User Reviews

A hostile and unfriendly genie (legendary towering basketball player Karem Abdul-Jabbar, who's mostly heard and only seen at the very end) who's stuck in a rusty old magic lamp refuses to grant wishes to a young couple and decides to terrorize them instead until the wife (the always delightful Colleen Camp) discovers an unlikely solution. Director Shelly Livingson fails to do much with the silly humor in Haskell Smith's hopelessly inane script (surprisingly, said script is based on a short story by noted writer Harlan Ellison!). The genie's constant array of insults are simply mean and stupid. Moreover,Charle Levin as the distraught husband really grates on the nerves with his insufferably manic mugging. Only Camp manages to keep her dignity despite the dumb material and as a result prevents this episode from being a complete wash-out. One of this show's lesser half hours.

Newly married couple (David Levin and Colleen Camp), trying to get by in a rat trap of an apartment, purchase an Aladdin's lamp out of a tent (that appears out of thin air with a "desert salesman" selling antiquities), take it home, and unleash the anger of an ill-tempered genie after rubbing the artifact, resulting in much mayhem and mischief (on the part of the grumpy genie). The Djinn is a loud, brash, impolite, and verbally abusive genie who wants out of the lamp and will make the lives of his "masters" (although, there is a question of who is in control of who)a living hell unless satisfyingly released from his prison. Played for nothing but laughs (I mean, seriously, the genie is Kareem Abdul Jabbar!), the three actors send up the material for all they can muster, but I'm more partial to tales of terror than tales of comedy so the affect on me was a bit less thrilling. Still I heart 80s Colleen Camp so this episode at least appealed to me in that regard. I wasn't bowled over in the floor laughing my ass off so maybe the humor didn't necessarily work for me, but maybe others will find much to enjoy with this willing-to-please diversion of the first season of "Tales from the Darkside". Lead actor Charles Levin has one of those 80s sitcom faces where he takes jokes from the script and livens them up with expressive reactions in a dedicated attempt to make the material far funnier than it really is and does he work his ass off to get the comedy over. There is even a technique where he's in a strait-jacket talking to the camera (the point of view of a psychiatrist listening to his unbelievable story), doing what he can to tickle your funnybone. It's a valiant effort on his part.

Tales from the Darkside: Djinn, No Chaser starts as Danny Squires (Charles Levin) & his wife Connie (Colleen Camp) are out shopping for their new apartment when a large tent appears out of nowhere full of odd curios, inside Connie takes a liking to an old Arabian style lamp which they buy for $10. Back home Connie can't resist rubbing the lamp just in case all the stories, films & books about Genie's are true which it turns out they are because there is a troublesome Genie stuck in the lamp & starts to take it's bad mood out on Connie & Danny...

Episode 10 from season 1 this Tales from the Darkside story originally aired in the US during January 1985, directed by Shelley Levinson this was an extremely silly tale with little point & an even sillier ending involving a can opener. The script by Haskell Barkin has a decent enough premise which could have made an effective little horror short but the script goes for out-and-out comedy which doesn't really work because it isn't funny. It moves along at a nice pace only lasting for 20 minutes but it's just not that good, there's no twist apart from a really dumb end punchline to a running joke & this isn't an episode that I'd be in any hurry to watch again.

As usual this is well made but the sight of 7 foot plus ex-basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in a grey suit as a Genie at the end is just plain stupid. There isn't a single horror element in this one & it's not scary in the slightest. The acting is pretty good with Camp & Levin as the unlucky couple putting in decent performances.

Djinn, No Chaser (I don't get that title at all...) is a pretty lame kids fantasy comedy that I'm not sure belongs in a show called Tales from the Darkside, not recommended.

Based on a Harlan Ellison story, directed by Shelley Levinson and written by Haskell Barkin, this episode has Danny Squires (Charles Levin) in a lunatic wing explaining how his wife Connie (Coleen Camp) had bought an old lamp that brought a djinn (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) into their lives. Nothing good has happened since that day.

Sadly, this episode is one of the sillier episodes and not in the best of ways. It's wacky humor with a payoff that is an even bigger groaner. It's as if all the issues of Danny in a straihtjacket don't matter because of how easily everything comes together at the end.

Look, they can't all be winners on Tales from the Darkside.