Jon Whittet-Pitney
I admit, I didn't like the show after watching just the pilot...and admit to being put off by the cheesy wording (666) -- having found that number turning up too many times in my own personal life to feel quite too comfortable, or attracted to anything pandering to its mystique (though 2*3^2*37, as factorizations go, is rather pretty).Anyway, here comes synchronicity (woo woo...): I was going over the documentation of a hypnotherapy certification program I am considering for enrollment. Right thereafter I clicked through a few streaming video sites and found myself, seemingly by accident, looking at the still frame of the first episode (9), at what seemed to be Whoopi Goldberg's inimitable figure. As a Next Generation fan, how could I resist? No sooner had Whoopi's character spoken the words, "anteriograde dissociative amnesia" to a hypnotherapy client, than I was hooked. Now they're speaking my language, through the mouth of a guest with a guest star who would make almost any show a hit with me, and who plays the psychic savant with natural finesse.Since then I've watched all the episodes starting (again) from the beginning. While recognizing the potential for this show (and its themes) to go over like a lead balloon with mass audiences, I have to commend the producers for making the show startlingly "true to life". Of course that is just my opinion. Maybe I just live in a fantasy world or forgot to take my Thorazine or sumpthin. Anyway, on a less personal note, "666" is true to art, that is, at least in its tasteful allusions via thematic and/or episodic references to horror genre-defining classics, such as Rosemary's Baby, as well as to Hitchcock's _Birds_ and _Psycho_, to name a few.Audience recognition of some of the characters and themes from real life, does tend to make for a good supernatural thriller -- one in which characterizations, even casting choices, mirror one's own spooky life experiences in an all-too-literal (ie, synchronistic) fashion. What more could a person want in a scary series? The truth, as it is said, is (at least sometimes) stranger than fiction. But then again, this show indeed is highly weird, as prime time network fictions go. Having said that, however, were the series to reincarnate as a Showtime or HBO production, one would expect them to do much, much more with the characters and other serialized elements. As drama series go, one can only expect so much from ABC, and not a bit more. Witness one of their successes -- one which I enjoy, much as one enjoys a liqueur to fall asleep: Castle. Great actors, excellent writing...undercut by shallow serialized character development, and made saccharine by over-reliance on predictable, failsafe plot formulas. Formulas so sweet, so easily partaken, that neither delirium tremens nor diabetic coma could keep a fan from grasping the plot line. Such are the compromises that a "major network" drama series must make to stay afloat. For the truly insane, however, there are the true gems -- _Mad Men_, _Sons of Anarchy_, _Breaking Bad_, and others, fruits of the seamy, "cable network" underbelly.Too bad ABC canceled...but then again, certain, ahem, "people" might not appreciate having their personality types portrayed, shall we say, rather too literally on one of the (once upon a time) "big three"?
teomou
The reasons writing this review are the recent rumors that this series might be canceled and honestly i don't want this to happen. Concerning the negative comments so far, they are made by people who simply can't understand the meaning of this new series.They just focus on things they would like to be different loosing all the magic this series offers. It is a story stressing that our DESIRES MAKE US GREED.And if there is someone to fulfill them, an unknown 'force' he always asks to pay back. Desire...Greed...fulfillment....consequences! A brilliant thought all set in a mysterious background concerning a building's history. Great acting, great suspense and finally a Drama/Horror/Mystery mix and nothing else of this kind to compare with. Highly underrated after so little episodes. Let this series shine...through the mystery.