Showing posts with label 666 Park Avenue. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 666 Park Avenue. Show all posts
Oct 14, 2012
Oct 8, 2012
666 PARK AVENUE: LEAVE THE BIRDS ALONE!
I can't believe how awfully boring this show is. I'm ready to say The Mob Doctor is actually better than this. The characters are extremely flat and unlikeable and the story is so weak that I wouldn't regret if I stopped watching it now.
What happened: Jane gets notified that one of the residents moved out to Vegas (John Barlow, the one that was devoured by the wallpaper last episode). She comes to check the apartment and hears the noise behind one of the walls. As she takes a part of the wall down, a flock of birds (animated so poorly that I thought those were the bats) bursts into the room, breaks the window and flees. Even though she's advised by Nona the thief against doing so, Jane calls for an exterminator; in the process he's ordered by Jane to break the concrete sealing, covering the secret door Jane "sees in her dreams". The exterminator doesn't make it to the end of the episode, of course. And Jane sees a murdered man in her "dream", who she later learned was really murdered in 1956. We also meet a woman in her forties, Danielle, desperately looking for a man. Gavin hooks her up with somebody, but as this somebody turns out to be a cheater, Danielle kills him. Gavin appears and we get to know it was not the first man she killed, in fact it all started with the guy Jane "dreamed of" and the woman is in fact like eighty years old. Gavin hooked her up with the cheater hoping she'd kill him as well (he tried to trick Gavin too, but in business).
Henry passes some sort of reliability check carried out by Gavin, Brian has sex (I guess) with the girl across the street, and the episode ends with Jane entering the unsealed door, which shuts behind her.
First of all, I don't get why Gavin makes his residents kill people that are inconvenient to him. He seem to be able to eliminate anyone on his own. Plus, what kind of reliability check was that? Henry did not disclose insider information, big deal! He could have got to jail if he did (I think) or at least have serious repercussions, so I don't see what's so reliable about him. He did tell his not-wife everything also, I don't think he was supposed to. I can't understand what Dorans see in Henry anyway. The guy's dating poor Jane for five years and doesn't propose? Doesn't sound like a very good guy.
Secondly, I can't understand how they managed to get such a bad show. Murphy and Falchuk already did all the job for them. The American Horror Story is hundred times better, I know many people disagree, but it had so many layers, so many story lines which all came to one and the characters were amazing, absolutely incredible. 666 Park Avenue is cheesy, flat and well, boring.
I am very, very disappointed.
Score: 3/10
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| The birds |
Henry passes some sort of reliability check carried out by Gavin, Brian has sex (I guess) with the girl across the street, and the episode ends with Jane entering the unsealed door, which shuts behind her.
First of all, I don't get why Gavin makes his residents kill people that are inconvenient to him. He seem to be able to eliminate anyone on his own. Plus, what kind of reliability check was that? Henry did not disclose insider information, big deal! He could have got to jail if he did (I think) or at least have serious repercussions, so I don't see what's so reliable about him. He did tell his not-wife everything also, I don't think he was supposed to. I can't understand what Dorans see in Henry anyway. The guy's dating poor Jane for five years and doesn't propose? Doesn't sound like a very good guy.
Secondly, I can't understand how they managed to get such a bad show. Murphy and Falchuk already did all the job for them. The American Horror Story is hundred times better, I know many people disagree, but it had so many layers, so many story lines which all came to one and the characters were amazing, absolutely incredible. 666 Park Avenue is cheesy, flat and well, boring.
I am very, very disappointed.
Score: 3/10
Oct 1, 2012
666 PARK AVENUE: AN AFTERTASTE
As expected, 666 Park Avenue is a very soft horror show, you rather sit and wait to be scared than actually get frightened by what happens on the screen. It is obviously made for women with Jane being a more significant character than Henry. In fact, Henry's position is very weak, I felt like he did not add so much to the story, even though Gavin says that Jane is how they get Henry. I don't know what the Dorans see in him but Henry's importance might later increase.
The residents of Drake are dying or get hurt one after another, so if hey keep up like that, it's likely that the building gets empty very fast. Four victims, out of which two complete deaths, plus one died for the second time already and one is still said to be alive but in hospital. Impressive.
Then, in my opinion, they gave away too much now (in AHS even now that the first season's over, we still don't know why the dead couldn't get out of the house). The only big secret now is who Gavin really is and how he got this building and this power. It's unlikely at this point that he makes these deals on his own, there must be some greater evil he caters to. But other than that, all is clear: you get to the building, you're seduced by something your soul desires and then you pay a high price for this.This is what Jane and Henry will go through, and the little secret is what will seduce them.
