American Gothic

American Gothic

A horror series produced by Sam Raimi that aired on CBS in 1995-1996.

The Set-Up: In the creepy little southern town of Trinity, the American dream is alive and well thanks to mullet-sporting Sheriff Lucas Buck (Gary Cole). Apparently, Sheriff Buck has it in his head that in order to keep the peace, he needs to get his hands on supernatural wunderkind Caleb Temple (Lucas Black) who keeps in psychic contact with his recently murdered sister, Merlyn. Dr. Crowther (Jake Weber) is a Yankee, recovering alcoholic who gets the heebie jeebies from Sheriff Buck and decides the Sheriff should be nowhere near the kid.

Meanwhile, Caleb’s distant cousin Gail Emory (Page Turco) is awakened by a psychic vision that calls her to the town so she can protect Caleb and keep the Sheriff’s murderous mitts off the kid while she investigates the deaths of her own parents.

Sheriff Buck does not take kindly to this. By the way, he may or may not be Satan himself.

Typical episode: Caleb and his friend Boone creep around town getting into mischief. They discover something they shouldn’t. Sheriff Buck shows up and blackmails someone into helping him. Gail investigates the family history and finds more and more disturbing evidence. Sheriff Buck keeps showing up and intimidating her. Caleb consults with his dead sister. Someone stands up to the Sheriff – often it’s Caleb’s dead sister. Either he succeeds in intimidating them, or he kills them. Or he goads them into killing themselves.

The style: The Andy Griffith Show, possessed by Twin Peaks. Or as the show runners describe it in the commentary, Touched by Satan.

Typical Dialogue: “Looks like Marlene did you right. She comes from a long line of backwoods nymphos.”

More Dialogue: “This town does cover its tracks, all right. . . The secret history of the south is hidden in blood. Genealogy . . . family.”

More Dialogue: “The devil’s cleverest ploy is to persuade you he doesn’t exist. Never underestimate the power of the unholy to deceive.”

More Dialogue: “Ted, that man is half dead. You half way took us hostage. I’m going to call you Half Ted.”

More Dialogue: “Oh, she’s a gentle soul. Heart of gold and all that crap.”

Typical Kid Dialogue: “Grampa’s taking a nap on the ceiling.”

My Favorite Dialogue: As a kid looks at his birthday cake,
“What should I wish for, Daddy?”
“Salvation.”

Funny Observation: This is the second one-season wonder in a row that features blood spelling out words in the pilot episode.

It’s also the second show to feature someone showering in blood.

Special Guest Stars: Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi.

My favorite episodes:

1.1 “Pilot” The opening scene is fantastic. It burns the creepy, frightening southern gothic atmosphere onto your brain. Corpses crying blood. Blood spelling out words on doors. Secrets uncovered. The special effects are questionable, but the style is fun and eerie. Nicely paced with a cliffhanger ending.
1.2 “A Tree Grows in Trinity” The search for Caleb continues. Sheriff Buck’s grip on the town is strong thanks to manufactured favors. Another eerie episode with clues aplenty. Con: the editing techniques are dated and too over-the-top.
1.4 “Damned if You Don’t” This show nicely establishes the Sheriff’s grip on the town. A subtly menacing episode.
1. 7 “Meet the Beetles” Bruce Campbell shows up. An awesome Psycho reference. Caleb digs up his own grave. This episode is the creepiest so far. But why is the editing so whack? This episode is one of the more stand-alone stories.
1.9 “To Hell and Back” This show really likes to evoke Boo Radley. It also does a great job of setting up a character’s weakness and utilizing it for topnotch drama. It fills in the backstory of one particular character. By the way, Sheriff Buck is one evil fuck. And I’m a little ashamed, but this episode even made me shed a single, solitary tear.
1.11 “Rebirth” I didn’t like this episode at first. I thought I had it all figured out. But then it pulled a clever trick on me. I feel gullible. We see Merlyn’s dark side for the first time.
1.14 “Inhumanitas” The most religiously themed episode, and it’s awesome. Finally, a proper supernatural showdown, but Sheriff Buck has an ace in the hole. It draws a line and raises the stakes considerably.
1.16 “Dr. Death Takes a Holiday” An extremely dark episode. Another showdown. A major win for the dark side. The plot is delivering on its early promises.
1.21 “The Buck Stops Here” A very twisted penultimate episode that nicely sets up all the pieces for the finale. Dark, suspenseful and surprising.
1.22 “Requiem” The final episode is totally deranged and totally awesome. The forces of “good” no longer matter. The final battle is between two evils. All with a ridiculously over the top score. And thanks to excellent character development, allegiances are a seriously tricky matter. I mean, who the hell am I supposed to root for here?

My Least favorite:

1.13 “Resurrector” The Sheriff Buck portion of this episode is pretty dull and ordinary. It’s a take on An American Tragedy. But I like Caleb’s story – if only because we get to see voodoo landlady/legal guardian Loris Holt. Where the hell has she been? Plus the ending is pretty awesome. This show knows how to end an episode.
1.20 “Strangler” This episode was silly. The Boston Strangler seems like an awfully random spirit to evoke. An unnecessary episode.

