Press "Enter" to skip to content

TV Review: 666 Park Ave.

Paul Kalis
Arts and Entertainment Editor

Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor) and Henry Martin (Dave Annable), an idealistic young couple, are offered the opportunity to manage the historic Drake residential hotel located at 666 Park Avenue. They unknowingly become one of the many victims of Gavin Doran (Terry O’Quinn), the building’s mysterious owner, and his wife, Olivia (Vanessa Williams). The Drake maintains a dark hold over all of its residents, tempting them through their ambitions and desires.

The show’s main stars certainly have great pedigrees behind them, all formerly starring in ABC dramas such as “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Brothers and Sisters,” and “Charlie’s Angels.” The pilot was written by David Wilcox (“Fringe,” “Life on Mars”). The new drama, based on the book series by Gabriella Pierce, differs in that the Upper East Side socialists are not witches. The residents of the Drake are ordinary people who made the wrong deal with the wrong person. I was looking forward to seeing this idea transition on screen to make the series a bit more out of this world.

After initially viewing the pilot, I concluded that the show needed character development as too many of the residents were introduced in a very vague way. As the show progressed, this problem disappeared. There is a great sense of suspense as the modern day blends together with the past creating for an intense mystery that affects everyone in the Drake. Since AMC’s “Mad Men,” set in a previous decade, the networks have been trying to emulate its success leading to last year’s failures “the Playboy Club” and “Pan Am.” However, Park Ave’s formula has not worked as ABC declined to order additional episodes of the series. All 13 ordered episodes have been slated to air.

“666 Park Avenue” airs after “Once Upon a Time” and “Revenge” (which all have a cinematic feel and focus around an epic struggle of good versus evil) on Sundays at 10 pm on ABC. Catch up with “666 Park Ave” on ABC.com and tune in before the series finale airs later this season.

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *