Spoiled

Some reviews are more mixed on this one but I find it really enjoyable and fun. It just has a light-hearted deranged vibe that I think suits this show perfectly. Sometimes doing episodes with bright colors in the daytime is a good change of pace from the cemeteries and graveyards.

This crypt episode from 1991 titled "Spoiled" is well done and entertaining and the plot takes a surprise revenge twist at the end. You have Faye Grant as a bored and lonely spouse who's husband is an all work and no play doctor who happens to be working on a new medical invention. So with no time at all for passion play the Grant character's only escape is by watching hot and steamy daytime soap TV, then when a mishap occurs with a TV losing it's signal she calls Abel the Cable Guy(Anthony LaPaglia). This cable guy is willing and able to play and he will hook up more than just premium cable! Soon a very hot and passionate love affair develops that is very hot and enjoyed, but like so many guilty pleasures it takes an unexpected twisted end. As you the viewer see the cable romance becomes scrambled into different body parts! Overall good crypt episode one of the better ones of season three.

Very lackluster and ordinary "Tales from the Crypt" episode that really hasn't got anything to offer apart from a couple of mild grins, maybe. The story seriously lacks originality, excitement and – most of all – the solid hand of a real director. Andy Wolk mainly just did TV-drama's and late Friday night thrillers and his work for HBO's series is pretty weak compared to great directors like Walter Hill, Russell Mulcahy or Tom Holland. Fed up with her workaholic husband and inspired by her favorite soap opera on TV, housewife Janet starts a sexual relationship with hunky cable guy Abel. As a matter of course, her husband finds out about his wife's infidelity and uses his medical breakthrough discovery to avenge himself. 98% of the story is really boring and it shamelessly uses footage from another fictional soap opera as pure padding. There's not the least bit of gore and the attempt to black humor entirely misses its effect, simply because the premise is so unoriginal. I usually think Anthony LaPlagia is a cool dude, but he looks rather stupid her as God's bubblegum-chewing gift to women. Besides, how many lame ambiguous jokes can they possible make in 30 minutes? Abel's powerful cable represents the male reproductive organ, yeah okay we get it.

Janet and Leon are a couple that has different obsessions. Janet is obsessed with the soap opera THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW and watches the show religiously, but she is also annoyed with her husband that when he should spend time with her, spends time experimenting on a rabbit in his underground laboratory. When one afternoon the TV loses signal at a crucial moment in the show, Janet calls Abel, a cable man that installs cable. Inspired by the soap opera's vain lead character, Janet begins a steamy affair with Abel, but when Leon catches them in the act, he decides to use his experiments on rabbits on them, and it works (and the end result is quite shocking).

After some losers, this was another return to greatness in the series and the story was very compelling. The fact that Janet was obsessed with the soap opera was very realistic as it happened even to me a few times. And the ending was very unexpected. Another decent episode despite there isn't blood splattered.