The Tale of the Chameleons Recap & Review - The Midnight Society

On this episode of The Midnight Society, I look back at season 5, episode 10 of "Are You Afraid of the Dark?": The Tale of the Chameleons. Betty Ann tells a story about who gets bitten by a mysterious lizard at a pet store only to find out that lizard wants to take over her life.
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[@racheljackson4428]

The Kid in the pet shop being a chameleon might be a Plausible theory.

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

It's so funny that you phrased it like that. I have been binge watching all the old seasons of Mythbusters over the past couple of weeks on Max.

[@CosmicPsycho13]

I never really considered it until he mentioned it because my neuro-spicy brain forgot him as soon as he left the screen.

[@courtneykleiner9666]

It does make a lot of sense

[@MoragOctober]

I believe this is Tamera Mowry as she has a small mole on her cheek, which Tia does not. For the show Sister Sister they would routinely draw a similar mole on Tia's cheek so that they could look more identical. I used to be a part of their official fan club when I was a kid XD EDIT: It looks like maybe they had both twins acting in this after all in order to easily achieve the 'double' effect? Though I'm sure this same episode could have been filmed with one actor and a few basic camera effects EDIT2: I really should have waited til the end of the episode before commenting lol. Great episode :)

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

I never got in on the whole fan club craze. Was there any benefit of being in one or was it just a way of showing tv networks how popular a show was? Yeah, Tia is listed as Janice in the credits of the episode itself and, on IMDB in the trivia section, it states that Tia did most of the acting with Tamera only being there when the two were on screen together.

[@MoragOctober]

@@JackOfAllNerdsShow I remember the fan club being mentioned on Nickelodeon and we were given an address where we could send a stamped addressed envelope to sign up (lol imagine). And what I got back was a "signed" postcard (printed signatures) which had a nice photo of the two of them with a fairly generic message. I'm not really sure if there was more to the fan club than that, like activities or whatever, but at the time I was young enough that getting a "signed" postcard was pretty thrilling and I was happy with it.

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

@@MoragOctober Yeah, at that age, getting a signed postcard would be very exciting. I remember in elementary school our teacher had the class write a letter to an author that we picked (we chose Stephen King) and she got a reply letter that she read to the class. Now, she could've faked the letter or, if it was real, it was probably a pre-written response letter done by a publicist or someone not Stephen King, but we didn't care. We were over the moon!

[@FrazFlub-n1p]

Still better than most of season 6.

[@Headbanger142]

There were a few good episodes in 6 and 7 but it felt very nerfed.

[@FrazFlub-n1p]

@@Headbanger142 true

[@FrazFlub-n1p]

I wonder how those chameleons are able to breathe in that box.

[@michaelperez9966]

Maybe “I’m feeling creative, let’s get planting” is a marijuana reference.

[@tainted_lord87]

So Janice's parents were drug dealers? Well, that explains how weird they were in the episode.

[@michaelperez9966]

@@tainted_lord87 Not necessarily dealers, just potheads.

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

@@tainted_lord87Taking marijuana makes them potheads, and if you want to be technical, if you rely upon pharma drugs - by definition, that makes you a pharma drug addict.

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

@@michaelperez9966 they did have a hippie vibe to them.

[@racheljackson4428]

Depends on how you interpreted.

[@curtisberard7831]

Like the patch. Wish I had something cool looking like that after my eye surgery.

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

$40 on Etsy. www.etsy.com/listing/1531212751/eye-patch-dragon-eye-patch-dragon-larp?ref=yr_purchases

[@larrylegend574]

I have throughly enjoyed this entire review series man. I’m subscribing

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

Thank you!

[@Headbanger142]

Also I always used to hide my eyes when she did the eye effect so I never noticed that fake looking chameleon lol

[@Headbanger142]

Next to the Olsen Twins, the Mowry Sisters were all over the place in the 90s. Also that was Jill from Tale of the Final Wish? Didn't recognize her at first.

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

Yeah, it had been three years since Final Wish. She was a great choice because she held her own against the acting power of Sister, Sister.

[@FrazFlub-n1p]

Sharon and Janice are the only ones that act normal.