How many episodes were produced? 22. Only 18 aired.

Was there much continuity? Absolutely. The story is a slow build. Characters develop and information is doled out deliberately. Issues often carry from episode to episode, and little things mentioned early on often come back later. There are very few cliffhanger endings, but the endings often set up what is to follow.

However, you must watch it in production order – not broadcast order, which is how it is set up on the DVD! To watch it in broadcast order would drive a person insane. For instance, one character receives their back story episode after they have been committed and locked away. And a viewer would never buy that one character might fall for another character if one particular episode appears at the end of the run rather than in the middle.

Here’s the proper viewing order, which is what I used.

Disc 1 Side A Episode 1 - "Pilot"
Disc 1 Side A Episode 2 - "A Tree Grows in Trinity"
Disc 1 Side A Episode 3 - "Eye of the Beholder"
Disc 1 Side B Episode 1 - "Damned if You Don't"
Disc 3 Side A Episode 4 - "Potato Boy"
Disc 1 Side B Episode 2 - "Dead to the World"
Disc 1 Side B Episode 3 - "Meet the Beetles"
Disc 1 Side B Episode 4 - "Strong Arm of the Law"
Disc 2 Side B Episode 3 - "To Hell and Back"
Disc 2 Side B Episode 2 - "The Beast Within"
Disc 2 Side A Episode 1 - "Rebirth"
Disc 3 Side B Episode 1 - "Ring of Fire"
Disc 2 Side A Episode 2 - "Resurrector"
Disc 2 Side A Episode 3 - "Inhumanitas"
Disc 2 Side A Episode 4 - "The Plague Sower"
Disc 2 Side B Episode 1 - "Doctor Death Takes a Holiday"
Disc 2 Side B Episode 4 - "Learning to Crawl"
Disc 3 Side B Episode 2 - "Echo of Your Last Goodbye"
Disc 3 Side B Episode 3 - "Strangler"
Disc 3 Side A Episode 1 - "Triangle"
Disc 3 Side A Episode 2 - "The Buck Stops Here"
Disc 3 Side A Episode 3 - "Requiem"

Why was it canceled?
According to the mostly unreliable commentary, the ratings started out well and dropped later. And it is clear to me that the network liked to play around with the show too much – airing episodes out of order when it really matters. Even the order on the DVD is totally fucked up. But really, I can only imagine that a show this horror-heavy would never do especially well on network television.

Was there closure?
According to the commentary, the show runners knew that the show was been canceled with enough time to write an ending. So while there is no giant cliffhanger, the show just kind of stops. We get the big showdown that we’ve been waiting on for 22 episodes, but it doesn’t really feel as if all that much is resolved.

Any unattended issues:
What the hell happened in that last minute? The show just stops. I’m not entirely sure who won. And then some of the supporting characters never got a proper resolution.

The Deputy never got out from under the Sheriff’s shadow or completely dealt with the secret he was hiding. I assume Gail will be okay. And will Dr. Peale always be so damn clueless? And what about Selena? All these characters completely fall away in the final few moments.

The verdict:
Hey, this show was pretty good. It was certainly better than I remembered.

Lucas Back (Sling Blade) is great as the pissy little kid with no one he can trust. But I’m not a fan of Gary Cole. Something about him irks me. I feel as if he goes for the easiest path in crafting a performance. His performance is all attitude and swagger, and he lacks the menace or charisma his character needs. The rest of the cast is excellent.

The pacing can be a little slow, but it fits the slow drawl of Southern Living that the show is going for. The special effects are often cheesy and the editing is continually misguided. Still, I like the imaginative camera work – the canted angles and wild dolly shots. But there are too many goofy mini montages.

There is considerable attention spent on character development. There are complex backstories and very rarely does a character do anything that hasn’t been carefully set up in preceding episodes. That being said, Buck’s seduction of one particular character feels unearned to me. Characters I expected to be one-off characters often came back for a bigger purpose. Meanwhile, big characters seem to disappear completely (Where are you, Ms. Holt? There are people in your house!).

This show was created by Shaun Cassidy, who also created Invasion. There are more than a few similarities. Most especially the evil sheriff and the southern town where he is king. As with Invasion, I’m not quite sure what the stakes are exactly – beyond the pragmatic matter of life and death. What happens if Buck “turns” Caleb? What is Merlyn’s agenda exactly? It reminds me a little of Carnivale, where at the end the carnies band together to defeat Clancy Brown, but what do they have against Clancy Brown?

Unlike Invasion, the characters are well defined and I always understand how much they know, how much they suspect, what they are fighting for, and what is preventing them from fighting harder.

Exactly as you would suspect, it is Sam Raimi for television. Cleaned up for the censors, but still gruesome, scary and funny. Beyond the dated, over-reaching stylistics, there is a truly well done story with strong characters. An excellent purchase.