American Gothic, on CBS
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Truly dark and twisted. In the town of Trinity, South Carolina, Sheriff Lucas Buck (Gary Cole) was... well, he was kind of like the Devil, or something. Everyone owed him for some favor he'd done for them over the years. Everyone was fairly afraid of him I reckon, but they'd never show it. The way they treated him... well, this is kind of like the boy from the Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life." Okay, it's just an analogy, but I think it works. Anyway, it's not exactly like that. Like I say, he's more like the Devil. And he's got a son, Caleb Temple (though Caleb would rather not believe Lucas is his real father). The sheriff's girlfriend is a local grade school teacher, Selena Coombs (Brenda Bakke). She's kind of evil and manipulative herself.

Let's see, there are plenty of other characters, like Caleb's cousin Gail Emory (Paige Turco), and Caleb's dead sister Merlyn Temple (Sarah Paulson), who's now a ghost. (Caleb and Merlyn were raised by someone other than Lucas Buck, but I don't remember that very well.) There's the Sheriff's deputy, Ben Healy, who seems kind of ineffectual, but not a really bad guy. And there's Dr. Matt Crower, who's new in town. And, y'know, there's other people in the show, most of whom would love to bring down the sheriff, but I think mainly he finds them amusing. They're kind of like mice to him, plotting against the cat. Plus they're all bound by the law and ethics and stuff, and he's not. I mean, it's not like they can prove he's evil or supernatural in any way, or even doing anything illegal.

Anyway, it was a very brilliant and intriguing and twisted show. Very cool. And it was created by Shaun Cassidy. Wrap your head around that. (Easier to believe is that it was executive produced by Sam Raimi.) Um... I'd like to say more, but I don't remember it well. Someday I definitely gotta get the DVDs, refresh my memory about things, hopefully write up a better review. Maybe even raise my rating, we'll see....