I know this thread should be in the primetime section but since there always seems to be very little traffic there, I just had to come here and post about this show. ABC has promoted it heavily as one of its summer shows and I have to say that the pilot was pretty good. There was enough going on in the pilot to get hooked on. There was nothing campy or humorous about it because it was kind of dark and serious in tone. Did anyone else watch it? It's been compared to Desperate Housewives ( but I thoroughly disagree), also to True Blood and Vampire Diaries (I disagree with this too)! It parallels Dark Shadows mostly IMO. In addition to the normal family, there's a sexy married couple who are both vampires, a couple of witches, one seemingly good and the other one bad, and a teen werewolf and his pack. I also think a few more characters will later be revealed as supernatural. Ironically, this show was reportedly taped somewhere in Louisiana (although the show's setting is suburban Chicago) and it reminds me of what that proposed late-night supernatural soap that was pitched years ago to be set in New Orleans (13 Bourbon Street, I believe?) might've been. Maybe the moderators can transfer this thread over to the proper section.

It was cheezy but kinda fun, unlike the awful new show that proceeded it, Scoundrels (which pains me to admit as I love Virginia Madsen).

Edited June 23, 201015 yr by EricMontreal22

I thoroughly enjoyed The Gates, plenty of stories and characters to keep me hooked for the rest of the summer.

I found this to be painful to try and get through.

Judging from the promos? Desperate Housewives with vampires.

Judging from the promos? Desperate Housewives with vampires.

...and witches, and werewolves...

...and witches, and werewolves...

LOL. Another promo I saw today called it DH meets True Blood (don't you love it when one network uses another network's shows to promote its own?). Sounds like Desperate Housewives meets Dark Shadows, which wouldn't be bad if not for the Desperate Housewives part. Weeds is Desperate Housewives meets The Corner.

...and witches, and werewolves...

...and even a succubus, as we'll learn in the next episode...

LOL. Another promo I saw today called it DH meets True Blood (don't you love it when one network uses another network's shows to promote its own?). Sounds like Desperate Housewives meets Dark Shadows, which wouldn't be bad if not for the Desperate Housewives part. Weeds is Desperate Housewives meets The Corner.

I'm very glad that I don't personally see the DH connection because if I did, I would not be hooked on this show. I suppose I'm used to the humor that DH often has which thankfully is not seen on The Gates. Nevertheless, I think some people may have been misled by the promos. I've read posters who thought that The Gates would be some kind of Desperate Housewives comedy/spoof containing vampires. Instead, it was a rather dark, mysterious, and suspenseful show with a pretty serious tone to it.

I did find some spoof element--I mean it mocks the whole gated community concept, etc,ut of course in a darker way. Still the LOOK of the show is DHish in a way--but I do agree with you. And I also agree that it's far more Dark Shadows than DH--or True Blood (which it's nothing like except for the supernatural horror)

On the basis of the first episode,I thought it was slick,fast paced and entertaining.

There seems to be enough going on to sustain the initial run,although I wonder,long term how they would keep the interest up.

I wonder what ABC's expectations are...

I could see this as a daytime show - maybe what Passions should have been. It moved so fast that I could see 2 weeks (at least) of daily shows dealing with what happened in the first ep. Perhaps if something like this had have been launched a few years back,soaps wouldn't be on the way out.

I dunno, after last night's show it feels directionless to me. Happy Town had much more potential (especcially by the end when we had everything being tied into that odd German old film, The Blue Room) and ABC didn't seem to have any faith there...