There was a number of things that will most probably have some development in the future. We will learn something about why the door in the basement/laundry room was sealed (a gate to hell?), what happens when Henry's employer finds out about him talking to Stone, Gavin probably intentionally took Stone's spot to get the two meet. Finally, the red dress must have some symbolic or maybe even very important meaning as we see at least two instances where Jane wears the red dress.
So far I could not sympathize with any of the characters, they are mostly annoying. Jane is way to noisy and ambitious, Henry seems a little uninsightful and full of flat jokes, Gavin is too evil and Olivia is too cold, neither of them show much humanity.
It's watchable, I especially recommend it for middle aged women missing some thrill in life, men are unlikely to enjoy it and teenagers probably have better things to do than watching it. But AHS was way better.
Score: 6.5/10
The residents of Drake are dying or get hurt one after another, so if hey keep up like that, it's likely that the building gets empty very fast. Four victims, out of which two complete deaths, plus one died for the second time already and one is still said to be alive but in hospital. Impressive.
Then, in my opinion, they gave away too much now (in AHS even now that the first season's over, we still don't know why the dead couldn't get out of the house). The only big secret now is who Gavin really is and how he got this building and this power. It's unlikely at this point that he makes these deals on his own, there must be some greater evil he caters to. But other than that, all is clear: you get to the building, you're seduced by something your soul desires and then you pay a high price for this.This is what Jane and Henry will go through, and the little secret is what will seduce them.
There was a number of things that will most probably have some development in the future. We will learn something about why the door in the basement/laundry room was sealed (a gate to hell?), what happens when Henry's employer finds out about him talking to Stone, Gavin probably intentionally took Stone's spot to get the two meet. Finally, the red dress must have some symbolic or maybe even very important meaning as we see at least two instances where Jane wears the red dress.
So far I could not sympathize with any of the characters, they are mostly annoying. Jane is way to noisy and ambitious, Henry seems a little uninsightful and full of flat jokes, Gavin is too evil and Olivia is too cold, neither of them show much humanity.
It's watchable, I especially recommend it for middle aged women missing some thrill in life, men are unlikely to enjoy it and teenagers probably have better things to do than watching it. But AHS was way better.
Score: 6.5/10
666 PARK AVENUE: THEY TOLD YOU EVERYTHING FROM THE START (EPISODE 1 RECAP)
I had highest hopes on this one this season. Though I can't say that the first episode of 666 Park Avenue (ABC) was completely disappointing, it definitely did not get me hooked up on this series.
The main characters of the show are Gavin Doran (Terry O'Quinn), the owner of the building, his wife Olivia, the doorman Tony DeMeo (Eric Palladino) and of course, the new resident managers, an unmarried, but deeply in love (that we learn from all the sex they're having) couple Henry Martin (Dave Annable) and Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor). Other residents of the building seem disposable as they die at an incredible pace, so no reason to get attached.
So it starts with a concert where one particular violinist gets blood on his hands while performing in the presence of the Dorans, he later runs to the apartment building he lives in to pack his things (a very stupid move) but as he approaches the exit, the door slams. An old-style phone rings and as the violinist picks it up and talks to Gavin, we understand that the musician had some sort of deal with the building owner according to which he was ready to give up everything to be a famous violinist for a finite period of time. The period has now ended and it was time for the violinist to pay. Poor guy tries to break out and actually seems to succeed, but only to be sucked right back into the building.
The next morning a young couple, Jane and Henry arrives at the building to be interviewed by Gavin for the position of resident managers. We learn that they recently moved to NY, Henry is working as a lawyer for the mayor and Jane, though currently unemployed, is passionate about architecture she has a degree in. Gavin almost turn them down, but then a question from Jane about the building make him change his mind.
The doorman, who says he applied for the resident manager as well, shows the couple their new apartment. The former manager, he says, moved some place warmer and by the premises I believe he meant "hell", so I now wonder if there was some sarcastic meaning in what he afterwards added that the place was Arizona.
The new managers meet Brian, a playwright, who has the most annoying wife ever, Louise. She's constantly on the phone and yet she has time to treat her husband like shit. Brian, however, turn out to be a pervert: he likes to watch a girl in the building across the street, who's probably too poor to afford the drapes or is just an exhibitionist.
