AMERICAN GOTHIC SFX MAG
THE BEST THING ABOUT A SMALL TOWN IS LEAVING IT, AND TRINITY IS NO DIFFERENT.

by Suzy Red

Welcome to Trinity, and ordinary town in the Midwest struck by a terrible tragedy. Young Caleb Temple's father has murdered the boy's sister before taking his own life, leaving the youngster alone and friendless, aside from the support so generously offered by Sheriff Lucas Buck. For some reason, though Caleb's only living relative and the local doctor Matt Crower (both outsiders contaminated by the cynicism of contemporary life) resent the sheriff's help, suspecting him of some ulterior motive. It's been said that the best thing about a small town is leaving it, and with Trinity you can understand why. It's strange, then, to find that, despite a number of murders and the presence of possible ghosts, nothing much seems to happen in AMERICAN GOTHIC, although there's a slow-building plot bubbling under the surface which'll probably be quite effective in the long run.

Is Sheriff Buck (an excellent Gary Cole) a creature of the Devil working to create a kingdom of evil on Earth, for instance? Or simply an over-zealous public servant working for the good of decent people by giving trouble-makers a of their own medicine? The increasingly clear evidence of supernatural powers would seem to decide the issue, but there's a long way to go before anything's clear-cut. Still, it would be nice to have some more immediate gratification in lieu of the main plot coming to the boil. Unfortunately, the episodic nature of the series, which is clearly intended to capture out attention bit by bit, deems to be dropping into a repetitive pattern already - each week Sheriff Buck makes a new attempt to discredit the doctor by coming down heavy on an ordinary decent citizen who suspects the sheriff of foul play. Buck then puts the frighteners on said citizen until he gives in or is discredited, his family destroyed. (Trinity must surely be close to the top of America's domestic homicide league).

And that's the main problem. To be effective, evil should be charming, but Buck's offers of 'favours' are often altogether too menacing to carry any threat - he's blatantly a man to whom anyone in their right mind would avoid owing favours. His hold over Trinity is too widely based on fear when in fact he should be a well-loved figure, protected from attacks and accusations by all the locals he's helped out. Instead, Gail and Dr Crower have found it ridiculously easy to find allies in their pursuit of the diabolical sheriff. Admittedly, the series is improving. The fifth episode. 'Dead to the World', is more interesting than anything which has gone before, as hints of genuine compassion in Buck's treatment of the former girlfriend whose life he destroyed contrasts with his attempts to teach Caleb the value of winning at all costs. The pawky humour of a 'father' wondering, 'Where did I go wrong?' because his son's turned out to be a good loser reveals a promising edge to the series. If it can build on this, it might just prove a worthy successor to David Lynch's acclaimed TWIN PEAKS.