First Impressions: Shining Vale

 There’s something charming about Shining Vale, and no it’s not only because of the lead characters, charming as they both are. The horror-comedy show premiered in the first week of March. 

The story is about a couple, Patricia and Terry who move into a new house for a fresh start following a cheating incident. The couple has kids: a temperamental teenager Gaynor and awkward younger son Jake. 

The show begins with a message informing viewers that depression and possession sometimes have the same symptoms. 

We then see Patricia and Terry enter their new home, and a real estate agent who gives them a large friendly smile. Clearly, she’s hiding something. 

It is then revealed that it was Patricia who cheated on Terry with the handyman following which the couple attended therapy. Patricia is a writer and has been struggling to put out the next book even though her agent keeps bugging her about it. 

Patricia deals with kids who don’t respect her anymore, an impatient husband and a terrible case of writer’s block. But her problems multiply when she encounters a ghost in her house that appears to be from the 50s. Her name is Rosemary. 

Gaynor is then seen wearing a cross necklace and Pat then realizes that her daughter’s sudden interest in spirituality is due to a new guy who is into religion. 

Patricia suddenly discovers that she’s been writing several pages daily but has no memory of it. 

She begins to suffer blackouts after the therapist gives her new medicine to tackle with her anxiety. The therapist assures her that the woman she sees in her house isn’t a ghost but her muse that helps her write. 

Pat gives in to this. She’s just happy she’s finally making progress on her new book. 

But the blackouts start creating problems in her family life. When Terry asks her to send her his presentation that he needs to deliver in front of the Archdiocese, he finds his file has been tampered with and marked with obscenities. 

His co-worker Kathryn is immediately fired, and Terry is suspended. Terry naturally suspects Pat because she doesn’t like Kathryn and mimics her name every time Terry uses it. 

Patricia in the meantime had managed to write another couple of pages and when she’s stuck again, asks her muse to help. Instead she receives a hint to go to the basement. Pat doesn’t think the house has a basement except it does. 

She goes into the closet and finds the flower pattern, the hint left by Rosemary. Using an axe, she breaks through the wall and finds the basement. 

Meanwhile, Jake is wandering about the woods using his AR and runs into a girl who we caught a glimpse of in the first episode and was called Daisy. There is also a skull, but Jake hasn’t found it yet. 

Terry comes home to find Pat in the basement which is more like a Tiki Bar complete with a jukebox. He confronts his wife regarding the presentation and she comes clean, telling him she isn’t sure because of the blackouts incurred by the new medication. 

She promises that they will be happy again. 

The first few episodes show definite promise and it is almost disappointing that the episodes are not all released at once so that one can binge-watch them. 

Because…just who is Rosemary and what does she want with Patricia? 

Hopefully, the season won’t end on a cliffhanger. 

So far the show has eight episodes. Shining Vale stars Courtney Cox, Greg Kinnear, and Mira Sorvino.