Forgotten Television: 666 Park Avenue

Jane Van Veen (Rachael Taylor) and her partner Henry Martin (Dave Annable) become the new residential managers of the Drake Residential Hotel located at 999 Park Avenue in New York City.  The Drake is owned by Gavin (Terry O’Quinn) and Olivia (Vanessa Williams), a mysterious billionaire couple who seem to have supernatural abilities and who influence the residents of the hotel, granting their wishes, but at a price often too steep to pay.  Jane, who’s background is in architecture begins to research the old building and begins to unravel its secrets, while Henry’s job with the mayor leads him towards his own political career.  Other residents include playwright Brian Leonard (Robert Buckley) and his wife Louise (Mercedes Masohn) a photographer.  Nona Clark (Samantha Logan) is a girl with a unique gift who tries to help Jane.  As the series progresses Jane finds that her own past is linked to Gavin’s and the hotel and she and Henry become more entangled with the supernatural workings of the building and its owners.

666 Park Avenue was an American supernatural drama television series that aired from September 30, 2012, to July 13, 2013, on ABC.  It was loosely based on a novel of the same name by Gabriella Pierce and was developed by David Wilcox.  The show was met with some criticism by the conservative Christian activist group One Million Moms who believed exposing people to “the mark of the devil” was inappropriate and an email campaign was organized targeting the network sponsors of the show.  It didn’t work, but the network did announce that the show would be cancelled in November of 2012 but that it would finish production on all thirteen of the episodes being produced.  There were two scripts that were not filmed and since the production crew was given enough time, they were able to rework the final episode giving closure to fans.

I enjoyed re-watching the pilot for this series and vaguely remember watching it when it originally aired, but don’t remember much more than that.  The production value was good for the series with some nice special effects and the creation of a spooky atmosphere when appropriate.  The music by Trevor Morris effectively accentuates the scenes and adds to the already wonderfully created ambiance.  The overall story was well crafted, and the scripted dialogue flowed well and felt natural with a good rhythm.  The continuing story arc feels like it drags on a bit, where the individual episodic plots move along a bit quicker.  Terry O’Quinn is a very good actor who uses enough subtle facial expressions.  His look can be both welcoming and menacing and there is a malevolence that his character exudes. Rachael Taylor is also quite good as the curious investigator who begins to unravel the secrets.  And Dave Annable is both charismatic and handsome and is convincing as a young man just striving to get ahead.  The entire cast had good chemistry together and no one seemed miscast or out of place. I was concerned that should the show have continued that they would try to stretch out the original mystery a bit too long and not deliver enough of a payload to the fans, but the final episode wraps up a lot of storylines and should the show have continued, the plot would have evolved and the end goals would have changed which is something many productions never figure out. Even with the slow-moving plot, the show was interesting and engaging to watch with some great characters that connect with the audience.