of a sudden his life and world changes when he makes the catch of a lifetime. It appears first to be a sea lady a demonic monster. Only after boarding her in his bathtub the sea lady takes on a new form and it's intimate feel for both! Yet this is a sea of love departing as hopefully both live happy ever after! Overall pretty good episode of love and strange connection proving that all of us are creatures of a different species!
3 Reviews
Siren Song
claudio_carvalho22 August 2022
In Palacios, Texas, the lonely fisherman Sharko Pierce is an unlucky man that has severe sequels from an oil-cleanup accident caused by an oil company. Now he works cleaning the beach and does not fish anymore. One day, he finds a mermaid covered in oil on the beach and brings her home. When his former employee Breezy finds the mermaid hidden in the Sharko's bathtub, he promises to keep secret and builds an aquarium for the mermaid. But soon a group of fishermen learns and arrives at Sharko's home expecting to abduct the mermaid and sell her to feed their families, but Sharko defends her. Meanwhile he feels a great attraction for the mermaid with consequences.
"Palacios, Texas" is another strange episode of "Monsterland", this time based on the siren song that lures seamen. Sharko's imagination is induced by the mermaid or part of his lonely personality? Once again, Brazilian Sy-Fy channel presents an episode of Monsterland not in the correct sequence. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Palacios, Texas"
"Palacios, Texas" is another strange episode of "Monsterland", this time based on the siren song that lures seamen. Sharko's imagination is induced by the mermaid or part of his lonely personality? Once again, Brazilian Sy-Fy channel presents an episode of Monsterland not in the correct sequence. My vote is six.
Title (Brazil): "Palacios, Texas"
It's Lindemann's Catch 2020!
Gislef22 November 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Anyone else seen the old 'Night Gallery' episode about a fisherman named Lindemann? Lindemann catches a mermaid and falls in love with her, and eventually dies trying to be with her.
Take that episode and give it a 'Monsterland' spin. Which apparently means make it metaphorical, 2020-ish in its social commentary, and mostly incomprehensible. The first half plays out pretty much like the 'Night Gallery' episode. But then, the Mermaid sprouts legs, gets a fashionable suit, and appears on her captor Sharko's porch to have sex with him and talk about how they're both creatures of the sea.
The social commentary is that Sharko is an out-of-work fisherman who had an accident with the chemical used to clean up the oil spill (from episode 4, "New York, New York"). He finds the Mermaid after she's washed up on shore, her gills gunked up with oil.
Because it's 2020, the mermaid becomes a human female so we can have some sex. But at the end it becomes clear the whole thing is Sharko's imagination, as the mermaid in her true form rips his throat out when he falls into her tank. And... so what? We don't learn enough about Sharko to discover why he hallucinated the mermaid as a human woman. Yes, he's an Asian and we hear about how the Klan threatened him and his father when they came to Palacios to fish. But there's no connection between the two: between Sharko being harassed by racists and his obsessing pver a mermaid.
Trieu Tran does what he can with the character of Sharko. He's good, but he's no Stuart Whitman, who played Lindemann in the NG episode. And it's a better episode for Tran's performance. But he isn't given much to work with. So it's not a bad episode. But you're left wondering if he's hallucinating the whole thing, or the Mermaid is projecting a hallucination on him (as one wiki suggests), or what's going on. Which is what 'Monsterland' as a whole leaves me feeling like: "What's going on?" Other than the nature of the hallucinations/dreams/whatever, at least the story is nice and linear.
But at the end of the day it's just a sad little man imagining he can be with a mermaid. And... he can't. Story over, end of the line.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Take that episode and give it a 'Monsterland' spin. Which apparently means make it metaphorical, 2020-ish in its social commentary, and mostly incomprehensible. The first half plays out pretty much like the 'Night Gallery' episode. But then, the Mermaid sprouts legs, gets a fashionable suit, and appears on her captor Sharko's porch to have sex with him and talk about how they're both creatures of the sea.
The social commentary is that Sharko is an out-of-work fisherman who had an accident with the chemical used to clean up the oil spill (from episode 4, "New York, New York"). He finds the Mermaid after she's washed up on shore, her gills gunked up with oil.
Because it's 2020, the mermaid becomes a human female so we can have some sex. But at the end it becomes clear the whole thing is Sharko's imagination, as the mermaid in her true form rips his throat out when he falls into her tank. And... so what? We don't learn enough about Sharko to discover why he hallucinated the mermaid as a human woman. Yes, he's an Asian and we hear about how the Klan threatened him and his father when they came to Palacios to fish. But there's no connection between the two: between Sharko being harassed by racists and his obsessing pver a mermaid.
Trieu Tran does what he can with the character of Sharko. He's good, but he's no Stuart Whitman, who played Lindemann in the NG episode. And it's a better episode for Tran's performance. But he isn't given much to work with. So it's not a bad episode. But you're left wondering if he's hallucinating the whole thing, or the Mermaid is projecting a hallucination on him (as one wiki suggests), or what's going on. Which is what 'Monsterland' as a whole leaves me feeling like: "What's going on?" Other than the nature of the hallucinations/dreams/whatever, at least the story is nice and linear.
But at the end of the day it's just a sad little man imagining he can be with a mermaid. And... he can't. Story over, end of the line.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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