by Kristin Battestella
Say that title three times fast and
you might miss these brief contemporary serials filled with
paranormal fun, suspenseful mystery, and sometimes, understandably
canceled problems.
The Gates – Rhona Mitra (who always seems to be in short lived shows) joins new police chief with a questionable past Frank Grillo (Kingdom) for these 13 43 minute episodes aired on ABC in Summer 2010. The pilot gets right to the exclusive, too good to be true community, its bloody reveals, and cheating vampire couples – the carpooling drove her to it! Sadly, ridiculously brief opening credits make it tough to identify the main characters, onscreen introductions are uneven, people who should interact never do, and more players are added or forgotten weekly. The cast is at once diverse yet too Hollywood basic; minorities are both upscale professionals but still treated as secondary with no development. We like Grillo (an Italian actor playing a cop with the Celtic name of Monohan!) but he blindly overreacts to everything. Fortunately, things get intriguing once the high tech security technology and monster revelations turn the tables. The more interesting adult core and sinister guessing should have remained paramount, but the forced family scenes and high school love triangles sag immediately with thinly veiled werewolf latency and succubus birth control. While hammy in her try hard scorn, witch Chandra West (NYPD Blue), apothecary Victoria Platt (Guiding Light), vampire sunscreen jokes, and hypnotic teas are more fun than the badly lit wolfy, unnecessary hip music, dated flip phone texts, and soap opera slow zooms. Though filmed in Louisiana, an onscreen location or new American Gothic flavor is never addressed, and too many writers in so few episodes never allow for a cohesive vision. Redundant revenge and blackmail detract from the supernatural as slo mo vamp fu or dumb ghosts push aside budding monster does not make the man character drama. Every plot of the week filler is tossed at the screen in fast hopes of paranormal capitalizing when all that wasn't working should have been red penciled. Thankfully, Dallas style vamps versus wolfy secrets and bemusing, self aware, Stepford pretenses build enough atmosphere – yes, how do you arrest a vampire? The second half improves even if the final two episodes have the unenviable job of tying up too many loose threads. Ultimately, this series never decides if it is a spooky Melrose Place or a harder horror crime drama. It deserved another ten episodes to get things right, but this messy fun is perfect for a ghouly girls and potato chips binge weekend.
Top of the Lake
– This beautifully photographed 2013 New Zealand thriller is broken
into seven episodes stateside, but the marathon moves fast thanks to
investigation twists, intersecting, desperate characters, and more
peripheral crimes. There are red herrings, of course, with suspicious
family, shady cops, and local criminals amid the uncomfortable young
pregnancy, past abuses, sexual conflicts, self harm, and drug use.
It's heavy! Who knows more than they are saying? Everyone knows
everybody in this backwater small town, and if the women don't take
the gruff from all the drunk, abusive men, then they are shamed,
ostracized, and deemed lesbians. The nudity, saucy, and disturbing
material, however, is not styled as sensationalized film making,
leaving enough intelligent suggestion and implication to invest the
audience in the mystery at hand. Unfortunately, there are a few
questionable elements – women are always alone in the dark woods
without cellphones or protection and too many interesting characters
disappear after only a few scenes that seem to suggest they are
significant and should appear again. There is no police procedure or
back up, evidence is left hanging alongside several loose ends, and
naive actions with poor follow through will aggravate long time
detective viewers. The timeline also crunches several months worth of
hefty events before providing a quicker, rushed, somewhat obvious
resolution. Thankfully, this case is about bringing these motley
people together and resolving their hidden issues just as much as it
is solving the crime, and there are a few shockers, escalations, and
taboos not often seen on American television as a result. Golden
Globe winner Elizabeth Moss (Mad
Men)
is wonderful as her detective Robin Griffin deals with
close to home sexual violence, past conflicts, and romantic weakness.
She makes cop mistakes but rises above the backwoods masculine
arrogance from the on form David Wenham – pretty as this show
looks, there is no Lord
of the Rings here
and Faramir
this is not! This year resolves itself nicely, so I'm not sure where
they are going to go with the forthcoming second series even with the
Nicole Kidman joining rumors. However, even when the audience thinks
we have the despicable all pegged and the likable players at heart,
there's plenty of excellent performances, intrigue, and social
examinations here to keep us guessing and shouting at the TV.
Skip It!
Persons Unknown –
I barely made it through this 13 episode mystery thriller originally
aired on NBC in Summer 2010 thanks to distorted flashbacks, jagged
editing, shrill sounds, whoosh sliding effects, and booming music.
Such erratic filming detracts from the anonymous surveillance fears,
big brother abductions, and whiff of SF experimentation – which is
unfortunately predictable ala “5 Characters in Search of an Exit.”
The mostly unfamiliar cast and stock roles – mom, politician's
daughter, soldier, mental patient, bully, etc. – are unevenly
explored amid repeated team problem solving, leadership divisions,
and stupid actions where the consequences are never considered. The
wavering pace both shortchanges the narrative by skipping essential
research, exploring, and deduction yet simultaneously pads the time
by dragging out the tedious for unneeded dramatic effect and wannabe
Lost toppers.
Lesbian suggestions, Islam, and fallen priest plots are used when
convenient or inexplicably dropped, and this lack of character depth
pulls the rug out from under the already deflated emotional core. The
why of a mid century hotel, empty main street, old payphones, and
typewriters are mystery enough yet half the series is wasted on
spinning tires escape attempts or stalling because the mole is too
obvious and all of the numerous characters are too unlikable.
Breaking the shady atmosphere possibilities for external, irrelevant
investigative
tabloid reporters
is a mistake, and throwing love triangles and double talking
government reprogramming on top of the heap doesn't hide the careless
inconsistencies and tame but trying to be radical contrivances.
Italian locales and Spanish flavors don't make up for the lack of
answers, and this series proves exactly why episodic, weekly, network
television needs to catch up with this decade's streaming, all at
once storytelling. It looks like they had no idea how to end this
overlong miniseries, which is maddening when viewers are only
watching for the mystery to be %$#@^ solved.
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