13 'Monster of the Week' Shows You Can Jump Into Without A Commitment
In the never-ending sea of television programmes, it can be an absolute nightmare trying to decide what to watch. New shows run the risk of being cancelled with no resolution, and long-standing series can be a daunting prospect to dive into, as playing catch-up can sometimes feel like homework.
We should all rejoice, then, for those television shows that embrace the ‘monster of the week’ or ‘standalone episode’ method of storytelling. The use of the monster of the week narrative format allows the more casual viewer to dip in and out of a programme without having to fully commit. That is not to say that these shows are devoid of depth, as several key shows within the genre also include an overarching seasonal, or show-long, story. The important aspect, though, is that a viewer could drop in for the monster of the week stories and not have to worry about catching up to speed.
Here’s a guide for some of the best monster-of-the-week TV shows that you can pop into and play, as well as where you can find them.
When the phrase, ‘monster of the week ‘is uttered, most people, especially those alive in the early ‘90s, immediately think of The X-Files. Focusing on a fictional branch of the FBI, The X-Files saw Federal agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder work together to try and solve all of the weird cases that the rest of the bureau wouldn’t touch. The show was a global phenomenon, thanks in no small part to the interplay between Mulder and Scully as the believer and sceptic.
Right from the opening episode, The X-Files instigated its show-long plot thread of alien abduction, but these elements were usually kept to only a handful of episodes each season. The rest of the time, The X-Files offered a spooky slant to the police procedural with a new case each week. Some of the best monster of the week episodes include ‘Squeeze’, ‘Ice’, ‘The Host’, and ‘Home’. Creator Chris Carter kept the format for the short-lived spinoff, Millennium.
Doctor Who is one of the longest-running examples of the monster of the week formula. In each episode, the Time Lord and their companion find themselves battling with a new problematic alien race or entity. Many of these villains take centre stage for an episode before falling into obscurity, but some, such as the Daleks and Cybermen, have returned repeatedly to try and stop the Doctor.
Even these returns are not that confusing for new viewers, and Doctor Who is even easier for the casual viewer to step into, as every few seasons the Doctor regenerates, kick-starting the cycle once more.
Although the monster of the week set-up quickly fell away, the first season of Smallville is a great example of how to do the formula right. Telling the story of Clark Kent as a teenager, before he became Superman, Smallville is must-watch viewing for fans of the superhero. Despite its plethora of Easter eggs for the Superman fans, Season 1 of Smallville followed a rinse-and-repeat pattern.
Each and every episode, hapless farm boy Clark would find himself intertwined with yet another classmate who had developed powers courtesy of a strange green rock. That rock is, of course Krytonite, the Achilles heel to Clark’s abilities. Season 1 is also worth a watch to see some familiar faces, such as Amy Adams and Lizzy Caplan, long before they were famous.
In the pilot episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ‘Welcome to the Hellmouth’, Buffy Summers arrives in Sunnydale determined to get her life on track. Unfortunately for her, she is the chosen one, a girl destined to fight vampires and, much to her horror, all manner of monsters. It turns out that Sunnydale is far from the sleepy backwater town she had hoped but a literal mouth of Hell, one that draws in every type of supernatural creature you can imagine.
Over the course of the seven-season run, Buffy battled hyenas, witches, praying mantis, and robots, and that was just in Season one. Right from Episode 1, where it introduced The Master, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was moving toward a ‘Big Bad’ of each season, but that never got in the way of a good monster of the week story.
After Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s third season had ended, the show birthed a spin-off, Angel, which took the Buffy template and replicated it, switching out Sunnydale for Los Angeles.
The ultimate monster of the week show, one free from the shackles of inserting an overarching plot, is the beloved animated series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! For most, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You is likely to have provided the first experience of monster-of-the-week programming as each episode, dog Scooby-Doo and his human companions Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne solve a ghostly mystery.
The show was heavily templated, with each episode feeling as eerily familiar as the one before, but to this day, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! hooks young audiences. Why not take a trip down memory lane and revisit some classic cartoons?
Supernatural first aired in 2005, and in addition to sharing several crew members with The X-Files, it also adopted its monster-of-the-week premise. The first season saw estranged brothers Sam and Dean Winchester reunite as they tracked down their missing father. Along the way, the pair continued the ‘family business,’ hunting and destroying all kinds of supernatural beings. As the seasons progressed, Supernatural switched up its monster of the week formula to monster of the season, with the odd side-quest episode, but those first few seasons are a treasure trove for those looking for a show to spend an hour here or there with.
That Supernatural ultimately ran for 15 seasons means that there are a ton of monsters to select from, and the bonus of having one for essentially every season, with the siblings seen vanquishing Krampus and Cupid, among many others.
Sadly, only running from 1974 to 1975, Kolchak: The Nightstalker is a pioneer of the monster-of-the-week format. Across the series, reporter Carl Kolchak was pitted against an ever-changing slew of supernatural and science-fiction-based foes.
Whilst Kolchak might have been cancelled too soon, the show has been cited by The X-Files creator Chris Carter as a direct inspiration for his show.
In Grimm, Detective Nick Burkhardt discovered that not only were the Grimm fairy tales actually the real accounts of monster hunters, but that he was a direct descendant of them. His lineage gave him the ability to see through the human mask of the supernatural Wesen. After discovering the news, it just so happens that suddenly each case that he investigates at work involves a dastardly species of Wesen.
Armed with a grimoire guide on how to kill Wesen, and aided by his work partner, Hank, as well as mild-mannered Wesen Monroe, each week he saves the day by stopping a new villain.
After seeing the success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the CW decided to create a show that could rival it. The result was Charmed, a series that followed three sisters as they navigated their newfound witchy powers. Each week, to help one of the siblings unlock a new ability or learn a valuable life lesson, came a new adversary. Except for the sometimes season-long final boss, these monsters had one turn in the sun before being added to the Halliwell sisters’ ever-growing tally of enemies vanquished.
Charmed doesn’t have the same variety of creatures as Buffy, but it is a worthy watch for fans of the vampire slayer in need of more casual supernatural carnage.
Evil is one of the most recent examples of a show that enjoyed playing around with monsters each week. Running for a total of four seasons, though some still hold out hope for a fifth, Evil followed The X-Files mould by pairing believers and sceptics together. In the show, sceptical forensic psychologist Kristen and technology contractor Ben are placed with Catholic seminarian David as they are hired by the Catholic Church to investigate potential supernatural occurrences.
Before the trio’s lives became extremely intertwined, Evil focused on a different case each episode.
