Marathoning all the Omen movies in preparation for the sixth, I decided to check Damien out, too. It's a single season (though they were clearly aiming for more) 10-episode A&E series that pulls that irritating "we're following the first one but ignoring and contradicting the sequels" stunt. Though, to be fair, they have a decent reason for going that route this time. They've decided to explore the most interesting idea Omen 2 only hinted at and threw away in three brief scenes, of Damien struggling with why he was chosen to be the antichrist and what to do with this dark destiny. I'll tell ya what, it's heaps smarter than NBC's 1995 Omen pilot, which was connected to the novel and films about as much as Friday the 13th: The Series was connected to Jason. At least this one's about the antichrist again.
This series was created by a bunch of Walking Dead alumni, from the creator to writers, composer, episode directors like Ernest Dickerson and Jennifer Lynch. The name players are Barbara Hershey (ostensibly playing Lee Grant's character from part 2, though they may just be recycling the character name because they have nothing in common) and Scott Wilson (TWD's Hershel), but the bulk of this cast, including their Damien, look to be cast straight out of the CW. And that cheap, placating television vibe is this series big weakness.
Here, Damien is 30, a war photographer in Syria, with a convenient and unexplained case of amnesia. He has no idea that he's the antichrist or any recollection of anything that happened to him until recently. Now Damien is a good guy, saving kids from getting hit by trains and fighting to help veterans get their health insurance. If that sounds too far removed from the original Omen, don't worry, this show is littered with clips and photos from the original film. In fact, it's cripplingly over-reliant on them for its credibility, and you'll be damned tired of them cutting back to over-saturated footage from the 70s every time something echoes what happened in his forgotten childhood.
Damien's struggle is an everyman's easily relatable questioning of faith: "why does god allow suffering?" Rather than relishing others' suffering, he anguishes over it. This show could've been a lot better if it took itself just a little more seriously and catered a little less to the junk TV crowd, but it's better than I thought it would be. When the show gets grim and follows through with its own logic, it pulls you in. When it wastes time with TV filler material, like a subplot about a cop's obsession with catching Damien is ruining his relationship with his spouse, or when the show tries to appease us with generic spooky images like an under-lit hospital filled with homeless people and creepy children, you wish they'd just cut it out.
For instance, Damien's buddy will just barge right into his apartment to tell him he's neglecting his girlfriend, saying "now get into that shower or it's going to be me and you in there together, and that ain't gonna be pretty." Did they lift that bit from a script of Party of Five? Why is this cheese in a grim dramatization of the biblical end of the world? For that matter, the "there has to be some kind of rational explanation" arguments that persist through to the final episodes are just boring when the one thing we all know about this series before going in is that it's a supernatural show.
So I can see why this show didn't last. How many seasons were we expected to watch this guy prevaricate between will he or won't he embrace his Evil side? But it's better than I thought it would be, including some strong scenes if you stick with it. It helps that most of the cornier supporting characters get bumped off as the season progresses. If you're a fan of the Omen's general premise, and are interested in what it would be like if the antichrist came into our modern world, this series examines that enough to hold your interest. It feels like Damien started out as a better show, then got tampered with and made compromises until we were left with a series the executives no longer had faith in.
This series was created by a bunch of Walking Dead alumni, from the creator to writers, composer, episode directors like Ernest Dickerson and Jennifer Lynch. The name players are Barbara Hershey (ostensibly playing Lee Grant's character from part 2, though they may just be recycling the character name because they have nothing in common) and Scott Wilson (TWD's Hershel), but the bulk of this cast, including their Damien, look to be cast straight out of the CW. And that cheap, placating television vibe is this series big weakness.
Here, Damien is 30, a war photographer in Syria, with a convenient and unexplained case of amnesia. He has no idea that he's the antichrist or any recollection of anything that happened to him until recently. Now Damien is a good guy, saving kids from getting hit by trains and fighting to help veterans get their health insurance. If that sounds too far removed from the original Omen, don't worry, this show is littered with clips and photos from the original film. In fact, it's cripplingly over-reliant on them for its credibility, and you'll be damned tired of them cutting back to over-saturated footage from the 70s every time something echoes what happened in his forgotten childhood.
Damien's struggle is an everyman's easily relatable questioning of faith: "why does god allow suffering?" Rather than relishing others' suffering, he anguishes over it. This show could've been a lot better if it took itself just a little more seriously and catered a little less to the junk TV crowd, but it's better than I thought it would be. When the show gets grim and follows through with its own logic, it pulls you in. When it wastes time with TV filler material, like a subplot about a cop's obsession with catching Damien is ruining his relationship with his spouse, or when the show tries to appease us with generic spooky images like an under-lit hospital filled with homeless people and creepy children, you wish they'd just cut it out.
For instance, Damien's buddy will just barge right into his apartment to tell him he's neglecting his girlfriend, saying "now get into that shower or it's going to be me and you in there together, and that ain't gonna be pretty." Did they lift that bit from a script of Party of Five? Why is this cheese in a grim dramatization of the biblical end of the world? For that matter, the "there has to be some kind of rational explanation" arguments that persist through to the final episodes are just boring when the one thing we all know about this series before going in is that it's a supernatural show.
So I can see why this show didn't last. How many seasons were we expected to watch this guy prevaricate between will he or won't he embrace his Evil side? But it's better than I thought it would be, including some strong scenes if you stick with it. It helps that most of the cornier supporting characters get bumped off as the season progresses. If you're a fan of the Omen's general premise, and are interested in what it would be like if the antichrist came into our modern world, this series examines that enough to hold your interest. It feels like Damien started out as a better show, then got tampered with and made compromises until we were left with a series the executives no longer had faith in.
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