'The Whispers': Creepy Kids Causing Danger and in Danger
In The Whispers, premiering Monday night on ABC, creepy things start happening after children begin communicating with a supposedly imaginary “friend” they call Drill. Parents are injured; kids begin talking with adult vocabularies about things they can’t possibly understand. An FBI agent who specializes in child psychology is called in; she’s played by Lily Rabe, an excellent actor best known by TV viewers for her turn on American Horror Story. Another veteran of supernatural drama, Heroes’s Milo Ventimiglia, shows up as a man who’s forgotten who he is, but he’s covered in tattoos that provide some clues.
Based on the Ray Bradbury short story “Zero Hour,” in which aliens begin an invasion of Earth by taking over the souls of children, The Whispers was brought to television by executive producer Steven Spielberg and Under the Dome writer Soo Hugh, among others. In order to expand the short story into a series, the writers have added elements of marital strife and interoffice politics. I really wish I could go into more detail, but to tell you at any length about the opening-night episode of The Whispers would be to spoil things that become increasingly important as the series goes on.
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I will say that the more scenes there are between Rabe’s agent Claire Bennigan and her new partner, Jessup Rollins (Revolution’s Derek Webster), the better the show is. In fact, I’d watch a whole hour built around Webster, who’s got such an interesting way of playing stern and poker-faced, he’d make an excellent detective or lawyer. Get on that, ABC. As for The Whispers, it’s best whenever the Drill-chatting kids are onscreen, with young Kylie Rogers particularly skilled at being unnerving. If you don’t like children being alternately menaced or menacing, you may want to avoid The Whispers. Otherwise, give the show a shot; it just gets creepier as it goes.
The Whispers airs on Mondays at 10 p.m. on ABC.
