Warning: This article contains discussion of mental illness, ableism, and spoilers for Channel Zero.

The inaugural episode of Channel Zero‘s third season, this time based on Kerry Hammond’s “Search and Rescue Woods” and here titled “Butcher’s Block,” only peels back the first layer of skin on its narrative. Beneath that, though, “Insidious Onset” either poses a deeply worthwhile line of questioning through horror as a vehicle, or conversely, risks stumbling into insensitive trope after insensitive trope.

“Butcher’s Block” opens with sisters Alice (Olivia Luccardi) and Zoe (Holland Roden), who have recently moved to a new city. A city where we learn quickly enough that all is not well. At first glance, Alice seems a responsible yet tender-hearted protagonist, eager to put down roots and make connections in a community she wants to help bolster. It’s not long, though, before we learn that she and her sister have less “moved away,” and more “fled” their previous home. Rather, the two are running from problems that (a little frustratingly) the episode refuses to name outright.

It soon becomes clear that Zoe has been diagnosed with (one assumes) schizophrenia, and that the girls’ mother is hospitalized with the same mental health issues. This puts Alice in a position of trying to move forward with her own life. All the while she feels clumsily responsible for her sister and ultimately exposes some of Alice’s own fears about herself and her future. That is just the beginning of a fatal flaw along the way.

For now, their experiences run independently of each other, though there’s no doubt that the two sisters’ obstacles will intertwine or clash. Each of them has an encounter with the mysterious and the threatening. Where Alice’s experience is not immediately supernatural, there’s no question as to the nature of what Zoe sees, even as she becomes one of several vehicles for what seems to be the season’s core thesis.

I’m compelled enough to stick the season out for what it could be, certainly. The cinematography, soundscaping, and score are well-crafted. Despite the fact that it’s unfortunate that it seems to have taken three seasons, the show seems to have finally stuck the landing on the pace it wants to maintain.

Narratively, meanwhile, “Butcher’s Block” seems deeply interested in whose stories we deem worth believing. Particularly, it appears to be motivated by the idea that people we dismiss, disbelieve, and otherwise don’t listen to have a vantage point on life and experience that is not just valuable, but integral to healthy community and quality of life. It’s an idea and central concern that has great potential to be not just ripe for horror, but profoundly contemporary and worth grappling with.

On the other hand, it’s a highly sensitive question to take on. Already as of the first episode, it’s hard to look past a handful of warning signs that could blossom into full-blown red flags. Even if I felt able to set aside my persistent discomfort with Holland Roden’s history of insensitive remarks to get on board with her casting here, this season may shoot itself in the foot elsewhere, too.

The first episode already includes a character that appears to be a villainous dwarf with facial deformities. Moreover, I’m equally concerned that less visible disabilities and mental illnesses might get played for horror and villainy, too.

That said, it may be a little too early to draw any firm conclusions on the story directions that are yet to come. “Insidious Onset” mostly comprises stage-setting, establishing character traits, and beginning to hint at the mystery that will form the season’s fulcrum. For the most part, it does a decent job of doing so without overusing exposition. At the same time, it exposes some key fault lines in characters and relationships that feel mostly organic.

I do have some fairly significant concerns about where the narrative can, will, or should go from here, in terms of handling its subject matter respectfully and appropriately. Nonetheless, the first episode has largely convinced me of its central pair of characters, and has (so far) kept the stumbling blocks in their relationship feeling believable rather than insulting.

There should, in other words, be plenty to work with if the writing team is willing to do the legwork and avoid the multiple potential clangers with which they’ve already started this season. Only time will tell if these concerns bear fruit or wither in place.

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Channel Zero

7

Score

7.0/10

Pros

• Compelling central idea
• Good pacing
• Solid production value

Cons

• Several warning signs for insensitive tropes