Well, I watched the pilot. Of the two summer series I had any interest in whatsoever on ABC, this is the one that didn’t disappoint the hell out of me (Scoundrels doesn’t really deserve its own thread, but in a capsule, the entire cast feels like they don’t like what they’re saying and the whole thing plays as awkward). I’m actually pleasant surprise. The elevator pitch is a sort of a cross between True Blood (sans boobies) and Eureka - a dude is made head law guy of a gated community that apparently was built for supernatural creatures to live in, and they all have some sort of rule where they have to remain closeted or…something bad will happen. Aside from the fact that not one single person was likeable in the entire cast (okay - the teenage son and mysterious girlfriend were okay, but everybody else was detestable), I actually found this genuinely interesting.
I’ll watch anything with Rhona Mitra in it. That said, I too enjoyed it. As a pilot it set up enough to get me wanting to watch more. Vampires, werewolves, witches and certainly more. I’m in for now.
I went in with zero (maybe even negative) expectations. I walked away pleasantly surprised. Definitely a summer guilty pleasure, nothing ground-breaking, but fun.
I fully expected it to be a bag of elephant crap, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Maybe it was just because I was severely disappointed with its lead-in, which I was looking forward to, but I like that they’re treating their subject matter seriously, at least through the first episode. I don’t like that, yet again, vampires hate werewolves (apparently - at least, I suspect that’s what’s going on), but for summer television, this is pretty good.
Really? I assumed the guys on bikes (who are travelling in a pack) were just other werewolves who were trying to keep the one guy in line. They’ve got a good thing going and don’t want the one out of control guy messing it up.
Ah, that’s an interesting idea. I just interpreted innocently, as he just wanted it to look like some generic animal killed him. But yeah, maybe he knows whoever runs the Gates will figure out something isn’t right, and wants to pin it on somebody else.
I found it painfully horrible and actually excruciating to watch. I found it to be clichéd (new sheriff in town with a pretty wife, outsider high school son and precocious young daughter), rife with unnecessary exposition, and generally poorly-written. Every scene with the son and the Quarterback’s Girlfriend™ was excruciating to watch; the dialogue read like it would be rejected from a Twilight fanfic.
The entire show reeked of Desperate Vampire Diaries (among other things). Sorry for the vitriol; I went in really looking for a new quirky off-beat supernatural fiction and instead wound up with utter drek.
Interesting insider tidbit: Apparently the show was originally just supposed to be about an odd, somewhat-creepy gated community. The vampire angle was added in almost as an afterthought, no doubt to try and cash in on the bandwagon.
I had a similar reaction. I don’t know if I thought it was quite as awful as you do, but it felt very mediocre. It just didn’t live up to its’ premise. I was kind of hoping for Weeds with vampires and it ended up being more Desperate Housewives with vampires.
So would that account for the necessity for Vampire super sunblock to allow Rhona Mitra and her bloodsucking husband to mingle with the rest of humanity during daylight hours? Silver lining: lots of scenes of Rhona Mitra applying super sunblock.
I honestly didn’t think it was completely horrid until I had to sit through the whole son subplot. Every scene with him and The Quarterback’s Girlfriend™ was ear poison. If it hadn’t been for those scenes I probably wouldn’t have been as repulsed by the show.
So would that account for the necessity for Vampire super sunblock to allow Rhona Mitra and her bloodsucking husband to mingle with the rest of humanity during daylight hours? Silver lining: lots of scenes of Rhona Mitra applying super sunblock.
Can’t say. I’m not the insider that I got the insider information from.
Agreed - when he showed up in class and busted out his mad literary criticism skillz I wanted to crush his nuts with a monkey wrench. He just came off as such an awful douchebag…
In context of that info, it just feels like ‘Oh crap - if we change them to vampires, we need to rationalize a way they can bring brownies over to the neighbors house before nightfall…well, what about sunblock? Bingo!’
I like the Vampire Husband. But I think the Sheriff’s wife is awful. Yes, how dare he ruin your lives by actually investigating a possible serious crime.
Also, I don’t get the Rhona Mitra attractive thing, her face is an immobile mask and her lips are weird, I assume she’s had too much plastic surgery/botox/silicone injected. Now, Deputy Janina Gavankar on the other hand…
I just watched the second episode on Hulu. The show is still pretty bad. I think my main problem is that I hate most of the characters for one reason or another.
I just watched it on Hulu, too, and here’s what I don’t understand: if you were building a gated community that caters to (among other things) supernatural critters, why wouldn’t you let the local police force in on it so they can help keep the secret?
The show would be so much better if the sheriff was brought in specifically to help hide the supernatural from the world and protect the world from the supernatural. But as it is, I’ll let it play while I do other things. I don’t think it’ll get a second season.
