Inside TV and Pop Culture with Liane Bonin Starr

Quick Look: Discovery Channel's 'Oddities' isn't really as strange as it appears

It may be a little shop of horrors, but the drama is decidedly low key

By Liane Bonin Starr Friday, Jun 17, 2011 5:42 PM

Evan Michelson and guest on Discovery Channel's "Oddities"

Evan Michelson and a guest visiting Obscura to sell her toenail art chat on the Discovery Channel's "Oddities."

Credit: Discovery Channel/Matt Klypka

So, remember how I said last week that I’d be taking a look at some of the shows readers suggested? Well, I wasn’t kidding, and this week I’m taking a Quick Look at the Discovery Channel show “Oddities " (Thursdays, 10:30 p.m. EST) thanks to one of those wonderful suggestions. I’d love to give credit where credit is due, but the problem is that the post has been accidentally sucked into the blogosphere (read: deleted). So, if you’re that helpful person, please stand up and take a bow (and reveal yourself in the comments; I’ll plug your name in as soon as I get it). And yes, bow, because “Oddities” is, in my semi-professional opinion, a little bit awesome.

With reality shows being tossed to every hoarder, chalk eater, tattoo artist and octomom in America, it’s hard to believe the Manhattan shop Obscura Antiques and Oddities only recently got the nod. Maybe the store’s brand of freakiness is just too low-key for viewers used to stripper catfights and drunken D-list celebrities. Co-owners Mike Zohn and Evan Michelson — and buyer Ryan Matthew — politely greet every weirdo who walks through their door, whether it’s a guy unloading his Fiji mermaid (in this case, a sewn-together monkey skeleton/alligator hybrid), a woman selling toenail art (yes, toenail art) or an elderly toothless contortionist. There’s no behind-the-scenes squabbling, Negotiations to buy and sell are bloodless and friendly. There's no high emotional drama. And, oddly enough, I’m not sure I would want any anyway. This is the Discovery Channel, after all.

There’s also very little effort to convince us that the motley crew of visitors just happened to wander in off the street, and the drama seems equally staged. But who cares? Though Zohn, Michelsohn and Matthew could easily pass for pencil pushers with their placid demeanors, they provide a soothing balance to the store’s collection of mummified heads, taxidermy and antique syringes as well as straight men to the shop’s quirky visitors.

What the trio really excels at is lovingly educating us about the strange, sometimes macabre stuff they collect. They discuss the intricacies of an antique clubfoot boot or a diseased human brain slice the way other people might moon over a coin collection. It’s weirdly charming and makes the ick factor of much of what we see disappear. Even if you don’t have the stomach to walk into Obscura (or similar stores like Necromance in Los Angeles or Gold Bug in Pasadena), shows like this one are an easily digestible way for newbies to explore their dark sides and aficionados to see what other weird and wonderful stuff is out there. Consider it the home shopping network program for animal skull collectors.

As a reality show, this hews closer to something like “Antiques Roadshow” than “Celebrity Rehab.” It’s the stuff, not emotional drama, that counts, and some stuff it is. While yes, there are curiosities that are simply gross (animal skins), much of it harkens back to the way life was lived at the turn of the twentieth century. We get bite-sized history lessons along with our skulls and toenail clippings, and, just as the store itself appeals to a very specific audience, so will the show. But if you've ever wondered at the intricacies of an otherwise icky item, you just might be quietly (very quietly) delighted with this odd little show.

And by the way -- can't wait for the episode in which "Big Love" star Chloe Sevigny comes in looking for baby coffins. Just saying.

Liane Bonin Starr
Sr. Editor

Liane Bonin Starr is an author, screenwriter and former writer for EW.com. Her byline has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Variety and a lot of other places. Her last book was called "a scandalously catty, guilty pleasure" by Jane magazine. Expect the same from Starr Raving.

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Ben

"Thereâ€™s also very little effort to convince us that the motley crew of visitors just happened to wander in off the street, and the drama seems equally staged." ---- I didn't sense any of this at all. Not sure where you got the staged drama stuff from. With all that being said, it's an awesome show that I've been watching enthusiastically since the very beginning. BTW, the Chloe episode was great, as is she.
June 18, 2011 at 12:21AM EST Reply to Comment
- Bree Really? you cant tell the customers are fake. The stuff they have in the store is very interesting but really its a freaking reality show. In every reality show there is something that is staged. You cant have that much stuff happen on a daily basis. Especially the stuff with the kid with the green shirt. That is all staged to take up some time in the show. reality shows need something to draw in an audience, so there has to be something staged to keep their interests. Also why the hell do they wear the same clothes every show.
  November 17, 2012 at 3:10AM EST