‘The Flowers of Fantastico Episode 1’ – “Tara Finds a VHS Tape” Review

When perpetually lovelorn Tara and her gay bff Gary discover a mysterious VHS Tape in a 30-year-old vending machine, they uncover a dark secret that will change their lives forever. With eternally young celebrities, crime fighting nuns, dangerous demon hit men, and cute twinky gay boys – The Flowers of Fantastico is… Fantastic!

“Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Seinfeld”. That’s how creator and closeted Creed fan, Rachel Kerry, sold me on this. It sounded dumb as hell, but clearly in the best of ways. Six minutes later, I was an enthusiastic fan of Kerry’s quirky/evil writing. As a man of style of class, I can appreciate anything that features a framed poster of the movie Blind Date. 

The opening scene of Flowers looks like a messy version (much messier) of my media collection. Arrested Development and Coven are just a couple of the DVDs strewn about Tara’s floor while the camera pans to her mesmerized face. Tara (the adorable, Victoria Longwell) has just watched a copy of the mysterious and dated, The Flowers of Fantastico, a VHS tape she found in the apartment vending machine. Based on the copy of Scary Tales on her couch, Tara and me could be nerd friends if she likes geeks of the straight variety.

Tara’s gay bff, Gary, (David Mangiamele) arrives to find her in a state of post-Fantastico arousal and grows curious about the weird film as well. Flowers might star an actress named Bette Jensen, who would have been grossly underage for a film featuring so many orgies, and the movie is also curiously absent from the internet databases. While Tara and Gary are attracted to the film like any horny geek or catty gay dude might be, it’s clear the tape is no ordinary film. The episode ends with a mysterious stranger demonstrating she doesn’t mind killing to find….The Flowers of Fantastico.

Here’s what I can tell y’all so far. Flowers has a certain, um, jene-gay-qua that sets it apart from so many serialized web series or even “legit” sitcoms. It bills itself as a “Bisexual Horror Comedy” which cracks me up on a base level. It revolves around a mysterious VHS tape, so, big retro win for Gen X kids like myself. Kerry appears to share my sense of humor that can only be described as heady, yet full of shit. The show is 1000% gay friendly, and not from some stupid prime time trendy acceptance point of view. And to seal the deal, Gary and Tara are likable, quirky characters that share characteristics of my real life friends. Sadly, even down to the hair gummy. Watch it, you’ll see what I mean.

I plan on reviewing an episode a day, starting now, and once I’m done, I promise I’ll have creator, Rachel Kerry, here to shed light on this purple-bathed web oddity. The Flowers of Fantastico caught my eye in a big way, and it’s one of those things you just love from the opening seconds. Even the end titles and credits look and sound cool, and I promise I would take this behind a middle school and get it pregnant. Five gay Satan wieners up! \m/

Watch the complete first episode below and make sure to like them on Facebook. Tell them Fister sent you for 4% off your next order of VAGINA EXPLOSION shirts.