American Gothic

Sad to see some people find this boring. As one who is very tired all the silly tricks to try and pump up our adrenaline like Shonda Rhimes and her micro bursts of stills that made me walk away from 'Scandal' and trying to shock by pushing the limits on gratuitous graphic gay scenes that lost my interest in 'How to get away with Murder', I find this show very refreshing, balanced and intelligent. I like the array of characters and each of the actors that play them.

It is also great to have a break from being overfilled with shock and awe special effects and sci-fi silliness like 'Under the Dome' and 'Wayward Pines'. If you are looking for a TV fix to satisfy a need for high speed adrenaline pumping shock-treatments, this show is not for you.

For me, I find it vert well done and a perfect fit in quality entertainment.

Concrete in a tunnel collapses in Boston. It's a blow to Alison Hawthorne-Price (Juliet Rylance) who is running against Mayor Conley. Her father ran the family concrete business which supplied the material. Evidence of the "Silver Bells Killer" is found in the rubble. The killer has been silent for almost 15 years. The cold case is reopened led by detective Linda Cutter and suspicions land on the Hawthorne family. The father suffers a heart attack. Madeline Hawthorne (Virginia Madsen) is the matriarch. Her son Cam (Justin Chatwin) is a recovering addict with his own family. Her daughter Tessa (Megan Ketch) is married to police detective Brady Ross (Elliot Knight). Her son Garrett (Antony Starr) has returned from parts unknown.

It's a crime twisty mystery family drama. It's good enough for a network TV show but nothing more. It's not exciting or terribly compelling. There are some twists but nothing terribly compelling. The characters are fine and so are the actors. It needs one central character with real charisma to drive the show but this is more of an ensemble cast. This is not going to rewrite the TV playbook. There is just enough interest to keep watching all 13 one-hour episodes.

The mystery part of the show was pretty good. A little slow at times but the story picked up speed as the season went on. There were enough twists and turns to hold my attention.

But there was definitely a liberal agenda. For starters this show is about a ridiculously wealthy family in New England. So wealthy that no average American can relate.

Then the family is involved in local politics. This is where the Hollywood starts to ooze out. There are little comments made about getting rid of guns, a gun buy back program, taking care of refugees, blah blah. Just like Hollywood, they fight for the rights of refugees but there isn't a refugee within a 20 mile radius of their gated community.

Make a good crime thriller. Keep the politics out of it.

I really liked the show. It is a mystery who-dun-it. I hope they don't cancel it. I didn't move from my chair till it was over. Sometimes shows do take till the 3rd or 4th episode before they take off.

Kinda had an old-fashioned feel to it. Beautiful grand old house too. I liked the characters and they all had their own thing going on too.

I don't want to give anything away. It's not crass and there is no foul language. I like to watch a show that has drama without going trashy. I also enjoyed seeing Justin Chatwin again--I hadn't seen him in anything for awhile. Also, I love the Gabriel Bateman--he gives me the willies! Give it a try! I hope you like it as well.

This series has a clean, honest story line. It does have a traditional look about it, as someone mentioned, but that works for me. I'm a bit tired of the quick-cutting, montage-a-minute kind of film that passes for story these days.

The Hawthorne siblings are all different so you can find one to like and one to despise if that's your thing. Tessa is refreshingly naïve, a bit fruity, but I like Alison best, the cold, sophisticated one.

The other thing about this one is that it's not too freaky. I know it's fashionable to be pushing the envelope these days but I already think that sort of thing is done to the limit -- it seems like producers are going out of their way to find shock value. Sure, shock value gets people talking about your show but that's about it --- yada,yada,yada -- it's become boring, snore-producing.

Since I don't find much video/film/TV that impresses me anyway (compared to books where you can always find a good book), I like a good story with characters well-played even if fireworks and CGI aren't going on all the time.