Quibi's 'When the Streetlights Go On' proves bite-sized drama can be satisfying
Combing through Quibi’s catalogue, I was certain no “quick bite” drama would suck me in.
I’d seen a few already. Survive lacked depth. Most Dangerous Game was fun but hokey. The idea of really caring about anything boiled down to 10-minute-or-less “movies in chapters” seemed far-fetched — the hard limit to a service better suited for comedies, docuseries, and reality shows. Even if I did start to get invested, I was positive the condensed format would move the story along too quickly for me to stay that way.
Then, Rebecca Thomas’s When the Streetlights Go On proved me very, very wrong. Landing somewhere between Twin Peaks and Stranger Things, the fallout from the murders of popular girl Chrissy Monroe (Kristine Froseth) and her English teacher Mr. Carpenter (Mark Duplass) is a jarring spectacle that could be suited to any service.
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The cinematography is stunning, the casting perfection, and the story unshakably haunting. If it weren’t chopped into eight-minute portions, I could easily see the series served up on Netflix or HBO and maybe even shown in theaters. I and other critics have only seen the first three episodes — so a whopping 26 minutes — but I’m hooked and recommending it with reckless abandon. Even if coming to the end of the third episode left me unfathomably jittery.
It’s a nauseating spectacle, and among the more successful bait-and-switches I’ve seen.
Set in small town Illinois in 1995, When the Streetlights Go On opens on protagonist Charlie Chambers (IT’s Chosen Jacobs) biking through the hot summer streets. His adult self (voiced by Nnamdi Asomugha) narrates his suburban neighborhood’s descent into communal agony that summer as an accidental drowning, inexplicable fire, and the aforementioned murders shook parents and children to their cores.
We soon meet Chrissy and her sister Becky (Sophie Thatcher), at odds over a bottle of perfume. Chrissy is on her way out, telling her parents she has plans to study at the library. Instead, we see her get in the car with her much older teacher. The two kiss and gleefully discuss his plans to leave his wife. It’s a nauseating spectacle — and among the more successful bait-and-switches I’ve seen.
Rather than watching the entirety of the two’s seemingly toxic dynamic unfold, we’re forced to sit helplessly as a masked stranger enters the car and strong arms the pair into the woods. A brief but perverse psychosexual game unfolds, and the two are left half-naked and executed along a bike path. Charlie finds their bodies.
This series gives me immense hope for a format I’d previously dubbed dead on arrival.
Using meticulous, Tetris-like dialogue, When the Streetlights Go On introduces all of this information in a little over eight minutes. Desperate to know what came next, I immediately watched the following two installments in which we learn more about Charlie, Becky, Chrissy, and Mr. Thatcher, as well as journalism teacher Mr. Bouque (Tony Hale), Chrissy’s boyfriend Brad (Ben Ahlers), and Detective Grasso (Queen Latifah). With so little to judge, it’s hard to say whether any one of these performers is a standout. Still, the ensemble being built has me intrigued and excited.
I was pleasantly surprised by how much gratification I could receive out of so little content. My fear that I would be irritated by having to hit “Next” every eight minutes was replaced with the satisfying thrill of wanting more story. When the Streetlights Go On gives me immense hope for a format I’d previously dubbed dead on arrival.
Of course, whether this particular series will stick the landing is something I’ll only be able to assess after having seen all ten episodes. But from what I do know, it appears bite-sized dramas can indeed be elite.
When the Streetlights Go On is now streaming on Quibi.
