Brand New Cherry Flavor is a weird fiction mini series but offers a lot more than deadly revenge. 

Plot

The limited series Brand New Cherry Flavor is all about Lisa Nova who is a young filmmaker and goes to L.A. to make her short experimental horror film into a feature film. She meets with Lou Burke a producer and shockingly he steels her film in a very sneaky way. Well, Lisa is not having that and teams up with a real witch called Boro to take Lou down. 

It all feels very #metoo and a straight up revenge series. On top of that this is a very weird series, with vomiting kittens, zombies, sex magic and blood magic and body horror Cronenberg style, which will only speak to a limited audience. 

But there might be more to this series than a simple revenge story that totally utterly gets out of control really quick, than it shows on the surface. What is Brand New Cherry Flavor really all about if you read between the dreamlike nightmarish lines of betrayal, sex, horror and all kinds of other crazy weird stuff?

Channel Zero season five

With Nick Antosca and Lenore Zion at the helm of this incredible original story, based on the book by Todd Grimson, and the way the story is told and filmed, you can consider Brand New Cherry Flavor as a fifth season of Channel Zero. Those who are already familiar with this anthology series of the weird and supernatural horror, know that there’s always something more going on deep under the surface. 

While the first season of Channel Zero was about childhood trauma, the second season was filled with grief and guilt. The third season showed us the trials of mental illness and schizophrenia. Finally the fourth season was about family and loyalty and betrayal. 

Each season has a rich story of new and original mythology, while the characters and their experiences are key to the story. It’s all about their actions, their journey into the weird and horror to finally discover something deep abut themselves. 

And with this “fifth season” it is not any different. While it seems to be all about revenge, it could be also more about something else. But with all the weird stuff that might even takes it too far for a mainstream audience, this overall theme can be overlooked quite easily. Let’s face it, who picks up all the subtle hints and motifs while you are watching kittens being vomited, a nasty sexual body crevice, eyeballs being plucked out and eaten and other weirdness. 

Continue reading below this announcement.

Lisa Nova

Lets start with the main character. Lisa Nova is a young woman who takes her chances in L.A. with a good short film ready to take over Hollywood. Maybe that’s a little naive, almost nobody starts at the top, but that doesn’t mean she has to take Lou’s dirty advances and him stealing her movie. 

But Lisa herself isn’t a sweet little girl either. We soon learn that she left her actress alone in the woods after something terrible had happened and we only find out much later what that terrible thing was. Mary, the actress, clawed out her eye and ate it, while Lisa filmed it and used it. She’s no better than Lou, taking advantage of somebody else. But in her defense they were both high on peyote on the insistence of Mary herself. Because she wanted to know the real Lisa. She wanted her walls taken down and she wanted to know who Lisa really was. 

And therein lies the key to the theme of this story and is a big motif that turns up with almost every character that crosses paths with Lisa. They all want to know: who is Lisa? 

Lisa is depicted as an amoral and selfish woman who wants what’s only important to her at any cost. She might start out as an unlikeable person, but it’s also a necessary plot line. Because this story isn’t just about revenge but also about the journey of self discovery. About finding out who you are, your real identity. 

A journey of self discovery

Any journey of self discovery is a selfish one. People get hurt along the way. It can be painful and confronting, acknowledging you might not be the hero in your own story. Especially after childhood trauma. Lisa’s mother left her before she even saw her face. Her whole life Lisa wondered why her mother had left her and probably blames herself. It’s still an open wound that didn’t heal with time. It’s also why she can’t establish her own identity. Although many people ask her who she really is.

When Lisa meets with Lou he wants to know her. He wants to know what makes her set apart from all the other young directors and writers Everybody has his/her own unique story but all Lisa can come up with are some cliches. Until later when she opens up to him and tells him her story about her mother and that she made the film for her. Knowing that if her mother ever saw that movie she would know it was from Lisa. So in a way that short film “Lucy’s Eye” is who Lisa is. 

When Lisa meets Boro and wants to make use of her services to get revenge on Lou, Boro wants what’s inside of her. Symbolized by the kittens, Lisa has to give up pieces of herself that are deep inside of her.

When Lisa is making the short film with Mary, she’s asked by Mary to open up. Mary even wants to take peyote together to get to know the real Lisa. 

And even Code asks Lisa‚ when things have spiraled way out of control, if she has always been like this.

Nobody seems to really know Lisa and Lisa is very reluctant to open up. Probably because she doesn’t know who she is herself. In this journey in L.A. full of weirdness and stuff of nightmares she finds out a little bit more of her mother and her supernatural lineage. And that she might be connected to Boro. In a way this story can be seen as a journey to figure out who she is, full of symbolism and horrors. 

Lucy’s Eye

Let’s talk about the short film “Lucy’s Eye”. While Lisa has been using Mary and her money to make her film it also tells us more about the theme of the story. It’s a message for her mother. It’s Lisa’s identity and it also shows Mary who Lisa is deep inside. 

When they both have taken peyote and all the other crew has left, they film the final and crucial scene. That scene is also a motif that becomes more clear at the end of the story. Under the influence of peyote that also opens you up to other realms, Mary sees Lisa as a monster behind the camera. She has a monstrous face, it’s her supernatural side and this image is so terrible. Mary can’t handle the truth even though she asked for it, and she claws out her own eye and eats it. She consumes the truth whole and forgets. So does Lisa. They get lost and separated from each other and Mary blames Lisa for leaving her behind and wants to take revenge on her. 

The ending: revenge isn’t everything

Lisa went to L.A. with a childhood trauma, an unknown supernatural lineage and was unknowingly called by Boro who wanted to use her. It was a road full of betrayal, hurt, death, but also making new friends and a lover. She came to L.A. to finalize her dream to become a director and that her film is the key to that. It was a key but it opened up another door entirely. She realizes that she is not her film and that this film isn’t the end goal, but opened up a beginning of her journey to find out who she really is. 

When she finally gets her movie back and even gets to direct it, she realizes Alvin won’t be no better than Lou. She also found out the hard way that it has cost her too much and that all the lives of her friends are lost. She even realizes that revenge isn’t everything. She decides to not let Lou die and that he has suffered enough as she has suffered enough. They both were so caught up in their revenge that they destroyed more lives of others and in the end there will only be losers. Blinded by getting what they wanted at any cost they saw too late what it had cost them. 

Although this was at some times very funny, brutal and even very sad and shocking,  it showed that revenge itself is a waste of time. It did however give us and Lisa the necessary clues and insights of what really is important in life. Revenge was her way to go on a journey of self discovery. A journey that at the end of the line seems to only just begin. 

Instead of going through with her film that is now tainted with the blood of those she loved, she goes off to Brazil to find out more about her mother‚ her supernatural lineage and her roots. While Boro, who now lives in the body of Mary, will always be right behind her.