666 Park Avenue - Series Premiere - Recap and Review
666 Park Avenue isn't much of a departure for ABC. Among the four major broadcast networks, ABC is the network that has shown no hesitation in embracing genre fare, with past hits like Alias and Lost, to current series like Last Resort and Once Upon A Time. The series, from executive producer David Wilcox of Fringe and the American remake of Life on Mars, and based on a series of novels by Gabriella Pierce, welcomes us to The Drake, a ritzy apartment building on Manhattan's Upper East Side that's essentially owned by the Devil, or a real-world facsimile in Gavin Doran (Terry O'Quinn), who operates alongside his wife, Olivia (Vanessa Williams). Gavin makes a living mortgaging the souls of its patrons, and though the rewards are dazzling in their splendor, the price that such rewards require are steeper than most can manage. The premiere is all over the board from the get-go, as there's a lot of story to tell, and a lot of setup in the telling.
This series is objectively entertaining, the kind of guilty pleasure that you feel progressively less guilty about as the series goes on. However, the salacious elements of the pilot are undermined by their sheer volume. There's just so much going on that it threatens to overwhelm the narrative. If it seems like I'm hating on the series, it's not my intention. I'm just having trouble making heads or tails of what I just saw. It's as subdued as it is over-the-top, and I feel like there's real potential here to craft a story that's subtle, but also rich in mythology and rewarding in paying off the backstories it develops. For instance, the episode doesn't seek to stick with the presumptive protagonists, out-of-work architect Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor) and her boyfriend, Henry Martin (David Annable), who have moved to New York City upon Henry's appointment to the Mayor's city planning office. Jane's architectural background, along with Henry's vocation as a lawyer, make them perfect candidates to become The Drake's new apartment managers, a position that affords them an irresponsibly lavish apartment. Jane had been set to begin work at an architecture firm in the city, but the job didn't work out, and so she now has plenty of time to get to know the owners of the building, and to nose about into records of the building's history, which appeals to the historical preservationist in her.
Credit: ABC/Patrick Harbron
Yet the plot doesn't stick with Jane and Henry as often as it probably should, given their lead status, but it's understandable that the premiere would indulge in a bit of worldbuilding. Before the stakes can be established, the show needs to lay the groundwork for the nature of The Drake and what Gavin Doran provides. To do this, the show follows several other residents of The Drake, both past and present. The episode's open introduces us to a concert violinist who gained his talent from a pact with Gavin. He discovers, from the presence of blood on his fingers during a performance, that their arrangement is at an end, and it's either pay up, or ship out. To Hell, one would presume.
Just one of these tableaux might have been enough to establish the nature of Gavin's dealings, but we also meet a widower who kills a judge in order to have his wife returned to him. The deal goes sour, however, when the man refuses to pay the price to keep her: murdering a businessman standing in the way of Gavin acquiring more property. The premiere's most startling setpiece occurs when Gavin comes to collect. The moment is jarring, as much enlivened by Terry O'Quinn's terrifying presence as by what ultimately occurs. It's a hell of a stinger to get viewers to tune back in next week. The horror elements have the potential to be clumsy, but they're executed with such startling severity that it's hard not to take the show seriously. The close is a forceful statement of purpose: here are the stakes, here are the consequences. It's a bold approach that could serve the show very well in the future.
However, the premiere suffers from crowding. We meet Brian (Robert Buckley), a playwright suffering from writer's block and a wife, Louise (Mercedes Masöhn), who is clearly the alpha in the relationship. Louise is a big-name photographer whose new assistant, Alexis (Helena Mattsson), whose apartment is overlooked by Brian and Louise's. Alexis has no qualms about undressing in front of the open window, meeting eyes with Brian and titillating him with what he only wishes he could have. As if picking up on the sentiment, the building tries to murder Louise, abruptly shutting the elevator doors on her. From what we learn through Jane's investigations into the building's history, it's likely that the building is possessed in some form or fashion, owing to an occult group called the Order of the Dragon, who would frequently meet at The Drake dating back to the building's establishment in the 1920s. Murderous elevators are hardly the only supernatural element of The Drake itself, as it might have given one resident psychic abilities: Nona (Samantha Logan) is a young woman who, it appears, is capable of touching objects and seeing into the future of the object's owner.
The show is every bit as likely to go overboard in the employment of mythology and supernatural spark as some of the worst offenders of the medium, but for now, they're giving us just enough to entice us. I can appreciate a show that doesn't immediately indulge in camp just because it can, or because the dictates of the genre influence the creative forces behind the show into thinking they should. It's even worse when this approach is favored as the result of a naked, desperate grab for ratings. A show like 666 Park Avenue could prove to be valuable to ABC without going full True Blood on everybody (not that True Blood does the supernatural badly. It actually is one of the few shows on television that has no qualms about its identity, and excels because of it).
Though we know hardly anything about Jane or Henry, and even less about Gavin, we are at least shown that Olivia seems to be aware of what her husband does. In addition, she seems to have at least the appearance of a soul, sadly noting to Jane that she had a daughter once, who died tragically. If Olivia has a softer touch than we're realizing, then it should provide a nice contrast with her husband. As it is, we can only wonder about their personal history as a couple, whether she has any of the same power as Gavin, and whether this was even initially a mutual arrangement. Gavin is a take-no-prisoners kind of guy, which is why it would be all the more intriguing if we learn that he had. That said, I don't really expect the show to go in that direction. But regardless of the direction it takes, Terry O'Quinn is its chief asset, playing Gavin with the cool detachment of a man who, on the surface, is above it all, balancing a carefree attitude with the sinister, even smug, self-satisfaction that curdles beneath the surface. It's a rich character from an actor who's proven he can play evil. Man alive, can he play evil.
666 Park Avenue may not yet have found its footing, but it's too early to tell what kind of show it wants to be, whether seductive soap, horror-camp drama, or supernatural thriller. The possibilities are endless and, frankly, exciting. Hopefully the ratings hold steady long enough to give the show a chance to develop, and perhaps even find an audience. Of course, by the time you read this, ABC might already have some idea of the ratings numbers, so for all anyone knows, this could be a massive hit as we speak. Either way, it deserves a chance to explore its world, which has hints of The Shining mingled with Rosemary's Baby, telling you all you need to know about its potential for tense, searing drama. ABC is kind of on fire right now, with its returning shows like Modern Family, Once Upon A Time, Castle, and Revenge, and premiering shows like the unambiguously awesome Last Resort, and the upcoming Nashville. Its Sunday Night lineup follows suit by going three-for-three on escapist drama, and that's a good thing. A very good thing, indeed.
