Virginia Madsen as Madeline Hawthorne in American Gothic (2016)

American Gothic is a TV show from 2016, from CBS and quite a novel one at that. Or at least it was something I’ve not seen before, or, well, a lot of at least.

And not to be confused with the American Gothic TV show from 1995 which was an entirely different American Gothic.

This American Gothic follows the lives of The Hawthorne family in Boston. We join the tale just after the Father of the family, Mitch Hawthorne (Jamey Sheridan) has passed away which leads the family to uncover a secret, literal skeletons in the closet, as it’s revealed that he could have been a serial killer known as The Silver Bell killer who stalked the city 15 years prior.

Virginia Madsen stars in the lead role of Madeline Hawthorne, who is the surviving head of the family. Mitch and Madeline has four children. Alison (Juliet Rylance), Garret (Antony Starr), Tessa (Megan Ketch) and Cameron (Justin Chatwin).
Hang on, I’m not finished – Cameron is married to Sophie (Stephanie Leonidas), they have a son, Jack. Tessa is married to Brady (Elliot Knight) who is a Police Officer.

I think that’s it. There are other characters but that’s the main family.

Each of the family have their own secrets, because of course they do and so there is a big rich tapestry to pull from when it comes to reveals, shocks and of course red herrings.

It’s very much a “whodunnit” show, I don’t want to go into too much detail here for fear of ruining it or giving inadvertent clues away to the whole thing.
American Gothic isn’t a bad show, it’s very entertaining and it will keep you watching to find out what’s going to happen next. Not ever reveal means something, and there are some genuine “ohhhhhhh” moments to be had. It can be pretty formulaic in places, but that’s the nature of the game with these kinds of shows.

The characters are all engaging, I don’t think you’re supposed to like *everyone*, there are people you’ll hate to watch. But that’s on purpose, it’s not a bad thing and adds to the whole appeal hoping the one you love to hate gets their comeuppance.

Virginia Madsen is in fine form doing her Matriarchal Power thing, it’s a bit of a thing she’s doing in her 2010’s acting career, a bit typecast at this point perhaps. It’s always worth watching though, but GODAMNIT SHE CAN DO MORE.
The show was cancelled after only running for one season much to the disgust of fans. The show apparently had low viewership, but those viewers were passionate about it and even had a petition stated to keep it on air but that went nowhere.