A man named Lewis Vendredi (R.G. Armstrong) owned the shop. He knew quite well what the objects could do. When he dies, his niece, Micki Foster (Louise Robey) and nephew, Ryan Dallion (John D. LeMay) inherit the shop, not because he left it to them, but from probate. These two cousins aren't close. They're quite distant cousins, related by marriage only, who in fact have never even met each other, and they definitely don't get along on first meeting. Not knowing about the curses, they decided to sell all the objects and split the money.
Just when they have nearly emptied the shop of such items as: a doll that can kill, a cupid statue that can make anyone fall in love with you, an evil midget, a haunted wood chipper that turns people into money (seriously), even a cursed comic book, an old friend of their Uncle's, Jack Marshak (Chris Wiggins), shows up. He doesn't know the specifics of the curses, but throughout guesswork and their late Uncle's records, the three of them figure out that all the items they just sold could be killing people. They decide that their only course of action is to reopen the shop, sell normal antiques, and try to get back all the cursed items before they do any more harm. Micki's fiancé, Lloyd (Barclay Hope), of course hates the plan. He wants Micki to come home and continue their wedding plans right away. Will she decide to leave Jack and Ryan to handle it all by themselves, or will she give up her plans to continue the object hunt? You'll just have to watch to find out.
One of the things I really like about Friday the 13th the Series is that you can watch them in pretty much any order you want. There are only the three main characters to keep up with, and since almost every episode is only about one object and the objects aren't tied to each other, they're pretty much all one-off episodes. So you can just pick up any disc, pick any episode, and enjoy it without worrying that you're missing something from a previous episode.
If you're looking for a show with state of the art special effects and perfect sounds, you probably won't enjoy Friday the 13th the Series. The quality looks like it was from the 80's, without any digital remastering. The commercial breaks are obvious, which was typical of shows from the time. The sound isn't even in stereo. But even given all this, I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the episodes again, so much so that I watched all 26 in a very few days. If I wasn't reviewing it, I doubt I would have even noticed the technical shortcomings, because they really don't detract from the entertainment.
Friday the 13th the Series was a very well written show. The characters are wonderful to watch and the storylines are quite engaging. To me it seems like a precursor to The X-Files or any of the more modern supernatural shows. If you've never seen it before, you should go pick it up today! If you're like me and watched them all 20 years ago, definitely go get Friday the 13th the Series: Season One. It will be a wonderful blast from the past, especially the hair styles and clothing. I'll bet you wanted to forget some of those!
