American Gothic was a series that had so much promise but could just never quite draw the audience needed to keep it on the air. Created by Shaun Cassidy (yes, that Shaun Cassidy) and produced by Sam Raimi, it achieved something of a cult status over the years.  In many ways, the show was ahead of its time, with an ongoing story with paranormal themes to it. I think were it to air in this current day, it would have achieved much greater success.

Gary Cole stars as Lucas Buck, the sheriff of Trinity, SC.  There’s more to Lucas than meets the eye as there is more to this town which on the surface looks like an idyllic place to live and raise a family.

Caleb Temple (portrayed by Lucas Black) lives in the town with his father and sister. One rainy night, his father seems to go berserk as his sister, who seems to suffer some mental deficiencies, repeats the same phrase over and over. Caleb must leave her to get help, and that when he finds the sheriff – which is exactly the help he doesn’t want.

His sister is dead, but events depicted to the public are not entirely accurate. That’s something a few people suspect and even fewer know.  When Caleb is brought to the hospital, Lucas sets out to get custody of the boy, using just about any means possible. Secrets are hinted at as many of the town’s citizens have aspects of their life they’d rather keep under wraps. However, Lucas seems to be able to push people’s buttons nearly perfectly.

It’s that “nearly” that sets up the conflicts of the show. Matt Crower (portrayed by Jake Weber) is a new doctor in town with his own share of secrets, but also doesn’t let Lucas push him around so easily.

Caleb’s cousin Gail Emory (portrayed by Paige Turco) comes to town to take care of him.  Lucas is involved in a sinister way with her past as well.  Meanwhile Caleb starts having visions of his sister. In these visions she is able to communicate with him just fine and doesn’t have the issues she had in life.  Her presence will be with him in this way throughout the series run.

The ongoing story here intertwines nicely with something of an independent story in each episode, usually focused on a different citizen of the town whom we haven’t met before. Gary Cole is excellent in the role as the evil sheriff and as a young actor, Lucas Black does more than hold his own with the adult actors in what is a very complicated role. The stories are well-written for the most part. Where the plot is a bit weak tends to be where you can see the network probably started sticking their nose into the story in an effort to try to “fix” it.  CBS basically sabotaged the show by pre-empting it for weeks on end and airing the episodes out of order, even leaving the most dedicated viewers confused. American Gothic is a series I wish had gone on much longer.

As good as this series was, though, Universal did a horrible job with the DVD release.  There is commentary on the pilot episode with Shaun Cassidy and David Eick which I enjoyed very much. Other than that, though, the only extras are deleted and extended scenes for various episodes. Compounding the lackadaisical DVD release is the fact that the episodes on the discs are in a different order than they were aired.   This is especially an issue with the episode Potato Boy which is way off in terms of the ongoing series storyline. Anyone watching these discs for the first time needs to view the series in a different order than what’s on the discs – this would be the correct order to watch them in:

Pilot
A Tree Grows in Trinity
Eye of the Beholder
Damned if You Don’t
Potato Boy
Dead to the World
Meet the Beetles
Strong Arm of the Law
To Hell and Back
The Beast Within
Rebirth
Ring of Fire
Resurrector
Inhumanitas
The Plague Sower
Dr. Death Takes a Holiday
Learning to Crawl
Echo of Your Last Good-Bye
Strangler
Triangle
The Buck Stops Here
Requiem

I think most people who can sit through American Gothic and watch it in the order it was intended to be viewed will appreciate just how good it was. It’s a shame that both the network it originally aired on and the studio which is marketing this DVD release can’t get it right.



Disc One

Pilot
A Tree Grows in Trinity
Eye of the Beholder

BONUS FEATURES:

·        Commentary on Pilot with Shaun Cassidy and David Eick
·        Deleted and Extended Scenes

Disc Two

Damned If You Don’t
Dead to the World
Meet the Beetles
Strong Arm of the Law

Disc Three

Rebirth
Resurrector
Inhumanitas
The Plague Sower

Disc Four

Doctor Death Takes a Holiday
The Beast Within
To Hell and Back
Learning to Crawl

· Deleted/Extended Scene in Doctor Death Takes a Holiday
· Deleted/Extended Scene in To Hell and Back
· Deleted/Extended Scene in Learning to Crawl

Disc Five

Triangle
The Buck Stops Here
Requiem
Potato Boy

· Deleted/Extended Scene in Triangle
· Deleted/Extended Scene in The Buck Stops Here
· Deleted/Extended Scene in Requiem

Disc Six

Ring of Fire
Echo of Your Last Goodbye
Strangler

· Deleted/Extended Scene in Ring of Fire
• Deleted/Extended Scene in Echo of Your Last Goodbye