The Gates

Scoundrels, at 9 p.m., and The Gates, at 10, may not be exactly the stuff you can't wait another week for, but both are watchable and fun, part of a big ABC effort to put something new, if not original, on the air most nights this summer.

The Gates, on the other hand, starts off with an even greater number of well-worn characters and storylines, but writers Richard Hatem and Grant Scharbo infuse them with a lot more life and a surprisingly high incidence of poignancy.

Beyond the "Dark Shadows"-type atmosphere, The Gates is blessed with an attractive cast, many of whom have affiliations with past ABC dramas....The question is how long the show can get by on those assets before series creators Grant Scharbo and Richard Hatem shed some serious light on all these things going bump in the night.

To be perfectly honest, it's a little easier to be forgiving of a series that's airing original episodes in the summer. Maybe it will settle down a bit and turn into something a little better. I'll give it a couple more episodes.

If only it felt inspired, rather than like a Desperate Weirdwives rehash of every vampire, werewolf and witch story you've ever heard and every family soap you've seen.

The show just doesn't add enough fresh blood to dramas and situations we may simply have seen too often.

New Zealand, however, cannot be blamed for The Gates, approximately the 1,712th American television show about vampires.