A man whose hearing, after losing his son, becomes so sensitive that he can hear absolutely everything. From day to day, the noise that surrounds him is becoming more and more intolerable, until eventually it drives him to a complete madness. There are no supernatural beings, explicit violence or gore in this film, but it's the critique of modern society packed in the individual drama, so real and horrible that this episode can rightly be classified into a horror genre.7/10

Generally speaking, I am a great fan of the "Masters Of Horror" series, but I have to add that the episodes differ immensely in quality. The greatest episodes were contributed by Horror Masters Takashi Miike ("Imprint"), Dario Argento ("Jenifer", "Pelts"), John Carpenter ("Cigarette Burns") and Stuart Gordon ("The Black Cat") whereas others were mediocre, or, as "The V-Word" and "We All Scream For Ice Cream", plain bad. This episode "Sounds Like", which was delivered by Brad Anderson, director of "The Machinist", is not one of the greatest hours of MoH, but it is doubtlessly a more than decent episode. Chris Bauer plays Larry Pearce, a guy working in a call-center for computer problems, who was struck by fate with an extremely sensitive sense of hearing. The grief over the loss of his son has only increased his hearing, which makes him struggle with insanity... "Sounds Like" is original and innovative, but, as far as I am concerned, it just isn't terribly suspenseful. Bauer is an excellent actor, and ideal for superficially square characters with borderline personalities. It is doubtlessly Bauer's great performance which is the best aspect of the episode. Overall, "Sounds Like" is not really scary, but it is original and shouldn't be missed by "Masters of Horror" fans.

With Brad Anderson in charge of direction, genre fans instantly know this is more likely to turn out a "Master of Tension" episode instead of a "Master of Horror" entry, and even more particularly, a masterly portrait of psychological deterioration. As his previous films "Session 9" and especially "The Machinist" already made clear, Anderson's area of expertise lies in the focusing on one protagonist and extendedly illustrating his/her descent into pure & agonizing madness. This type of storytelling obviously doesn't lend itself to an hour of explicit bloodshed or cheesy monster mayhem, but it's indescribably atmospheric and "Sounds Like" undeniably became one of season two's finest and most remarkable installments. The story revolves on the middle-aged Larry Pearce who works as the floor manager of an IT help desk call center. Because of his extraordinarily developed hearing, Larry used to be a genius in what he does. He could distinguish even the tiniest change in a voice's tone and therefore he was capable of cutting off phone conversations right before turning awry. Due to the recent and unprocessed death of his son, however, Larry is a total wreck and his gift of hearing is turning into a curse of agony. Neutral noises that regular people don't even pay any attention to, like the ticking of the clock or drops of water coming from the tab painfully penetrate his skull and gradually drive him to insanity. The subject matter is arguably too limited to fill up a full hour of running time, and "Sounds Like" would indeed have worked better as a 30 minutes episode, but the tension is consistent and professionally built up. The best sequences involve Larry, as well as the viewer, noticing an eerie, unidentifiable and increasingly boisterous sound. Yet when the camera fades out it simply appears to be an entirely insignificant thing and only Larry suffers from the stereo-effect. This exact same trick is repeated numerous times, but it's effective on every occasion. This episode also owes a lot its disturbing impact to Chris Bauer's impeccable performance. He succeeds in portraying Larry as an obviously tormented soul, with a dead stare in his eyes, and knows how to evoke sentiments of pity and compassion. "Sounds Like" won't really satisfy fans of blood and gore, but the last five minutes nevertheless contain a nasty surprise and an end shot that is almost hauntingly poetic.

As a parent, this episode made me sad. I couldn't help but feel for the parents who lost their son at such a young age, and to watch each of them fall apart in different ways was fascinating, especially since (I personally) would expect their reactions to be switched. I truly felt bad for the father, and I understood where he was coming from, feeling so isolated, with no one understanding. I didn't find it horrifying at all, but that's a good thing--it was still an excellent story. I got a sense of respect from the makers of the film for the original story, like they wanted to give a proper representation of it and not exploit it simply because it's being shown on a "horror series". Not having read the original story, I hope they did.