666 Park Avenue
Season One
Episode Two
'Murmuration' - 3.0
This is either an ornithologist's dream or their nightmare. Depends on their fetish.
In order to try and increase the fear factor of this
less-than-suspenseful ‘horror’ offering, I decided to watch tonight’s episode
under the flickering glow of two slowly diminishing candles. The light was only
needed so that I could actually see what I was writing, but that probably
wasn’t so important. There isn’t so much to mention.
The sub-plot tonight was largely uninteresting, featuring a forty-six
year old murder mystery that begins with another dream of Jane Van Veen’s. Once
again, our female protagonist ventures into the room-behind-the-wall, entering
the apartment 7G and finding a deceased male with a duo of stab wounds in his
chest. After a little digging we learn that the murder occurred in 1966 and is
still unsolved. However, as this slow investigation continues, we
simultaneously meet Danielle, a young-looking but oddly desperate woman who
desires nothing more than to found the man of her dreams and settle down.
Danielle meets one of Gavin’s associates, Frank Alpen, and they two
begin a very brief courting ritual. Alpen is working with Gavin to help construct
a large building or something, except Henry discovers that the deal is dirty
through his job in the mayor’s office, but keeps it from Gavin fearing that it
could jeopardise his career. He needn’t have worried, because after a
passionate tryst, Danielle discovers that Frank is actually married, and had
been stringing her along the whole time. Betrayed, she grabs a knife and
murders the man right there and then, just as Jane has yet another informative
dream revealing Danielle to be the killer all the way back in 1966.
Huh?
Seems that Danielle is just like the maid from American Horror Story,
and is really exceptionally old. Or something like that, who really knows?
Regardless, she’s been seeking single men then murdering them in a dumbing rage
for decades, while Gavin has been almost resetting her so that he can use her
to get rid of his unwanted associates. Gavin, we learn, was always aware of
Frank’s knowingly dodgy investment, and had desired the man’s death. Similarly,
he had been using this potential financial nightmare as a test of Henry’s
integrity, a test that he passes with flying colours.
In a strange side plot not at all reminiscent of ‘the Birds’ – that’s
not sarcasm – Jane discovers a ‘murmuration’ of starlings nesting behind that
wall that John Barlow was eaten by at the end of the pilot. It was a briefly
thrilling moment as she heard the rustling behind the wallpaper, digging her
fingers into the plaster to get at what’s behind. Sadly, it was birds, who did
little more than startle Rachael Taylor and fly off in pretty – and well CGI-ed
– formation. It was fun when they ate the exterminator she’d hired, though it
sure as hell wasn’t scary. Even in the dark. It didn’t help that we’d seen it
happen already, since the resident psychic, Nora, had seen it in a vision only
a couple of scenes prior.
For Brian Leonard, life is clearly going to get complicated. With his
wife in hospital following her assault-with-intend-to-lift, he finds his
attention caught by the seducing wiles of his neighbour, Alexis, who also
happens to be Mrs. Leonard’s assistant. As such, the little minx gets her claws
on a set of keys to the house, letting herself into the apartment and catching
Brian in the shower. Luckily this isn’t AHS, because he would have been caught
violently masturbating instead. AHS is a lot less subtle than 666.
The Drake had set up their meeting it seems, or maybe it was Gavin. I
don’t know. Anyway, curtains would open themselves so that Brian could stare
lustfully at Alexis, and of course her name did come up as a possible assistant
last episode. Clearly other forces are at work in this building, but honestly I
wish they were more violent. Oh yeah, they fuck. We don’t see it, but we know
it. I’m already impatient for his adultery to become public knowledge.
Ok well, I’m kind of bored. That is just plain not a good reaction to
any television show, especially one that is supposedly built around horror.
Even the twist ending in which Jane finally physically passes through that door
behind the concrete wall, only to have it slam shut behind her didn’t even
warrant a jump from me. I’m definitely intrigued to see what lurks back there,
but on the whole I’m not impressed.
I certainly didn’t think Alexis and Brian would hook up in the second
damn episode. I wondered if maybe it would take just a little while longer than
that, though if you have got a long story to tell make the developments as thick
and fast as possible. I just hope to God that this isn’t one of those
episode-by-episode shows, where twists are added so that we get at least one
every week. Yeah, it makes it interesting in the short run, but probably
wouldn’t last a full season.
So where do I stand? As I said, kind of bored. I liked the birds
themselves rather than their plot line, and the character of Henry seems
largely superfluous right now, but you never know. Similarly I don’t want this
Danielle tragedy to go unremembered, it would be awful if this just turned into
some semi-procedural, new event every week-type show.
It may be wishful thinking to brand ‘Murmuration’ as a low-point right
now, but it wholly failed to scare or excite me in any way. I do have to keep
wondering if conservative free-to-air channels are the best place for a horror
show to air, there is just too much that they wouldn’t be allowed to show.
There’ll certainly be no child death like what runs rampant in AHS, but there
might be a much more intelligent and meaningful level of restraint. Who knows,
the writers and directors may realise that the old trope ‘less is more’ is incredibly accurate, and
choose to show any acts of violence in, not really off-camera, but somewhat
obscured fashion, allowing the viewer to fill in the gruesome blanks.
I sincerely hope you do improve 666 Park Avenue, and I am eager to
unlock the secrets the crawl behind the walls of the Drake, and I guess that’s
what really matters, even if I’m not entirely enjoying the slow, sketchy reveal.
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