ABC's "The Gates" Review

So it’s the summer time, which means I’m over the angst I felt when all my shows left me with a cliff hanger, but there’s still a void because I’m not watching them. The only saving grace is a few summer shows like “Hell’s Kitchen” and “So You Think You Can Dance”. But since I’m a geek and needed something else to watch, I decided that I would give ABC’S “The Gates” a try.

It’s basically a show about monsters that live in a gated community because they want to be safe from normal people because they want to live normally. At first I thought it was vampires, then I pleasantly saw that there were werewolves/shape shifters and then it turned out that there were other creepy neighbors like witches and succubuses, which never really gets done. So the show is an interesting twist on monster mythology.

The non-monsters that we’re supposed to care if they get eaten is a family moved to The Gates because the dad, Nick Monohan, is a cop who had shot a criminal who he supposedly thought was armed. He’s the new Chief of Police for The Gates and is pretty tough on crime. For that reason, when a neighbor goes missing and is mauled in a so called “animal attack” he’s on the case, to the annoyance of the residents.

The second most important character from the family is the son, Charlie, who likes a girl at school who has a boyfriend, a very deadly boyfriend. A love triangle ensues.

I wasn’t too thrilled with it while watching the first few episodes. It was something I barely decided to DVR. I would play it on Hulu while I was working on something on my computer. I’m not too attached to any of the characters and wouldn’t be sad if any one of them disappeared. I’m just not invested into them yet. There’s a line of morality missing for me. And though Charlie isn’t knocking over in liquor stores or anything like that, I just don’t think it’s cool to engage in cheating. And then all the monsters eat people and I don’t find any of them really charming, with the exception of vampire Dylan Radcliff.

Then the fourth episode comes on and it’s typical blah, blah, blah and then at the last five minutes of the episode makes me go “I can’t believe that just happened!” I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it. For those who know what I’m talking about, it certainly was reckless and unexpected. However, it proved to me that this show isn’t going to play it safe and that there’s more than what I thought to it. If a show can make me gasp, they’ve got something.

I’m officially a fan. I’m not devoted or addicted, but I’m eggar to see what comes next. I recommend it. While it has somewhat of a slow start to me, it gets better and I think it’s gonna be really good!