A summer mystery/horror miniseries has to achieve a pretty low bar for me to not give it more than one episode, but “American Gothic” (10 p.m. Eastern Wednesdays on CBS) descends to that bar. I wasn’t a big fan of the 1995-96 original, which put Shaun Cassidy (“Invasion”) on the map as an executive producer.
A rote exercise
I didn’t really care about the characters – particularly the fact that the main character was outright evil — and the religious-themed horror didn’t grab me. But at least that show had passion and style; this same-named newcomer – which shares no other relation to the original – is entirely rote, as if no one behind the camera (it has four executive producers, not a good sign) cares about making this series stand out.
On paper, “American Gothic’s” plot is serviceable. A man’s belt is found embedded in the cement of a collapsed bridge, and the evidence links back to the unsolved Silver Bells Killer case.
“American Gothic” (2016)
Wednesdays, CBS
Creator: Corinne Brinkerhoff
Stars: Juliet Rylance, Antony Starr, Justin Chatwin
We get to know the Hawthornes at the show’s center: a rich Boston family with patriarch Mitchell (Jamey Sheridan), matriarch Madeline (Virginia Madsen), budding politician Alison (Juliet Rylance), recovering drug addict Cam (Justin Chatwin), even bigger black sheep Garrett (Antony Starr) and schoolteacher Tessa (Megan Ketch). Rounding out the family, Tessa’s husband Brady (Elliott Knight) is a detective on the Silver Bells case, Cam’s young son disturbingly wants to be a medical examiner, and Alison’s “Shining”-esque twin daughters like to crawl around on the floor and overhear things.
Cam finds a box of Silver Bells in the family shed, Garrett whispers to his dad that he’s going to tell everyone what he did, and at episode’s end, Madeline murders her hospital-bed-ridden husband, who is ready to confess to something. A fairly tidy story right there, but because there are 12 episodes to go, we know there is more to it.
No gothic flavor
The problem with “American Gothic” is the flat tone. Frankly, I’m not sure why the show is titled “American Gothic,” as it is not all that interested in capturing a gothic flavor. Although some scenes are dimly lit, owing to expectations from the title in the shallowest fashion, the Hawthorne home is utterly modern and the music is light and barely noticeable. The shed where the bells are discovered has classic brick architecture, but because of the overall tone, there’s no sense of foreboding or fear when we go there.
There’s a little subplot about the Hawthorne’s neighbor frantically looking for her cat (who it turns out was cat-napped by Cam’s sociopathic kid) in the only nod to dark comedy that might make “American Gothic” inch closer to earning its title. But it’s a lame attempt to mimic the style of “Twin Peaks” or David E. Kelley shows or “Pasadena.” Come to think of it, the plot of “American Gothic” is pretty much identical to “Pasadena,” but since that 2001 Fox show was never commercially released, maybe “AG” figured it was safe to rip it off.
But the problem with borrowing too closely from good material is that there’s no original thought to get these producers fired up about their project. If “American Gothic” had been an unaired pilot, and I stumbled across it on YouTube and watched it out of curiosity, I would understand why CBS rejected the series. Perhaps it’ll return next week and maybe even complete its run, but it’s one and done for me.