[@melissaroszkowski8911]

I didn't catch on to the kid being a "chameleon" I hope we're wrong and most first time watchers missed it too. This episode can't even be streamed on Prime

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

I've heard that a lot of episodes are missing on the streaming services that have them. It's really weird.

[@FrazFlub-n1p]

Tamera was also bad on "Sister Sister". She was a troublemaker. Such as that episode where she lied to her dad and Lisa about their car.

[@Steveman27]

The ending seemed kind of dark there since it looked like the villain won. Usually AYAOTD episodes seem to have good endings. This one reminded me of American Horror Story where it was implied that the aliens won and took over the world.

[@tainted_lord87]

Another solid review! As for the episode itself; it's your typical doppelganger episode for me. It's not horrible but it didn't wow me. It's like whatever. It felt like it recycled cliches from other similar premises when it comes to the doppelganger idea. But I must say; your review of it made me want to re-watch it again and see if it'll win me over. However, it still annoys me that the production crew couldn't get actual chameleons for the episode. It really took me out of it when your episode title is completely misleading.

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

Yeah, I think they went with the water dragons because they are a faster moving (not mention, more threatening looking) lizard, but at that point just change the name of the tale. I think people know less about a lot of other lizard species than I do about chameleons. You could've made up anything you wanted at that point. And you still could've easily gotten away with the body snatcher angle, using the idea of lizards shedding their skins. Maybe that is how they look like other people. Shed their skin and the new form is underneath. I'm not entirely sure how they would've done that effect on a budget, but they probably could've gotten away with not showing it if they just had some large fake lizard skin.

[@FrazFlub-n1p]

The reason why Janice is wearing the same dress, is because that's what The Chameleon was wearing when Janice double bit her.

[@FrazFlub-n1p]

I didn't know that nurse was Mrs. Robinson!

[@FrazFlub-n1p]

I'd like to think Janice climbed into the bucket.

[@EmilyGloeggler7984]

“The Tale of the Water Dragons” would have been a both an apt and cool title but sadly they didn’t go with it. I agree that if you are going to show chameleons, use real chameleons and adjust the story to the real life facts somewhat accordingly. I don’t mind the one bad prop/fake lizard - given she’s holding it in a choke hold, and that would be abusive to a real life animal, it’s best they used that. I do also agree though that the acting of the kids was fantastic and the parent actors did the best what they could with what they were given and yes the Dad’s behavior raises a lot of questions. It’s one of those episodes with a bad ending, although it lacks the punch of the earlier bad ending episodes. Although with that said, as with all of the bad endings, I’d like to think Janice eventually was able to crawl out of the well and got back inside and bit the chameleon back and changed back and then had the rest of the chameleons killed. It’s basically a kid version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” but with a slightly less darker ending. The next episode is IMHO a good morality tale, although it could have been a bit more refined. Until then.

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

Haha, yeah it is one of the darker endings where I was actually rooting for the real Janice. I think typically when they do the darker endings I either didn't like the main character or just didn't care that much about them, but Tia and Samantha's acting was so good that I was really invested in them saving Janice from the chameleon.

[@courtneykleiner9666]

I have always wondered this, why didn’t she spray them both with the hose? Since her friend turned, I’m thinking the chameleon would have also turned. And since at some point the chameleon has to shower she will turn right? Of course then they would have a missing child. Also, it just occurred to me I wonder if this was based on the conspiracy theory that there are lizard people among us.

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

Yeah, it is definitely a body snatchers type story that plays into the lizard people conspiracy.

[@FrazFlub-n1p]

I gave The Chameleon a name: Janette.

[@robroush2142]

AYAOTD's version of The Body Snatchers. Love Tia and Tamera, though I was not a big fan of this episode, otherwise. Great review and great video, Mike. I hope you, and/or your "chameleon" double, keep up the great work! #90s

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

Thanks, we will try!

[@SpyderXTX]

What is going on with the eye patch?

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

I'm missing my right eye so sometimes I break out the eye patch instead of the prosthetic.

[@francisalbert7145]

Def an iguana.....

[@JackOfAllNerdsShow]

According to IMDB and the episode Wiki, they used Chinese Water Dragons as their Chameleons for the episode.