This is an episode of this show that really grew on me and I like it better than I used to, although it still doesn't rank among the series' best. The idea is so cool, old decaying crone by night, rocking pop starlet with attitude by day, it really could've made for a totally rad fun schlocky horror movie back in the day! I find the way the curse of the antique works interesting, an ivy-engraved teacup that grants death to whoever drinks from it and temporary youth to the one that owns it, and requiring a certain level of deviousness from the owner to gain someone's trust in what they think is an act of kindness, who would ever refuse the offer of a nice hot drink on a cold night from a benevolent stranger? It's killing with kindness, which is what the lovely title of this episode means to me, taking the *time* to do a good deed for somebody less fortunate, except in this case it's really an act of murder for stolen time! "Lady Die" (bad pun, and retrospectively in bad taste!) was like the old witch from Snow White luring the princess with her seemingly harmless apple of death. Very neat and well done special effect when the vines that decorate the teacup spring to life to strangle the life out of the drinker. They used a little good old fashioned stop-motion animation to good effect, that technique is always so visually fascinating to me. I also loved the makeup effects on Lady Die when she was fully old, she looks just like the classic image of a witch. The actress tells a great story of how when they were shooting the scenes where she's in the woods in full old makeup in the daytime, she ran down an incline and straight into a park full of little kids that were scared to death, and she ran away because she thought if she tried to explain she'd only scare the parents too! One thing I don't get about the story is why Lady Die is bothering to give a benefit concern for the homeless population she's been preying on, it can't be guilt because she's clearly a vapid self-centred diva that doesn't give a s**t! I like the shift of events in the plot when the teacup gets taken away from the villain mid-story and is then unexpectedly stolen by Jack's visiting older friend Birdie, because Ryan was stupid enough to actually leave it right on the front desk instead of putting it right in the vault, to go and help a homeless girl get potato chips! So Birdie steals the cup for herself but when it comes to giving a homeless young alcoholic a killer nightcap she can't go through with it as she isn't the cold heartless person that Lady Die is.. Although I guess even the kindest person isn't immune to temptation... Anyway after having a heart to heart with the drunken bum all night long, Birdie feels better about herself but has the cup stolen by Lady Die who loses it soon after to Jack who poses as another drunk in one rather hokey moment and runs away with it. And I know it's bad but I can't help but feel a little sorry for Lady Die that she never got to be young again for her big show! But rapidly ageing mummy or not, the fans still beckon, and abrupt and anticlimactic as it is, I love the crazy moment at the end when she emerges from her trailer a leather-clad desiccated husk that's ready to rock out and then promptly drops dead at the scene! You can tell it's an early episode in the series and it could have been made a tad better, but it does have its moments is entertaining and is for what it is, well worth watching. Our time is up!
Review of A Cup of Time
