Review: 'The Curious Creations Of Christine McConnell'

One of the best parts of being a television critic is watching a new show that is so peculiar and captivating that you get sucked into episode after episode, all the while muttering "What the F*^& is this?" That was certainly my reaction to watching "The Curious Creations Of Christine McConnell," which premieres this Friday on Netflix.

The show stars social media multi-hyphenate Christine McConnell, who has used her popular Instagram account to become a "baker/photographer/author/artist." The show features a fictionalized version of McConnell, with this version living in a weird mansion filled with Halloween-themed Henson Company muppets. Each of the six episodes in season one focuses on some theme such as "Snacks For Strays" or "A Spirited Tea Party" and McConnell assembles a few relevant dishes with a presentation that's part Sandra Lee, part "Interview With A Vampire."

While the weirdly dark and oddly-toned show might seem a bit insane to viewers who aren't already familiar with McConnell's career, it's a spot-on reflection of the quirky combination of creepy sexiness that has made her a success. She first became well-known for posting these unsettling-but-alluring photos of herself creating Halloween-themed crafts and recipes and that spawned the successful 2016 book "Deceptive Desserts: A Lady's Guide to Baking Bad!" If I wasn't prohibited by the 2018 Edition of the TV Critics Handbook from using the phrase, "She was born for this role," that's the way I'd describe it.

"The Curious Creations Of Christine McConnell" is just a wildly fun but insane mess filled with incontinent puppets and recipes that seem unlikely to work outside the confines of a creepy TV set. And yet, it's also precisely the type of show that is in the sweet spot of many Netflix subscribers. A memorably different series with just enough episodes to binge through while not requiring any large investment in time or brain cells.

It's the rare Halloween-themed show that isn't animated or just some cook making "spooky" drinks while dressed like a vaguely slutty witch. It's an entertaining-albeit insane show. But it's also the series everyone will be talking about at the office on Monday.