Last season, Showtime’s MASTERS OF HORROR took viewers on an exciting, thrilling ride which left fans of the genre begging for more. But this season’s crop of sub-par episodes have proven that sometimes, we should be careful what we ask for. With the recently concluded second season, not a single one of this season’s offerings have come even close to matching the giddy joy fright fans got from freshman offerings like the haunting “Cigarette Burns” or the political satire “Homecoming.” Instead, sophomore episodes seemed to focus on either gore-for-gore’s sake (“Pelts”) or one-note plots (“Sounds Like” and “The Damned Thing”). Bright spots — such as the creepy “Family” (starring CHEERS vet George Wendt as a lonely taxidermist — were few and far between. With horror movies being all the rage on the big screen, it was inevitable that networks would try and cash in on the trend. But Showtime may soon learn what the makers of such theatrical bombs as Pulse and Black Christmas did: If you want to scare up an audience, you have to have more than a catchy title. Hopefully, when season 3 of MASTERS rolls around, they’ll go back to the drawing board. 
