American Gothic, one of the most recent editions to the CBS series this summer, has been a roller coaster since, well moments after it started.
Before we review the first seven episodes of the series consider yourself warned, major spoilers ahead.
The family which owns a concrete business have to deal with the collapse of a tunnel constructed years ago using their concrete. However, the collapse of the tunnel isn't their biggest problem, Amidst the rubble are the remains of one of the victims of the person known as SBK (Silver Bells Killer), a serial killer who terrorized the city over a decade before the series starting point.
Characters and Episode 1 Spoilers:
We get introduced to the Hawthorne family one person at a time:
Alison Hawthorne-Price (Juliet Rylance): Eldest daughter of Mitch and Madeline Hawthorne. Running for mayor's office, Alison vows to find "SBK" if and when elected. Alison finds such a vow as a way to spin the incident of the tunnel collapse especially with her family's concrete business' involvement in its construction.
Mitchell Hawthorne (Jamey Sheridan): The father of four, Alison whom we have already introduced, Garrett, Cam and Tessa; and husband of one Madeline Hawthorne. Mitch suffers a heart attack during the very same press conference Alison attempted to use to gain support for her candidacy.
Tessa Ross (Megan Ketch): We are introduced to her early on driving to her family's house with her husband Brady Ross (Elliot Knight). But the highlight of her role starts when after the collapse of the tunnel and while searching for her brother Cam's drugs she finds a box of silver bells. Yes, indeed silver bells, SBK's signature and she finds it in a shed in the family's real-estate.
Cam Hawthorne (Justin Chatwin): A cartoonist and recovering drug addict and husband of Sophie (Stephanie Leonidas). But most importantly he is father to one Jack Hawthorne (Gabriel Bateman) an extremely psychopathic child, that kid will scare the hell out of the viewer every episode more and more, the way he talks, the way he acts, the way he has to strangle dolls and ask questions about opening people and animals. Yes insanity has a new name and it is Jack Hawthorne.
Garrett Hawthorne (Antony Starr): After 14-Years away from his family Garrett returns to visit his father who suffered a heart attack and is heard by one of Alison's kids whispering in Mitch's ears that he will tell the all the truth, at which point Mitch suffers another cardiac event.
Madeline Hawthorne: She is portrayed by Virginia Madsen who has always been in my opinion one of the most underrated, given extremely terrible roles actresses. However, she does shine in this one. The wife of Mitch Hawthorne at the closing of the very first episode of the series cuts the oxygen supply to her husband as she sits next to his hospital bed when he tells her that they have to tell them the truth.
Verdict:
The series at a first glance doesn't seem to be the best in its genre and doesn't seem to stand for all that much. However, it also seems that the series tries to rush into doing a lot of things early on, such as introducing all the characters right away and even goes far to kill one of the family members in the very first episode. But it does hold promise if the pace were to be dropped down a notch and the dialogue was to be improved.
However, the 10 years old Gabriel Bateman is pretty promising and could have a great acting career if he is as talented as I think he is. For a ten year old to give us that crazy eyes, psychopathic performance he must possess talent, a lot of it. And the great thing he has those moments in which he is perfectly fine and seemingly normal, and then the next moment he goes into absolute psycho mode. He is now definitely on my list of youngsters who represent the future of the movie and TV industry along with Maisie Williams who was fourteen when she started playing the role of Aria Stark on 'Game of Thrones', Bella Ramsey who was ten when she started playing the role of Lyanna Mormont on 'Game of Thrones' and last but not least the amazingly talented Millie Bobby Brown who was ten when she played the role of Madison on the BBC America TV series Intruders and twelve when she portrayed the role of Eleven on Netflix's 'Stranger Things'.
So if anything the psychopath that Gabriel Bateman's character is and the evil that we could see in Virginia Madsen's eyes are both worthy of continuing to watch the series at least until it gets extremely hopeless or it might as well get really good.
So far the first episode makes one suspect pop in mind to be the Silver Bells Killer, Mitch Hawthorne. Let us know what you think in the comments section.
I am currently watching all the episodes one after the other so I will be posting more reviews probably in bulk. Thought I would drop this one in real quick though.
Thanks for tuning in.
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