The Chronicle

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The Chronicle (2001-2002) is a sci-fi TV series based on the News from the Edge novel series by Mark Sumner. The show follows a group of reporters for the tabloid newspaper The Chronicle and their encounters with real monsters and aliens -- most of whom turn out to be not as scary as they seem. The show ran for one season of 22 episodes on Syfy.


Tropes used in The Chronicle include:
  • Alien Abduction: One of the main characters claims that she was abducted several times when she was a child by at least two different alien races. One of these later returns to check up on their subjects... and remove their brains.
  • Conspiracy Kitchen Sink: Everything they write about in tabloids is true.
  • ET Gave Us Wi-Fi: Aliens created the Internet, according to the pilot episode.
  • Headless Horseman: The Headless Biker from Hell in "Bring Me The Head of Tucker Burns".
  • Historical In-Joke: The Native Americans sold Manhattan to the European settlers because there was a monster living underground there.
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: Has never been released on DVD in any form other than bootleg. Even few clips survive on the internet.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Donald, the tabloid editor. Until the finale
  • Pig Man: Sal, a heroic hacker pigman, was the consequence of government genetic manipulation.
  • Sauna of Death: In one episode, the tabloid reporters were dealing with the angry ghosts fat people killed in a fat farm sauna. In the end, they had to rescue the murderer from suffering the same fate.