TV review: The Cult is cult viewing

TVNZ

CULT VIEWING: Danielle McCormack stars as mysterious doctor Cynthia Ross in TV2's creepy new show The Cult.

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Secret compounds, darkened forests, sinister eyeball surgery - and Danielle Cormack playing one of the creepiest doctors to ever grace a small screen.

Welcome to The Cult (Thursday, 8.30pm), TV2's ambitious and hyped new show that debuted with an episode as dense and brooding as anything dreamt up by similar conspiracy theory shows Lost and The X-Files.

Dark it was, from the opening shots of gruesome eyeball surgery through to the introduction of sleazy cult leader Edward North (Latham Gaines) - the controlling figure in a fenced compound on New Zealand's East Coast called Two Gardens.

There, North's subjects wore white clothes, grew organic vegetables, and gathered for group sessions to utter self-help slogans like, "Bountiful love" and, "The outside world keeps us static, in here we begin to grow."

So far, so Oprah. But then it got sinister. Ryan Lewis (Gareth Reeves) - a troubled 20-something who has been missing for three years - emerged from a spell in an isolation tank to discover his brother Nathan had gone a bit loopy after undergoing experimental surgery.

Despite only being on screen in a few scenes, Nathan's menacing doctor Cynthia Ross - a role that could become the best of Cormack's career - is shaping up as one of the show's best characters.

Then there was the cult's opposing group. Called "the liberators," they were bought together after being sent a series of polaroids of their missing family and friends supposedly living inside Two Gardens. Needless to say, they're not really getting on.

Led by Ryan's dad Michael Lewis (the excellent Renato Bartolomei), the group had rented a log cabin down the road from Two Gardens as they argued, shouted, debated and argued some more over the best way to infiltrate Two Gardens and rescue their loved ones.

What The Cult lacked in black humour - something that shows like True Blood excel at - it made up for with spooky camera angles, darkened hallways, blurry photos, swooping shots of New Zealand scenery and a gritty, film-like appearance. If you're looking for the definition of "cinema of unease," you'll find it here.

Plenty of tension was wrung out of several key moments, including a dramatic car crash, a surprise supermarket shooting and Ryan and Nathan's compound escape. Go on, admit it - you jumped at the show's closing shots involving the old man with the gun.

Thankfully, The Cult has taken notes from The X-Files and Lost, hinting at bigger conspiracy theories at play with Two Gardens appearing to be just a smaller cog in a worldwide cult called "Momentum". That's an essential fanboy element if it is to become a long-running show.

And - with the liberators trying to break into the compound, and various cult members trying to escape - The Cult could make things really interesting by turning things around to ask, just who are the bad guys here?

There's certainly enough early promise for it to become - ahem - cult viewing.

* What do you think of The Cult? Will you keep watching? Watch the trailer and post your comments below.

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SusieQ   #56   10:40 pm Sep 28 2009

The Cult is brilliant. I am hooked. It was like watching a film. I can't wait to watch the next episode.

Tomsc   #55   01:01 pm Sep 28 2009

All this publicity about how new and ground-breaking The Cult is; does no-one remember The Chosen? Cliff Curtis, Radha Mitchell and some Australian bloke as the benign/sinister cult leader. Foreign cult shows up in small-town, bush-clad New Zealand and bad stuff happens. Yes, The Chosen was only a mini-series, but after that it all sounds pretty darn familiar to me.

Will   #54   09:45 pm Sep 27 2009

Lost is the most awesome series of all.Like Fringe, Heroes, Alias etc it requires you to 'think' rather than veg out and passively watch the mindless 'usual'(of which Lost is not) American crap that we're subjected to night after night.Finally NZTV is heading in the right direction.It's about time NZ got rid of the tall poppy syndrome and stopped knocking our own creative efforts.We seem to believe that the only good things come from the bigger countries.Maybe some TV viewers are a cult of their own-brainwashed into watching only predictable plots that Hollywood churns out like Big Macs.:)

hamish   #53   02:42 pm Sep 27 2009

all these people drooling over the show. its been One episode! It certainly didnt have me on the edge of my seat, nothing original yet... looked more like a tourism NZ ad in HD.

wal   #52   08:34 pm Sep 26 2009

total waste with even more unbelievable story line & acting from a bad script ..d for dud :)

Dave   #51   01:28 am Sep 26 2009

http://www.floatfinder.com - take a trip in a isolation tank and THEN you'll understand more :)

LeeK   #50   09:57 pm Sep 25 2009

Just watched the first episode on the TVNZ website - that's the way to watch it, folks, it's in 5 sections with only 1 advert between each one. And yes, I will be watching this again. I like the way this started, making you work out who was who and what they were doing. More please!

shelley moloney   #49   06:48 pm Sep 25 2009

Damn! I saw that this new show was on but decided not to tape it. Why do I continue to do that to what turn out to be well written and shot kiwi shows?(Mercy Peak being another series I got into late in the piece). I need to have more faith.

Vorvolaka   #48   06:16 pm Sep 25 2009

I found the show good, but not very engaging, especially in the first half. I expect it will get better, so will watch again next week. I agree that the car horn was very annoying.

The show looked great. A little more humour wouldn't have gone astray though - The X-Files usually managed to include a few comic moments, no matter how dark the subject matter was. The Cult would benefit from some comedy as well.

There were too many ad breaks, and I was surprised that the show did't launch with a two hour pilot to hook the viewers in more.

Sarah   #47   06:00 pm Sep 25 2009

Haha @ #43 - Yes I believe I am intelligent - note the correct way of spelling it. And the suspense - yes, that too is the correct way to spell it - was hard to pick up on because most of us found the plot hard to understand thus were trying to figure that out before beginning to anticipate the bad stuff. Here's an idea: why don't you stop wasting your time watching overrated TV shows and instead learn spelling and grammar - yes that too was sadly lacking in your comment.

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