Tales from the Darkside: Ring Around the Redhead starts as convicted murderer Billy Malone (John Heard) is about to be led to the electric chair, before he is though a journalist named Adele (Caris Corfman) is allowed to interview him. Billy denies the charge of murder & tells Adele a fantastic story about a large metal ring which transported an alien shaped woman named Keena (Penelope Miller) into his basement, after teaching her English within two days Billy's problems really started as his friend Jimbo (Greg Thornton) steals the magical ring...
Episode 3 from season 2 this Tales from the Darkside story originally aired in the US during October 1985, the second of three Tales from the Darkside episodes to be directed by Theodore Gershuny I have to say I personally thought Ring Around the Redhead was total crap. It's almost as if someone came up with this bizarre outline for a story & decided to turn it into a 20 minute TV program without any regard for the poor audience who has to sit through it, the story is just weird & if you like strange stories which make no sense & don't work on any sort of narrative level then Ring Aroiund the Redhead may be the TV program you've been waiting for your whole life. If, however, like me you like your stories to have a purpose & actually tell an entertaining tale then Ring Around the Redhead isn't for you at all. There's no twist at the end, it's predictable, it makes no sense, it's just bizarre & I really can't see what anyone would get out of it.
I thought Tales from the Darkside as a series focused on horror anthology type material, a sort of forerunner to the excellent Tales from the Crypt (1989 - 1996) but it doesn't have that show's dark humour, it's twists, it's gore or it's horror content. Again I was left asking myself just who Ring Around the Redhead was meant to appeal to, it's some sort of horrible lighthearted Disney type fantasy with no horror elements at all, no bite & no substance. This was Penelope Miller's screen debut & has gone on to appear in many films & TV show's since.
Ring Around the Redhead perplexes me as a viewer, it did nothing for me & I just can't see why anyone would enjoy it. It doesn't really do anything & I struggle to see why anyone would like it & even at a brisk 20 odd minutes in length it still bored me.