A quick look over the announced new series coming in the fall left me a bit underwhelmed, but one title caught my eye along with the names of its two stars: 666 Park Avenue starring Terry O’Quinn and Vanessa Williams! Wow! O’Quinn was really the glue that held Lost together, and Williams has proven her star quality on Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives (even if she was terribly under-used on that series). Put them in a show that certainly more than hints at supernatural goings-on, and I’m there.
But after having a look at the pilot, I’m having mixed feelings about the show, and hopefully some of these issues will work themselves out as the series progresses and we get to know more about the characters and the location, The Drake, an old apartment building in New York City with its own mysterious history.
Besides O’Quinn and Williams as the building owners Gavin and Olivia Doran, we are also introduced to new building manager Jane Van Veen (Rachel Taylor) and her significant other, Henry Martin (Dave Annable). Jane talks her way into the job with her knowledge of the building’s history, and I really liked Taylor’s performance. She makes Jane extremely likable, strong yet vulnerable, and you want to go with her on her Nancy Drew investigation when she discovers even more of The Drake’s dark past. Annable’s Henry is also a likable guy, but it seems the Dolans have lured Jane into the job, and the building, to get to Henry.
Going in to the pilot, I was really expecting something a bit more light-hearted, with some humor or even camp, something along the lines of Desperate Housewives and Revenge (with which this show will be paired on Sundays in the fall). Instead, we get a very dark, heavy, dramatic, uneasy, almost oppressive drama that takes a lot of its cues from classic horror films like Rosemary’s Baby and The Shining, with a bit of The Devil’s Advocate thrown in for good measure. It was almost a bit off-putting because of what I thought it was going to be, but it was also gripping enough because of the mysterious Dolans, the cheerfully unaware Jane, and some of the other tenants in the building (and setting a show in an apartment building can certainly give the writers endless story ideas as people come and go).
What will really make me tune in week after week are O’Quinn and Williams. Williams isn’t given much to do in the pilot, but there is a brief glimmer of what her character can become as the show progresses. I was hoping for more wittiness from her, but I’m curious to see how she pulls off real menace without that Wilhelmina Slater twinkle in her eye. O’Quinn is magnetic. He doesn’t get much screen time in the pilot, but you know that when he shows up, more often than not it’s not going to be good for the other person in the scene. It’s certainly not spelled out, and probably won’t be for quite some time if the show is a success, but Dolan is definitely an otherworldly being, probably Mephistopheles himself (you really don’t want to make a deal with this guy). O’Quinn can be charming when he needs to be, especially around Jane and Henry, but with just a squint of an eye or a downward turn of his lip, you know that something evil is going on behind that facade. I think O’Quinn is perfectly cast and makes the show well worth your time.
I think now that I know what the tone of the show will be — and a little lightness here and there can’t hurt — and seeing how good the cast is in the pilot, I’m ready to take up residence in The Drake come the fall. Hopefully the Revenge fans will stick around and give the show a chance to find its footing.
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Jun 12, 2012 @ 12:00 EST5EDT
I gotta check this out, just based on O’Quinn and Williams. Love them both!