As Jane and Henry move their stuff, Jane, who got behind, meets another resident, John, with hands covered in blood. Gavin later said that John's wife, Mary, died.
Then Jane, looking for things to fix, gets to the laundry room and finds the mosaic with an image of a dragon on it. The building is called the Drake, so the connection is obvious and Jane decides to visit a library to dig up some facts about her new place of residence. She also gets an invitation for Henry and herself from Dorans to attend a black tie event with yet another symphony concert, obviously Jane has nothing to wear and Olivia takes her for dress shopping.Olivia insists on a red dress, but as Jane sees the price tag of 4000$ on that, she says she can't accept that. I guess, the creators wanted to paint Jane as a modest, unspoiled person, but I see her greed as she tries to grab the redecoration project for the Drake. Anyway, eventually Olivia sends Jane the red dress.
Henry is playing golf with Gavin and accidentally gets introduced to Daniel Stone, a person he can't have any communication with as the City Council has dispute over this man's property. Gavin is interested in buying this property but he is refused.
In the library Jane finds out that the Drake belonged to some sort of a dragon cult and that John's wife committed a suicide by jumping off the building.
Brian suddenly gets close to his subject of lust as she becomes his wife's assistant. After that Louise is nearly eaten by the elevator and here I hesitate to say if it was her time to pay her debt or if Brian secretly wished her death (I wouldn't blame him).
We find out that John made a deal with Gavin to kill a judge in return for Mary be brought back to life. And she is back, alright, but later it turned out that to keep her alive John has to kill more people, all of them I presume are obstacles to Gavin's business. Now he's given the task to eliminate Stone.
Because John can't kill Stone, his wife's face rots and John himself, in the presence of Gavin, is eaten by the wallpaper. Jane hears the noise and there we have the first "Hello, anybody there?" scene in the series. Jane gets to the terrace to see Mary jumping off again, but before that she says that Jane should not have come to the building and that "they" will not let her go. Well, it's too late now for this, so thanks for nothing, Mary! After that Jane wakes up as if it all was a dream but her feet are dirty from all the walking around in the building.
Jane and Henry sign their contracts so it's pretty much over for them.
The episode ends with the building's little thief having disturbing visions of Jane in a red dress and an axe in somebody else's hands.
The main characters of the show are Gavin Doran (Terry O'Quinn), the owner of the building, his wife Olivia, the doorman Tony DeMeo (Eric Palladino) and of course, the new resident managers, an unmarried, but deeply in love (that we learn from all the sex they're having) couple Henry Martin (Dave Annable) and Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor). Other residents of the building seem disposable as they die at an incredible pace, so no reason to get attached.
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| Gavin and Olivia |
The next morning a young couple, Jane and Henry arrives at the building to be interviewed by Gavin for the position of resident managers. We learn that they recently moved to NY, Henry is working as a lawyer for the mayor and Jane, though currently unemployed, is passionate about architecture she has a degree in. Gavin almost turn them down, but then a question from Jane about the building make him change his mind.
The doorman, who says he applied for the resident manager as well, shows the couple their new apartment. The former manager, he says, moved some place warmer and by the premises I believe he meant "hell", so I now wonder if there was some sarcastic meaning in what he afterwards added that the place was Arizona.
The new managers meet Brian, a playwright, who has the most annoying wife ever, Louise. She's constantly on the phone and yet she has time to treat her husband like shit. Brian, however, turn out to be a pervert: he likes to watch a girl in the building across the street, who's probably too poor to afford the drapes or is just an exhibitionist.
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| Beware of perverts! |
Then Jane, looking for things to fix, gets to the laundry room and finds the mosaic with an image of a dragon on it. The building is called the Drake, so the connection is obvious and Jane decides to visit a library to dig up some facts about her new place of residence. She also gets an invitation for Henry and herself from Dorans to attend a black tie event with yet another symphony concert, obviously Jane has nothing to wear and Olivia takes her for dress shopping.Olivia insists on a red dress, but as Jane sees the price tag of 4000$ on that, she says she can't accept that. I guess, the creators wanted to paint Jane as a modest, unspoiled person, but I see her greed as she tries to grab the redecoration project for the Drake. Anyway, eventually Olivia sends Jane the red dress.
 |
| Jane wearing the dress |
Henry is playing golf with Gavin and accidentally gets introduced to Daniel Stone, a person he can't have any communication with as the City Council has dispute over this man's property. Gavin is interested in buying this property but he is refused.
