Horror The Gates (ABC)

Kevin

Code Monkey
Staff member
I've watched the first few episodes of The Gates (on ABC in the US) and, at least for me, it is a bit too 'soap opera' like for me. I found the premise interesting, a small privately owned town that is literally surrounded by a giant wall, a bit like a fiefdom from the medieval era, where the citizens within have secrets to hide. But what kind of secrets?

Well, so far we have seem vampires, werewolves, witches, succubi [the plural of succubus], and some other weird mojo alluded to that people are willing to kill for. That is a lot of secrets for a small town. And all of those secrets are unknown to the new sheriff of the town who has just moved in with his family.

Too many secrets may be part of why the show so far has not appealed to me. Instead of narrowing in on a few story lines & characters to tell their story each episode just keeps opening up new story line branches, while intended to show that everybody has some dark secrets, just bogs down the pace of the show.

I can't help but wonder how the show would have turned out if it was instead airing on SyFy or other non-broadcast station instead of ABC. It feels a bit like watching movies that originally played at the movies with a R rating that have been edited & redubbed to bring it down to a PG-13 rating for the purpose of airing it on broadcast TV. Sure, it might be the same story but it just feels empty.

 
I only watched the first episode and the fact it was like a generic american soap was what really turned me off it. When I saw the synopsis on TV.com I thought I'd give it a bash. But when I started watching it I honestly had to double check I was watching what had been described.
 
I watched the first 2 episodes & wasn't impressed. I am a huge "True Blood" & "Vampire Diaries" fan though.
OK, I'm glad to see it's just not me then! I don't follow the vampire type shows & movies too much so one my of self-doubts was that maybe I was sub-consciously not giving The Gates a chance because of the genre.
 
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