Check into HBO’s Room 104 … if you dare

Checking into the motel setting of Room 104 (2017-current; Seasons 1-4 are available first and only on Showmax) is like travelling to your darkest nightmare. Once the door shuts, the demons start creeping out from under the bed and the characters face their biggest fears – and some are deadly!

Unlike most series that follow a main cast, Room 104 welcomes new guests in every episode and show creators Mark and Jay Duplass warn that “this isn’t your average motel show. Everyone has seen or heard a story set in a motel where creepy things happen. We’ve been fascinated for years by funny, weird and obscure stories in chain hotels near the airports that no one ever talks about. We got to visualise them with Room 104 and bring nightmares to life.”

Room 104 is all over the map

Creating an anthology collection of stories in one series has always been on the cards for Mark and Jay, and they kept Room 104 on the back-burner until “the right channel” came along. “Our agents were like, ‘You can’t make this show! People don’t watch anthology shows that much. Nobody’s going to buy this’.” Anthologies usually change casts and stories after a season, but Room 104 changes it every episode and keeps viewers on their feet. “Are the characters stuck in a dream or living their worst nightmares?” tease the creators. “The plan was to be a little all over the map, a genre-less show. And that’s why we have gone with wildly unusual stories,” adds Mark.

A new mind-game in every episode

But isn’t creating 12 mini stories difficult for the 12 episodes? Mark and Jay have a simple formula: “We start with the main character and work from there – we let our instincts guide us. That’s how we made art when we were 15. That’s so fun to us. When we write an episode of Room 104, we let the character dictate the events and conflict.” Different characters and storylines in each instalment afford viewers the opportunity to tap into diverse issues, the mental or physical anguish that the characters go through. And if you’re not feeling a specific episode, you can skip it on the Showmax catalogue and not miss out since the next episode will be an entirely new world.

Take a look at the guest register

There are loads of familiar faces spending the night in Room 104 in Season 1.

• Episode 1 sees Ross Partridge (Tom McKinnon on drama series Billions, both seasons are on Showmax) hiring a nanny for his split-personality son.

• Episode 8 sees Mae Whitman (Julie in procedural cop show Criminal Minds, Seasons 1-10 can be found on Showmax) getting involved with the sole survivor of a plane crash in 1969.

• And not to be outdone, creator Jay Duplass plays a guest in episode 4 who gets marital advice from his best friend’s ghost.

Sources: HBO.com, Showbuzzdaily.com, TV.AVClub.com