‘Teacup’ Review: Peacock’s Supernatural Thriller Would Have Made One Heck of a Movie

I tore through “Teacup” in two days.

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The Peacock thriller based on Robert McCammon’s “Stinger” premieres on October 11 and will continue in two-episodes installments, but the wait between them is agonizing. “Teacup” takes place over the course of one harrowing night and day amid a major supernatural threat — the kind of premise and pacing that would’ve made a killer feature along the lines of “Cloverfield” or “Attack the Block.” Ian McCulloch serves as showrunner and executive producer along with McCammon, James Wan, and more.

Alas, “Peacock” debuts in the era of streaming, the era in which a novel’s TV adaptation veers toward audiobook in terms of run time. This is the era of “We’re not making a TV show, we’re making a multi-part movie” (to its credit, the average “Teacup” episode is closer to 30 minutes than to 60 or even 45), and for a story like “Teacup” that just crushes the momentum.

That story begins on a day like any other at the Long Lane Animal Clinic in Georgia, where Maggie (Yvonne Strahovski) and her outwardly perfect family live and tend to livestock. The animals are anxious — but that’s nothing compared to the people, specifically a bloodied figuring wandering the woods and muttering “Murder maker.” After vanishing in those same woods for a few hours, Maggie’s son Arlo (Caleb Dolden) emerges acting strangely, shouting at them to run and hide. The two-part premiere also introduces a blue line painted around the property, and culminates with the top-notch body horror moment of what happens if someone crosses it.

So that’s week 1, and Episode 2’s ending is certainly adequate to keep viewers coming back for at least another week. “Teacup” is good at doling out developments and stretching tension, but with little to puncture it so the tone is perpetually fraught. That’s fine for a two-hour movie; trickier for a six-hour binge; and totally manageable in weekly installments — but only if the audience sticks with it. The supernatural threat is simple and compelling, made immediate through those splashes of blood and moments that are deliberately lit, framed, filmed, and edited like a classic horror movie; but in between those there is clunky dialogue and almost nonexistent character work. Everyone knows each other but their minimal history is relegated entirely to exposition. The main personal detail among the entire ensemble is an extramarital affair between two people who don’t speak for most of the season, and a tentative teen romance between Meryl (Emilie Bierre) and Nicholas (Luciano Leroux), which actually works but is rarely allowed screen time.

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The cast soldiers through, Strahovski so in command of her character that not only did I instantly shed her “Handmaid’s Tale” persona, but I pretty much forgot that “The Handmaid’s Tale” exists (Season 6 in spring 2025!). Others do their best with limited material, including Scott Speedman, Chaske Spencer, Rob Morgan, and Boris McGiver. Dolden is appropriately haunting, while Kathy Baker gets a nice action scene, and Jackson Kelly leaves one of the strongest impressions as young local investigating what’s happening, even if his backstory is largely separate from the rest.

For a viewing audience increasingly prone to saving even weekly releases for a binge, “Teacup” will scratch the right itch — in November, after all eight episodes are out. Week to week, the series is as much at war with the foibles of its format as with the mysterious force attacking its characters. If underwritten characters and suspense alone can sustain the series, then more power to it.

Grade: C+

The first two episodes of “Teacup” are now streaming on Peacock, with two more each Thursday in October.