This weekend, HBO will launch the second season of Room 104 — but you may not have ever heard of it, let alone know that this is its second season on the air. Granted, HBO didn’t really do the series any favors… it aired on Friday nights at 11:30pm, and was genuinely difficult to market, so HBO just didn’t.
And that’s a shame, because Room 104 was truly unlike anything else on TV… mainly because each installment was never quite like the episode that preceded it. Anthology series are a major trend across networks at the moment, but Room 104 takes the genre to the next level by switching genres, style, and even languages from week-to-week.
One episode could be a suspenseful mystery, the next could be a sex comedy. Some episodes were surreal, some were heartwarming, and others were completely free of dialogue, with interpretive dance being used as the primary form of communication to the audience. The one common factor: every episode was set within the titular motel room. But, from there, audiences never knew what to expect.
The great thing about Room 104 as a series is that, even if there’s a bad episode, things might change the very next week. But, at the very least, Season 1 contained 5 brilliant episodes that are absolutely worth the watch. And, at a tight 30 minutes, they are easy to digest and take a gamble on. With Season 2 just around the corner, dip your toe into the wild world of Room 104 with any of these five episodes… you might like what you find.
5. “Ralphie” (Episode 1, directed by Sarah Adina Smith)
It all started here — audiences first met this hotel room in a creepy little installment that started off as a tense thriller and then evolved into something much weirder. In this installment, Meg (Melonie Diaz) arrives at Room 104 to babysit a young boy while his father goes out for the evening. There’s a bit of expected tension at first, but then the little boy begins to insist that another, misbehaving little boy is hiding in the bathroom, and things only go downhill from there.
While the episode never approaches full-on horror, it remains intense and weird throughout, and fans of that genre would probably enjoy the unexpected ways director Sarah Adina Smith finds tension in the average, every-day moments of babysitting. And, as a hook into the series, it’s totally effective at playing against audience expectations, showing that the writers won’t always follow the rules of the genre.
4. “Pizza Boy” (Episode 2, directed by Patrick Brice)
“Pizza Boy” starts with a simple enough premise that seems rife with comedic potential. A delivery man (Clark Duke) arrives at the motel room with a pizza for a well-dressed couple in the midst of a fight (James Van Der Beek and Davie-Blue). After an issue with payment, the boy is invited into the motel room, only to suddenly be thrust into a bizarre sex game that blurs the lines between play-fighting and genuine anger.
Laugh out loud funny throughout, but also surprisingly suspenseful, “Pizza Boy” constantly takes strange narrative directions, right until it’s wonderful last reveal. It’s also a showcase for Van Der Beek’s stunning comedic abilities, as he plays a sexually frustrated husband like a pathetic Tarantino villain, skewing his own self-image perfectly. Bound to make audiences uncomfortable in the best way, “Pizza Boy” shows Room 104 at its lighter side… while still being fairly dark.
3. “I Knew You Weren’t Dead” (Episode 4, directed by So Yong Kim)
This is one of Room 104‘s saddest episodes, as well as its most grounded in real-world emotions. In it, Jay Duplass (who also co-created the series) is visited by the ghost of an old friend (Will Tranfo), who may have died during their teenage years but seems very much alive within the walls of the motel room.
Tranfo and Duplass give a master class in layered performances, as both actors channel their teenage selves, as well as their adult counterparts, without ever making the shifts obvious.
It’s a bittersweet episode, with some final moments that are genuinely devastating. But there’s something lovable and cathartic about it, as the series uses its surreal elements to explore grief and male stoicism in a surprisingly sensitive way.
2. “The Missionaries” (Episode 7, directed by Megan Griffiths)
As one of Room 104‘s two great episodes so far, “The Missionaries” is an astonishing work of writing and direction, as all involved somehow condense a 90-minute movie into an incredibly powerful 25-minute short film. In it, two young Mormons (Adam Foster and Nat Wolff) are upset because they haven’t been able to convert anyone during their mission. While spending the night at the titular hotel, they discuss their doubts about religion, and skirt around the clear sexual tension between them both.
Then, suddenly, an object strikes the TV, a porn channel turns on, and things change forever between them. To spoil more would be a disservice to the insanely creative way the writers take what could have been a standard coming of age story for queer teens and turns it on its head.
With a dash of American Pie raunchiness, a few serious plot threads about religion and the shame about sex it brings with it, and a surprising amount of sweetness, “The Missionaries” emerges as a must-watch. It’s still as bizarre and unpredictable as Room 104 always is… but it’s also incredibly romantic, entertaining, and even fairly accessible.
1. “The Internet” (Episode 5, directed by Doug Emmett)
“The Internet” is the kind of Room 104 episode I can show to my more conventional parents, who might not approve of the strange eccentricities and often graphic content found in the other episodes. Most of the time, these broadly appealing episodes of a series would be frowned upon, or viewed as the weakest. But “The Internet” bucks that trend, delivering a short film that is more impressive than half the features released in 2017. Set in the 1990s, this episode follows Anish (Karan Soni of Deadpool fame), an author on his way to an important meeting with his publisher.
The only problem is: the novel he’s been working on is saved on his laptop, at home. In a last ditch effort to get a copy of the manuscript in time for the meeting, he calls his mother (Poorna Jagannathan, in voice only) and tries to instruct her through sending a copy. As a result, the writers and director take a relatively normal occurence (explaining technology to a parent) and turns it into a deeply suspenseful, often funny, one man show.
In true Room 104 fashion, there is a third-act twist… but it’s one grounded in realism, that takes the whole premise and brings it to a heart-warming, tear jerking conclusion. If this was a short film uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo, it would have been a viral hit, and it should absolutely be sought out.
No matter what genre of film or TV you typically like, Room 104 will probably have something for you. On their own, each episodes makes for a unique story, that often takes unexpected turns and finds a surprising emotional core. But, as a unit, Room 104 marks something even more interesting: a collection of short stories that don’t even care about connecting or building to some overarching theme. It just wants to entertain. And the best news? While HBO may have saddled it with a bizarre, inaccessible time slot, we are no longer shackled to the TV Guide. The next time you have thirty minutes to kill, stream an episode of Room 104. You won’t be sorry.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DAJuBPUThg
