History Series / NightStalker

''Night Stalker'' is a short-lived 2005 [[TheRemake remake]] of ''Series/KolchakTheNightStalker''. Due to rights issues, the series was technically not an adaptation of the series itself, but the two television films that preceded it, ''Film/TheNightStalker'' and ''Film/TheNightStrangler'', and was unable to use characters introduced in the series, forcing it to use original characters in place of simply adapting the series’s original cast. The series was created by ''Series/TheXFiles'' alumni Frank Spotnitz, and had several ''X-Files'' writers as part of its writing team.

The series was panned by fans and critics for failing to recapture the original series’s charm, tension, or quality, and generally being a bland rip-off of ''Series/TheXFiles'' with no identity of its own. The series also received extensive meddling from executives who didn’t want any monsters in the show, didn’t promote it at all, and aired it at 9 PM on Thursday. All these factors resulted in the series being quietly cancelled after only six episodes aired; the remaining episodes were released on [=iTunes=] and on various streaming websites, including Creator/{{ABC}}'s own website.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness: The series was criticized for casting the young and handsome Stuart Townshend as Kolchak, as part of the original series’s charm was that Kolchak was not particularly handsome, which helped make him feel more relatable and like an average joe, adding to the original series’s charm.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: WordOfGod is that Kolchak’s character arc was supposed to reveal that he may actually be one of the monsters he fights.

* DeadAllAlong: [[spoiler:Detective Mitchell]] in "The Five People You Meet In Hell" [[spoiler:turns out to have died several months ago; the Mitchell we saw was one of Caylor’s illusions, sent to brainwash Detective Granof into killing his wife.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Vincenzo, Kolchak, and Reed, though Kolchak isn’t as snarky as he was in the original series.
* DisabilitySuperpower: It’s implied Damon Caylor always had psychic powers, but being scarred and blinded during an attempt on his life by fellow prisoners somehow amplified these powers.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Throughout "The Five People You Meet In Hell", Detective Granof is the only person to interact with Detective Mitchell. This is because [[spoiler:Mitchell is dead, and the Mitchell we’ve been seeing is an illusion conjured up by Damon Caylor.]]

* JackTheRipoff: "The Burning Man" is about a copycat of the titular serial killer going on the loose years after the original’s death, and Kolchak suspects that the copycat is actually the real deal back from the dead. [[spoiler:He turns out to be wrong; it’s actually the FBI agent who hunted the killer, having suffered from a case of HeWhoFightsMonsters.]]
* MindRape: Damon Caylor’s M.O. He uses his psychic powers to get inside people’s heads and see what they love, and slowly condition them to do whatever he tells them.

* NeverMyFault: In "The Five People You Meet In Hell" imprisoned cult leader Damon Caylor blames the people who got him convicted for killing his wife for her death. The reason he killed her was because she had been convinced by them to testify against him while he was being tried for another crime, convincing his followers to ''decapitate a guy'', and he claims it wasn’t his fault because they "turned her against me."
* VigilanteExecution: [[spoiler:At the end of "The Five People You Meet In Hell", the authorities lock Damon Caylor in a room with several other prisoners, all of whom hate his guts, well aware they will likely kill him. They do.]]

Carl Kolchak (Stuart Townsend) is here depicted as an investigative reporter whose reputation was shattered when his wife was killed by a supernatural entity, and he was blamed in spite of his protests, and committed to a mental asylum. After being released, he moved to Los Angeles and joined ''The LA Beacon'', a local newspaper. Kolchak now investigates supernatural phenomena, hoping to piece it together and figure out who killed his wife. The rest of the main cast consists of his coworkers; his boss [[DaEditor Tony Vincenzo]] (Cotter Smith); [[AgentScully Perri Reed]] (Creator/GabrielleUnion), the skeptical head crime reporter who develops an OddFriendship with Kolchak; and Jain [=McManus=] (Eric Junggman), an open-minded photographer.

The series was panned by fans and critics for failing to recapture the original series’s charm, tension, or quality, and generally being a bland rip-off of ''Series/TheXFiles'' with no identity of its own. The series also received extensive meddling from executives who didn’t want any monsters in the show, didn’t promote it at all, and aired it at 9 PM on Thursday. All these factors resulted in the series being quietly cancelled after only six episodes aired; the remaining episodes were released on [=iTunes=] and on various streaming websites, including Creator/{{ABC}}.

The series was panned by fans and critics for failing to recapture the original series’s charm, tension, or quality, and generally being a bland rip-off of ''Series/TheXFiles'' with no identity of its own. The series also received extensive meddling from executives who didn’t want any monsters in the show, didn’t promote it at all, and aired it at 9 PM on Thursday. All these factors resulted in the series being quietly cancelled after only six episodes aired; the remaining episodes were released on [=iTunes=].

* VigilanteExecution: [[spoiler:At the end of "The Five People You Meet In Hell", the authorities have several prisoners stab Damon Caylor to death.]]

* NeverMyFault: In "The Five People You Meet In Hell" imprisoned cult leader Damon Caylor blames the people who got him convicted for killing his wife for her death. The reason he killed her was because she had been convinced by them to testify against him while he was being tried for another crime, convincing his followers to ''decapitate a guy'', and he claims it wasn’t his fault because they "turned her against me."

!!This series provides examples of the following tropes: