Yeah, I could see her being set apart from the family by her "normalness" resulting in her becoming a serial killer so that in her mind she would fit in.
There's also something "off," not to dwell on it too much, in her lack of personal embarrassment at Grandpa's habit of materializing in the altogether. She finds all of the weirdness alternately amusing and mildly vexing, and seems to float a little above it all...too detached. I loved the running joke - trivial and sitcom-ish though it may be - of "and this is Eddy's Grandpa...'Grandpa.'"
"Call me Dee." I wonder to what extent the name Dracula is known in the Munsters' world. Is he a folk legend, a serial killer spanning the centuries, or has the average Joe never heard of him at all? The family's avoidance of the name suggests that Dracula is known at least to a degree. Interesting also that in this version, Munster is Grandpa's assumed family name. An alias, certainly. To Herman: "Eddie was born a Munster. You weren't a Munster until I made you one." In the original series, Herman was the Munster.
Enough that Grandpa doesn't want to use it. The Munsters' world seems, until otherwise indicated, to be the same as ours. I'm sure everyone know Dracula and Frankenstein.
I liked it but it felt more like a pastiche of Addams Family and Dark Shadows (films and TV) built on the most skeletal bones of The Munsters. It was very stylish and cool but I wonder if its current limbo status stems from not shaking expectations that this was going to be closer to the source. Guess we'll know if we see another project emerge with Brad Garrett in Frankenstein makeup.
I'm board with the whole Marilyn is evil concept. I don't think there is anyway a true "normal" person could live with a bunch of monsters and not end up messed up in someway. Is the whole thing with her mother wanting to eat her from the original, or was that something new that Fuller came up with?
I'm pretty sure the point the pilot was making was that while the rest of the family are monsters on the outside, Marilyn was a monster on the inside. In fact, it wasn't really a very subtle point at all. She came right out and admitted it with her response to Grandpa's desire for a moat. "The best moats are made of good manners and congeniality."
It's worth watching for the visuals alone, it's gorgeous for a TV production. If you like the rest then bonus.
I don't think this was derivative of "The Addams Family" - Fuller's sense of humor is pretty well established and this show fits it to a "T." The humor is macabre, whereas the one joke of the original "Munsters" premise was that they really were a prosaic suburban bunch who didn't get the way they appeared to others. That got stale pretty fast.
I think the humor was more in line with The Addams Family than The Munsters, as likely is Fuller's sense of humor.
I enjoyed it. Beautifully done, lots of cute little in jokes and interesting characters. Love to see it picked up...
If not for the budget, I think this would make a great show for a network like USA (part of the NBC-Universal family). As in another thread about what cable can teach broadcast, this production may not be "broadcast" ready quite yet. I found it extremely entertaining personally and very much liked its twist on the original.
IIRC from the movie "Munster Go Home", Herman made his way to Ireland after being driven out of Transylvania and was adopted by a family named Munster. It never really addressed how Grandpa or Marilyn got the Munster name.
Geez, I remember seeing that movie at the drive-in when I was very young. I enjoyed this remake better than the John Schuck version. It was fun, and the dark humor worked. I can see why the poster above compares it to the Addams Family.