'til Death Do Us Part: An Appreciation

I love John Waters. If I were ever to expand my favorite directors list from 3 to 4 Mr. Waters would claim that spot without a fight. Everything he touches turns to gold. I love his films. I love his books. I love his photographs. I love his immense knowledge of the perverse. I even love the little seen true crime show he hosted.

Back in 2007 courtTV decided to try something new by greenlighting a weekly which depicted dramatizations of cases where one spouse murdered the other. Now I know what you're thinking:

That sounds depressing. Why would i want to watch that?

Normally you'd be right. Usually spousal murder is serious business. But thanks to John Waters as the GROOM REAPER along with some seriously warped writers, it becomes downright HILARIOUS.

The show is much more "Tales From The Crypt" than it is "Law & Order". The set-ups are condescendingly obvious, the dialogue and acting are ludicrous and the resolutions are always spectacularly random.

One episode featured a detective who was absolutely convinced that a mortician had murdered his wife. The only problem was there was no body. Finally while enjoying a hot dog from a street vendor he has an epiphany. TWO FOR ONE! The woman's body was stuffed into the lining of another coffin!

Not your cup of tea?

OK.

Maybe this show isn't for everybody. Maybe my friends and I are just a little bit too warped. But if anything I've written about above sounds the least bit interesting to you, please check out the show. It's available on DVD and I highly recommend "The Clown Case" and "Time Capsule Murder" episodes.

Now the perfect ending to this blog would be a nice clip of the Groom Reaper telling us he has to hurry off to another wedding. Hope it's not yours. Sadly youtube has no such clips. I guess I'll leave you with this -