In the library Jane finds out that the Drake belonged to some sort of a dragon cult and that John's wife committed a suicide by jumping off the building.
Brian suddenly gets close to his subject of lust as she becomes his wife's assistant. After that Louise is nearly eaten by the elevator and here I hesitate to say if it was her time to pay her debt or if Brian secretly wished her death (I wouldn't blame him).
We find out that John made a deal with Gavin to kill a judge in return for Mary be brought back to life. And she is back, alright, but later it turned out that to keep her alive John has to kill more people, all of them I presume are obstacles to Gavin's business. Now he's given the task to eliminate Stone.
Because John can't kill Stone, his wife's face rots and John himself, in the presence of Gavin, is eaten by the wallpaper. Jane hears the noise and there we have the first "Hello, anybody there?" scene in the series. Jane gets to the terrace to see Mary jumping off again, but before that she says that Jane should not have come to the building and that "they" will not let her go. Well, it's too late now for this, so thanks for nothing, Mary! After that Jane wakes up as if it all was a dream but her feet are dirty from all the walking around in the building.
Jane and Henry sign their contracts so it's pretty much over for them.
The episode ends with the building's little thief having disturbing visions of Jane in a red dress and an axe in somebody else's hands.
Sep 18, 2012
666 DEVIL DOCTORS
The one that I'm actually waiting for is 666 Park Avenue (released
on the 30th of September on ABC), a horror soap about a young couple
that moves to a fancy house in NY, just to find out that the place is
filled with horror when it's too late. The creator of the show named as the source of inspiration, apart
from the novel by Gabriella Pierce the series was based on, Stephen King, Alfred Hitchcock and horror movies Rosemary's Baby, The Shining and Jacob's Ladder. As you watch the trailer or look at the promo
poster, the ladder is everywhere, so here's a motive from Jacob's Ladder. Does it mean that the couple is dead
and has to pass tests by facing all sorts of seductions before they
get to the afterlife? No idea. But there's one thing I know: there's
already one particular show that already used Rosemary's Baby and The Shining in its plot. I'm talking about the American Horror Story (FX), of course.
I don't know if Murphy and Falchuk have consciously come to a conclusion
that after all the vampire stories the female audience was ready for
something scary, and pumped a soap story of a dysfunctional family with
blood, monsters and countless murders. In any case we now see that this
turned out great, as there's at least one follower of the genre.
The stars of the show are Terry O'Quinn (Lost), Vanessa Williams (Desperate Housewives), Rachael Taylor (Transformers) and Dave Annable (Brothers and Sisters).
So, House is gone, and he will be missed. Who'll now make cynical comments about dying patients and treat them with contempt and disrespect? Well, Fox has an answer for you: meet Dr. Grace Devlin (Devlin, huh?), a new character from The Mob Doctor, a doctor from, naturally, Chicago who's task is to treat, as the title suggests, mafia guys (at least we know those won't be having lupus), so her brother does not get killed because of his gambling debt. From watching the trailer I assume it will be a combination of House (medicine + cynical comments), Dexter (double life), Sopranos (the mob stuff) and possibly CSI (hi-tech tools).
The main part is played by Jordana Spiro (My Boys, last season of Dexter), other actors I'm interested to see are William Forsythe (Broadwalk Empire) and Michael Rapoport (Prison Break, I remember him well from Friends).
The creators of the show, Josh Berman and Rob Wright previously worked together on Drop Dead Diva, which I did not even bothered to watch, so I don't expect anything extraordinary.
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| Jane and Henry |
The stars of the show are Terry O'Quinn (Lost), Vanessa Williams (Desperate Housewives), Rachael Taylor (Transformers) and Dave Annable (Brothers and Sisters).
So, House is gone, and he will be missed. Who'll now make cynical comments about dying patients and treat them with contempt and disrespect? Well, Fox has an answer for you: meet Dr. Grace Devlin (Devlin, huh?), a new character from The Mob Doctor, a doctor from, naturally, Chicago who's task is to treat, as the title suggests, mafia guys (at least we know those won't be having lupus), so her brother does not get killed because of his gambling debt. From watching the trailer I assume it will be a combination of House (medicine + cynical comments), Dexter (double life), Sopranos (the mob stuff) and possibly CSI (hi-tech tools).
 |
| Grace Devlin |
The creators of the show, Josh Berman and Rob Wright previously worked together on Drop Dead Diva, which I did not even bothered to watch, so I don't expect anything extraordinary.
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