Imagine Desperate Housewives, with fangs. Also fur, claws, spells, magic, and lots and lots of blood. This was the premise behind ABC’s supernatural drama series, The Gates. Conceived as a summer series with hope to continue, The Gates followed the dramatic lives of the residents of the affluent gated community for which the series is named. The major difference is that this particular planned suburban community is chock full of all the dark beasties that go bump in the night. Families of vampires live alongside families of werewolves, with witches and even a succubus to round out the strange little place. Things were going along swimmingly for the lot of them, until a monkey wrench was tossed into the works: an outsider arrives, in the form of the new police chief and his family.
With human law enforcement encroaching into their safe little hamlet, the tense but quiet atmosphere that had existed within The Gates begins to crack. Good the witches and bad witches go head to head; the unquiet peace between werewolves and vampires begins to break, while the structure of the werewolf pack begins to crumble. There’s even a hormonal teenage succubus on the loose. The series was fun, strange, and had a heavy dose of supernatural melodrama that fans of both soap operas and True Blood would enjoy.
Unfortunately, as with most summer series on network television, the ratings were never stellar and the series was not renewed. Only thirteen episodes were filmed and, fun as they are, they are left unresolved. Fans who can’t stand an unsatisfying ending best avoid, but be aware you’d be missing out on a great series.
