Are You Afraid of the Dark? - A Retrospective Review - Season 1

This is my first post in over a year. I've only recently had the luxuries of unlimited Internet access, the free time to watch/listen to/follow anything AND the time to write about it. Hopefully this will get me back into the habit of doing this on a regular basis.
As not to exhaust my deep appreciation for "The Adventures of Pete & Pete," which I own the first two seasons of on DVD, I decided to take another vessel to retreat to Nickelodeon's golden days of yore. Around the beginning of this past spring, I started watching (or re-watching) the episodes of "Are You Afraid of the Dark?," along with a few other "old school" Nick shows that some YouTubers had been generous enough to take time to upload onto the site. After re-watching a few episodes of each, "Salute Your Shorts," "Hey Dude" and "Clarissa Explains It All," for me, failed to live up to memory, save for a hint of nostalgia factor. AYAOTD, however, like "Pete & Pete," but to a slightly lesser extent, went above and beyond nostalgia.
Being an anthology series (as far as I know none of which exist since the end of "Masters of Horror"), each episode stands alone. However, I reviewed each season overall and rating of one to four stars, with exceptional episodes receiving five. Each episode's title begins "The Tale of ..." but to save myself from going nuts I'm just going to refer to each one by what comes after that phrase.

Season 1
I'm going to start by saying that Season 1 is doubtless the definitive season of AYAOTD. Not only does it lay the groundwork for the rest of the series (as any first season should), it contains many of the most memorable and genuinely frightening episodes. OK, so maybe not piss-your-pants scary, but disturbing nonetheless, especially if you keep in mind this show was produced with children as its intended audience. The first two episodes, "Tale of the Phantom Cab" and "Tale of Laughing in the Dark" set the tone of the series perfectly.

1. "The Phantom Cab" **** - Two brothers get lost in the woods and encoutner a mad scientist named Dr. Vink and a cabbie who's fixing to kill them by crashing his taxi into a tree. Dr. Vink appears in three future episodes.

2. "Laughing in the Dark" **** - A cocky lad steals the nose of Zeebo the clown on a dare while walking through a haunted funhouse at a theme park; Zeebo pursues.

3. "The Lonely Ghost" *** - A nerdy girl is forced to stay with her bitchy cousin for the summer. Bitchy cousin makes nerdy girl stay the night in a house haunted by ... you guessed it ... a lonely ghost.

4. "The Twisted Claw" **** - A retelling of W.W. Jacobs' "The Monkey's Paw." The neighborhood witch gives two mischievious friends a claw that grants their wishes, which come with unintended consequences ...

5. "The Hungry Hounds" * - A girl tries on jacket possessed by the spirit of her dead aunt compelled to feed the dogs so her soul can rest. Weak sauce. Absolute worst episode of the season.

6. "The Super Specs" ***** - A prankster buys a pair of glasses from Sardo (no Mr., accent on the "doh"), a flamboyant and eccentric shop owner. When worn the glasses reveal fucking creepy shadow figures living among us!

7. "The Captured Souls" *** - A girl and her parents rent out a vacation house full of mirrors from an awkward young man. The girl's idea of fun ivolves high-energy activities, but her parents have become inexplicably lethargic ...

8. "The Nightly Neighbors" *** - A brother and sister become convinced that their new Romanian neighbors are vampires. Bulk shipments of blood to their house and their son only coming out to play only at night fuel suspicions ...

9. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" **** - A high school outcast steals an ancient relic brought in by a guest archeologist, uses it to summon a demonic entity (aptly named Goth) and starts a cult involving the school's faculty and students. The only person not taken in is the outcast's best friend.

10. "Jake and the Leprechaun" *** - Jake, a young thespian, becomes the subject of a veteran thespian's plot to transform him into a leprechaun via a magical herbal tea.

11. "The Dark Music" **** - A boy and his family move into a home they inherited from their wealthy, eccentric great-uncle. The boy is taunted daily by his manipulative younger sister, a neighborhood teen, and a mysterious entity that lurks in the basement whenever music is played.

12. "The Prom Queen" **** - A twist on the urban legend about the ghost of a girl hit by a car on a foggy night that haunts the highway. Three teens investigate their local version of the legend and attempt to summon the ghost.

13. "The Pinball Wizard" ** - Against the warnings of his employer, a teen working in a shop begins playing an old pinball machine and becomes trapped inside the world of the machine.