The Gates Discussion: “What Lies Beneath” and “The Breach”

In order to catch up, we’re doing a discussion this week of the second and third episodes of The Gates, a new supernatural thriller about a gated community with some dark secrets.

Title: “What Lies Beneath,” “Breach”

Cast and Crew

Frank Grillo as Nick Monohan
Marisol Nichols as Sarah Monohan
Travis Caldwell as Charlie Monohan
Luke Mably as Dylan Radcliff
Rhona Mitra as Claire Radcliff
Skyler Samuels as Andie Bates
Colton Haynes as Brett Crezski
Victoria Platt as Peg Mueller
Chandra West as Devon
Justin Miles as Marcus Jordan
Janina Gavankar as Leigh Turner
James Preston as Luke Ford

Additional cast and crew information may be found at the imdb.

In “What Lies Beneath,” the death of the former Chief of Police leads to discoveries about the community. In “Breach,” an elaborate break-and-enter scheme by an outsider complicates the lives of a vampire and the local werewolf pack.

My Response

“What Lies Beneath” represents an improvement over the pilot, but both second and third episodes attempt to do too much with plot and too little with character (scenes involving Claire’s attempts to be June Cleaver and the pack’s attempts to lure the reluctant werewolf could be transposed between these two episodes without anyone noticing), the show remains overproduced, and the acting, wildly uneven. A few good actors must carry the show for several soap-opera-mediocre ones a few who are terrible.

Also– we’ve got a publicly-known death toll that should soon rival Sunnydale‘s. Shouldn’t this draw more attention to the “safe” community than we’ve seen thus far?