Hauntings And Curses - Will Ravenswood Youths Overcome Them And Survive? Charmed Near Clone, Dracula, Nikita and 47 Ronin

I hope that Ravenswood the Pretty Little Liars spin -off that debut this week is worth me dropping Marvel’s Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D from my DVR recording schedule. On, I am not going to miss a moments of Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D. I will watch it on Demand. However, with a few the news series scheduled just about on top of the older returning series scheduling is tricky,

Nevertheless, Ravenswood’s pilot started of with a mystery, creepy haunting, one death, and three near death of a group of young people of which two of them Caleb Rivers, played by Tyler Blackburn, and Miranda Collins, played by Nicole Gale Anderson, triggers the hauntings by coming to Ravenswood. The mystery deepened for Tyler and Miranda as well their newfound friends Luke Matheson, played by Brett Dier, Olivia Matheson, played by Merritt Patterson, Remy Beaumont, played by Britne Oldford. 

By the end of the Pilot there is a terrible auto accident and in Episode 1 - “Death and the Maiden”, Miranda died and the remaining member especially Tyler is aware of more haunting. 

If these events are not scary, enough there is Miranda’s uncle Raymond Collins, played by Steven Cabral. He is Ravenswood’s local mortician, and despite his young age, he is a frightening as the old mortician in the 1979 horror movie Phantasm. Appears from the emotion needs of the living and as he stated he comes from a long line of morticians, his father, his father’s father, and his father before him. 

If it was not for Carla Grunwald, played by Meg Foster - who enchanted us with startling eyes in her youth, and now chill us with the same in her dowager’s years - Raymond Collins would probably never leave the company of the dead.

Mysterious secrets, unrestful specters of the good, bad, and ugly varieties, and people among the living who make it hard to determine whom the allies are and who wish the haunting to stop by any means, makes ABC Family’s Ravenswood an interesting series to watch.  

The big question is why must these young people died? What is it about this curse that has such a deadly hold on them that they would travel from far away only to become victims of it?

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Then there is Witches of East End. Does anyone remember Charmed? I do, and I am seeing some similarities in the Witches of East End that all too uninteresting. If this series plans on a long run, it will have to break away from the Charmed formula plot. 

Following the witches is the more contemporary Starz Original Series, Dancing on the Edge, which debuts on last Sunday. The main plot of the series revolves around the rise and sudden mysterious murder of a lead singer in an all black jazz band in England in the 1930s. While the series touches on the issue of racism in that era, it also contains some rich storytelling and equally rich jazz music. Although only six episodes, the atmosphere of the series and its marvelous cast makes Dancing on the Edge a worthwhile show the watch.

 

In addition, three along awaited shows and are showing fruit. The first is Nikita, which will begins is final season will six episodes starting November 20, 9/10C on The CW. I am sorry to see the series end, but it appears is saved it best episodes for last and rating wises it was a bit too late to save the show. 

Second, is that NBC’s Dracula has put out it most thrilling preview to date. Watching it, I got those same feelings of excitement and wariness as I did when first watching the old Dracula’s horror films of the late 60s and 70s. NBC’s Dracula the series will be no shabby remake of those films. 

Third and finally, I have waited nearly two years for this preview of Keanu Reese new martial art film, 47 Ronin, which a historical based film about the last days of  group samurai mission to avenge the death and dishonor of their master at the hands of a ruthless shogun in Feudal Japanese (1701).

For trailers and previews go to:  Widescreen Online Review, the mother site