666 Park Avenue Review: A Halloween Haunting

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Have you ever noticed how on Halloween-based episodes of most shows, the characters always have the most elaborate costumes ever? I'm always spinning my thinking wheels trying to come up with something at the last minute, so I can only imagine the amount of planning that went into picking out the outfits on 666 Park Avenue.

Louise and Brian as Cleopatra and Marc Antony, Henry and Jane as a sheriff and Tippi Hedren from Hitchcock's The Birds, Alexis as the sexy nurse, and the Dorans as, well... I'm not sure what they were dressed as. Dressed to impress? I guess when you're that rich and famous, you don't have to play by the rules.

Of course, with the show seated within a scary and supernatural aspect, a Halloween episode like "A Crowd of Demons" was not the throw away fun and cheesy hour you might expect. Everything felt right at home with the continuously evolving secrets, the shaking of relationships, and a murderous ghost reincarnate trying to hatchet everyone in his path.

The Drake's Halloween Gala

Interestingly enough, when I spoke with Mercedes Masohn (Louise), she was excited to talk about the episode's homage to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, which was pretty evident with the hatchet carrying Peter Kramer.

I was expecting a "Here's, Johnny" type of moment, but that twitchy eye and Peter's general demeanor was creepy enough. 

Although I am curious as to how the little girl survived, but is a ghost at that exact same age. What does that mean? And what does it mean that Jane has the necklace from Kramer's wife?

And I really liked how it was easy to assume that whoever was trying to kill Olivia and mess with Gavin was the same person as Peter Kramer. Switching it two different stories, but both scary people (great gas mask by the way) really amped up the danger of what was going on.

So, what's in the red box?

Those mysterious questions rack my brain, but they make me want to come back to find out what the heck is going on with the Drake.

But I really feel like none of that would matter without the characters and we're really digging deeper into who they are, and something like that helps drive the show to be interesting.

Henry and Jane may be, at this point, not really dealing with any relationship friction, but the whole question of marriage that keeps coming up will probably explode into something more. And the fact that Jane keeps finding herself in scary situations isn't helping.

I'm glad Brian and Louise are back, but their whole situation is in utter turmoil, no thanks to the sexy vixen Alexis. On the one hand, she plays nice and concerned, but she's manipulating both of them into breaking them apart. 

Clearly, jealousy is a strong emotion and it took Brian down a dark turn, but Louise's addiction was a nice surprise. Not nice for her, but it illustrates a vulnerability in her normally carefree and happy attitude. Plus, she's not interested in anyone else and quickly turned away the doctor, yet I have no idea how those two are going to reconcile. There's a lot of secrets brewing between them.

Couples counseling perhaps? With Alexis? Wouldn't that be entertaining?

Yet, finally getting to see the normally resolute Gavin shaken up by the mysterious thief was great. Not only was there real concern for Olivia's well being, but he seemed actually worried by the whole predicament. It was good to see a different side to the powerful Doran.

While Gavin may have a threat on his hands, I've no doubt he will deal with it mercilessly. Good luck to the guy on the other end of the phone.

Overall, an entertaining episode that's so far my favorite for the season. I do wonder why Peter Kramer was taken care of so quickly and if there are forces inside the Drake that are competing with it. Are the birds in the wall good guys? Bad guys who don't like other bad guys on their turf?

If anything, it looks like things are starting to unravel and we are headed further down the rabbit hole of secrets and scary on 666 Park Avenue.

A Crowd of Demons Review

Editor Rating: 4.2 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.5 / 5.0 (56 Votes)

Sean McKenna was a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. He retired in May of 2017. Follow him on Twitter.

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666 Park Avenue Season 1 Episode 5 Quotes

Brian Alexis is gonna be at the party. Great.

Henry: Wow. It's like having your own fairy godmother.
Jane: Yeah, who let's herself in whenever she wants.