Shaun Cassidy, You Sick Bastard

My Netflix queue is pretty full of television series created by Shaun Cassidy right now.  This weekend I had a mini-festival of Cassidy. 

Something just somehow failed to grab me about American Gothic.  All of my problems with it can be traced back to style, I think.  The show debuted in 1995, the same year Murder One failed to keep an audience.   In other words, this was before the present mania for serialized dramas.  Although at least the first few episodes carry forward a few storylines, most of the conflicts get resolved quickly, within an episode or two at most.   Consequently, I'm not getting the sort of narrative tension that I've come to expect from my shows.  Less serious, but certainly distracting, are the lame score and cheesy special effects, both of which seem pretty typical of mid-90s television production values.  I want to like the series more: Gary Cole is super-creepy and clearly delighted to be playing the possibly demonic sheriff holding a small South Carolina town hostage; Lucas Black is a really great child-actor, not at all treacly or annoying. 

I remember thinking, after watching the pilot of Invasion -- when it premiered in fall 2005 -- "That was the best pilot this season, and I bet I'm not going to ever watch this show again."  It's a lot better on DVD, though.  Watching a bunch of episodes in a row builds the suspense a great deal more.  Watching it with American Gothic draws attention to some of Invasion's strengths, too: excellent score, high production values, a real sense of place (that place being Everglades National Park -- although according to IMDB, the entire series was shot in California).   William Fichtner's role is markedly similar to Cole's -- a powerful and charismatic sheriff who may be something other than he seems -- but Fichtner's performance is radically different: menacing and not at all showy.  Kari Matchett, a Wonderfalls alumna and -- shocker -- Canadian, is a real find as Fichtner's equally terrifying wife.  -- Peter 

Comments

[rachel]

Did you notice that Marly in AG is Harriet in Studio 60?

[Annie]

What? No "Roar" in your mini-fest? (Hey...Shaun Cassidy "found" Heath Ledger!)

Also, just wondering if you watched AG in the correct order since Universal decided to make the DUMB move of putting the DVD in the order in which it aired on CBS (which was incorrect and didn't feature all the episodes!) It makes a great deal of difference (IMO) when you watch the episodes in the correct order!

I found AG a delight and actually found Gary Cole's portrayal a lot better than Fichtner's. To me, Underlay was a lot more ambivalent than Buck and I found myself liking the characterization Gary Cole delivered a lot more. I also happen to think that Cole is a much better lead actor than Fichtner.