TV review: '666 Park Avenue' could have been devilish fun
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Terry O'Quinn and Vanessa Williams preside over a mysterious apartment building in "666 Park Avenue."
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Imagine the Drake, a swanky Manhattan apartment building, as sort of an evil "Fantasy Island" and you'll get a sense of ABC's "666 Park Avenue" (10 p.m. Sunday, WTAE), an OK supernatural soap. Sunday's premiere brings nothing new to the genre but viewers inclined to watch programs of this sort might be entertained.
A fresh-scrubbed young couple, Henry (Dave Anable, "Brothers & Sisters") and Jane (Rachael Taylor, "Charlie's Angels") take jobs as building managers at the Drake and get free rent in a too-good-to-be-true apartment.
When: 10 p.m. Sunday, ABC.
Starring: Terry O'Quinn, Vanessa Williams.
They're hired by good-naturedly devilish building owner Gavin Doran (Terry O'Quinn, "Lost"), who, with his high society wife Olivia (Vanessa Williams, "Desperate Housewives"), presides over the building and the deals he signs with occupants. The deals are for more than just apartment rent as a concert musician learns the hard way. Violate the terms of the agreement and the Drake will suck a tenant into its walls.
When Henry and Jane ask doorman Tony (Erik Palladino, "ER") what happened to the previous building manager, all-seeing, all-knowing Tony says, "As I understand it, Mr. Hartwell moved somewhere warmer. Arizona, I think."
Get it, "warmer," as in hell?
Olivia seems to be aware of Gavin's schemes. He discusses with her how they'll use Jane to "get Henry."
In the premiere one tenant's dead wife comes back to life as part of a deal with Gavin. Good thing the Drake is a large building so the show can churn through residents on a weekly basis, although another young couple, aspiring playwright Brian (Robert Buckley, "Lipstick Jungle") and bossy wife Louise (Mercedes Masohn), appear to be around for a while, if Brian can keep his eyes off the hot blond in the building across the street.
The Drake is also home to a mystery teenager who appears to have a premonition of a bad future for Jane. Could this teen be the ghost of Olivia's dead daughter?
There's nothing egregiously wrong with "666 Park Avenue" but there's nothing outstanding or all that surprising about it either. It's just kind of meh and a TV show with a devil at the center should be more fun than that.
First Published September 27, 2012 12:00 am
