Inside HBO's Room 104, the Show That Wants to Be "the Tinder of Television"

HBO has a new series that takes a stab at the anthology storytelling format, from the minds of brothers Mark and Jay Duplass (recently of HBO's gone-too-soon Togetherness), and it's coming soon: July 28. It's called Room 104, and here's why you should tune in.

A whole lot of people, since it's an anthology show. The bigger names include James Van Der Beek, Mae Whitman, Nat Wolff, Philip Baker Hall, Sarah Hay, Orlando Jones, Amy Landecker, and the Duplass brothers themselves.

In a tradition established by shows like The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Darkside, and Black Mirror, Room 104 tells unrelated stories that run the gamut from scary to funny to poignant. All the stories share the running thread of taking place inside a nondescript hotel room that could have come out of any number of budget hotel chains like Super 8 or Motel 6.

The story subjects include creepy children, a married couple having problems, a mother and son communicating over the phone, two MMA fighters sparring with each other, and a woman working out her issues through dance.

If it sounds weird, that's kind of the point. Creator Mark Duplass told the 2017 Summer TCA press tour audience that "it's great for us to be able to get weird and have HBO give us money to do it." He added that HBO executives basically said, "'We need to figure out what our next Game of Thrones is gonna be, so you go ahead and make your weird little show as long as you make it cheap.' And that's what we did."

Six episodes were made available to critics. Two, "Ralphie" and "The Knockadoo," are straight out of The Twilight Zone. "Ralphie" is about a babysitter hired to watch a child whose possible evil twin is hiding in the bathroom of the hotel room, while "The Knockadoo" is about a woman trying to escape a cult. They both nicely build the tension, though "The Knockadoo" is stronger in that regard and also has a better payoff.

For people not looking for scares, "The Internet" and "Voyeurs" are excellent offerings. "The Internet," set in 1997, is a sweet story about a son trying to walk his technology-inept mother through the steps of sending him a file via email, while "Voyeurs" is a dialogue-free dance wherein the housekeeper learns about the lives of the room's occupants as she cleans.

Essentially, there's a little something for everyone, so if you don't like one episode, check out the next one. That's what got the Duplass brothers excited about this project. "In the era of peak television, where you guys have so much sh*t to watch . . . we want Room 104 to be your casual dating experience," Mark said. "You pop in, watch one episode, have some sex with that episode, and then you don't even have to come back for more episodes." "We're the Tinder of television," Jay cracked.

Fridays at 11:30 p.m. on HBO starting July 28.