'The Gates' TV Series Review

Why Were These Gates Opened?

New ABC Crime Drama ‘The Gates’ Fails to Live Up to Fellow Supernatural Shows

Written by: Karen Benardello


These gates should definitely be closed and locked at the end of this season. The new ABC supernatural crime drama, ‘The Gates,’ directed by Terry McDonough and starring Frank Grillo (previously seen on FOX’s ‘Prison Break’), Rhona Mitra (of ‘Underworld: Rise of the Lycans’ fame), Luke Mably (of the first two ‘The Prince and Me’ movies), Janina Gavankar (who appeared in ‘The L Word’) and Chandra West (from ‘90210’), has garnered decent ratings for a summer show, but doesn’t have enough of a cohesive and easy-to-follow plotline to stay on the air for much longer.

Since vampires and other supernatural have captured the attention of most of America over the past couple of years, i.e. ‘The Twilight Saga,’ ‘True Blood,’ ‘The Vampire Diaries’ and the aforementioned ‘Underworld’ trilogy, ABC seemed like it was hoping to cash in on the trend with ‘The Gates.’ The network began promoting the show, which is being produced by Fox TV Studios, since the beginning of this year. Various media outlets even hopped on the bandwagon, including The Hollywood Reporter, who officially announced on February 10 that Grillo was cast in one of the show’s main roles.

‘The Gates’ follows Nick Monohan, a former Chicago police officer, played by Grillo, who suddenly gets a job as the chief of police in a seemingly small, harmless community and moves his family there. However, he soon discovers there’s more to the residents than they reveal. Malby plays Dylan Radcliff, one of the community’s residents and a cardiologist who is a vampire-like creature. He is married to Claire (played by Mitra), who is also a vampire. West portrays Devon, the owner of the local tea shop, and Gavankar plays Leigh Turner, a fellow cop who has a dark secret.

The show, which is written by Richard Hatem and Grant Scharbo, was one of numerous pilots to be considered by ABC in the beginning of 2009 to be picked up for the 2009–2010 season. However, its premiere was pushed back to June 2010, and rightfully so. There are so many different characters, many of whom seem to pop up out of nowhere, it’s hard to keep track of who’s who and what supernatural affiliation they have.

While the show drew in 3.87 million viewers for its series premiere on June 20, it seems likely that the only reason for this number (high for the summer, as people tend to skip on watching television during the season) was because it had no direct competition. HBO’s hit ‘True Blood,’ a similarly-themed show about vampires and shape shifters, also airs on Sunday nights, but it acts as a lead-in for ‘The Gates’ at 9pm. While people are blood-thirsty for vampires right now, the lack of character development and good writing on ‘The Gates’ will prevent it from opening up for another season.