Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Lidia Draper Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A_Different_Drummer This show was great. Really great. This was Gary Cole's best performance in his career. No disrespect to Gary, but nothing ahead is likely to match the subtlety and grace and sheer raw menace of his character here. It was also Lucas Black's best role, but for different reasons. In this show, Black literally delivers dialogue with facial expression. Not a figure of speech. He actually does it. Problem is, he was a "child star" here and when the series was deep-sixed he had to try to reboot his career first as a teenager (and now an adult) and so far the results are not especially promising. He deserved better. Ditto for Brenda Blake. Playing the major vamp in the show, she was able to walk across a gymnasium floor in heels, and get more pizazz from that simple move than most current actresses can get from an entire scene. But the real crime is the way evil in this show was suggested not demonstrated. To this reviewer the real horror is that a show like this could manage only one year whereas a show like American Horror Story, which leaves so little to the imagination, just keeps on going. I am not sure what this says about the world we live in. But that scares me more than any show could possibly manage.

Bob Graner I first saw this amazing series midway through the season in 1995. It is now 2010. It was hard to keep up with the storyline then, now I know it was CBS who really screwed this one up, and I have never been able to catch it again in re-runs anywhere since. It has always been in the back of my mind "what ever happened to such a tremendous and dynamic show"? especially seeing as how there is more than enough crap on TV as it is. I thought maybe it was Gary who got greedy and wanted more money until I realized that that isn't the Gary Cole I know of. A man with such great talent and range who can go right from playing uncannily familiar Mike Brady to the best character you love to hate Sheriff Lucas Buck, he would know when he has another hit on his hands. I finally learned here by reading the comments that it was another CBS idiot who lost out on what is now a cult classic. It has taken me up to today to find the show in a watchable format again with my Netflix account. Sadly I could only watch 15 out of the 22 episodes online. I promise you this though. I am not much of a collector of DVD's but this series I am going to buy the set. In my humble TV and Movie viewing opinion American Gothic is the best written, finely produced, intimately intriguing story and of course excellently acted Television Program I have ever watched. And I watch a lot, mostly crap. To the entire cast and crew, Well Done and Thank You.

linda-hardwick Just wanted to say that I curled up on the couch and watched 8 episodes of this show over this past Memorial Day holiday weekend (2009), and it still holds up. I bought the boxed set about a year ago, but I'm just getting around to watching it. I was amazed to see that not only is the picture quality excellent, but the writing and the characters still work almost 15 years later. I love the ambiguity of the Sheriff Buck character -- is he a demon, a man who's sold his soul to the Devil in a Faustian bargain, or is he The Devil himself? I love the fact that even though he's supposed to be evil, he can sometimes show generosity and even empathy. He helps his deputy out a couple of times when the deputy has some trouble with his son, and he (Sheriff Buck) tries to be a father to his own son, Caleb -- not something you'd expect from an out-and-out devil. On the other hand, the fact that he's capable of showing the occasional kindness makes it that much more affecting when he does pull off one of his mephistophelian plots. Also, it's wonderful how little Caleb, beautifully played by Lucas Black, can thwart him and frustrate his evil schemes in the most innocent yet courageous way. Caleb may falter from time to time, but in the end he is very clear about doing the right thing. And he's not afraid to stand up to his father. I haven't seen the ending yet, but I wonder if Caleb somehow redeems Sheriff Buck or whether he ends up destroying him. I plan to savor this series and stretch out my viewing for as long as I can. I'm thinking I'll play one episode every Friday night at 8 p.m. There are about 16 left in the box, which should take me until September or so. I'll save the last episode for Halloween.

spankedmonkey82 I watched this show on the basis of it being told it was reminiscent of David Lynch's Twin Peaks - a show which I adore. The show quickly starts introducing us to the main characters and rather unusually the pilot episode is to me the best of the lot, its extremely dramatic and really gets out the whole evil side of the show ready to progress throughout the rest of the season. My one biggest criticism is I felt a little let down by the show - probably not through its own fault, as it got cancelled after a mere 1 season, it seemed to display show much potential and it deserved a lot better treatment than it got. The acting is excellent, and this show has some of the best characters (good and evil) in it I have ever seen that are well developed in a short space of time. There is the odd cheesy effect for the first 5 or ten shows which are a bit overly dramatic, but this is rectified as the season progressed. Well worth a watch, definitely something out of the ordinary!