I remember watching The Omen movie in my teens, which had Harvey Stephens playing the demon child, Damien. It was a scary film that I thoroughly enjoyed! The sequels that followed were also very watchable (Except Omen IV: The Awakening).
There was also a remake of the original in 2006 which I actually quite enjoyed as well.
Now, the A&E network have brought us a series called Damien, which is a kind of follow up to the film franchise. Damien Thorn is now an adult, played by Bradley James (Most well known as playing Arthur in the British tv series, Merlin). He is a 30-year-old war photographer who has forgotten his Satanic past.
In the first episode, "The Beast Rises", it is Damien’s 30th birthday. He’s on assignment in the Christian Quarter of the Old City in Damascus, Syria, when he has a strange encounter with a mysterious Syrian woman who clasps his head and starts talking to him in Latin.
This encounter starts bringing back visions from his childhood which he has no memory of; visions of evil & death.
On his return to the USA, Damien meets up with Ann Rutledge (Played by Barbara Hershey) who knows him and his past.
As people suddenly start dying around him, Damien is forced to delve into his own past to uncover the truth about his childhood.
One of the first things he discovers is the number of the Beast branded on his scalp……
Below is the official Damien trailer, for anyone that's curious about the show & not seen it.
It wasn’t a bad opening episode & I will continue watching it, but I feel like something is missing.
Bradley James seems like a good choice for the part of Damien, but I’m not so sure about the rest of the cast.
Ok, so I’m only one episode in, so maybe I need to give the more time? There are only 10 episodes ordered though, so it needs to start improving pretty quickly.
Damien airs Monday nights at 10pm (9pm Central) in the USA on the A&E Network.
Please, feel free to share any views on the series. I look forward to reading them :)
Written by TonyMayhew on Mar 28, 2016
I eagerly anticipated this series & I did enjoy the first episode, although the pace did seem a bit slow for a 10 episode run. As the series continued, I started to get frustrated at Damien's flip-flopping on accepting who he really is. What really finally frustrated me was the pace of introducing the actual motives of the supporting characters until the very end. I was disappointed in the writing for this series & I am not surprised it got the axe.
Opposite to most opinions of all, all over the Internet, I like the series.
Is Intriguing, the cast are good, the storyline too. I don't understand what the f*** more you want?
Three episodes in, for me, this is one to drop from the must watch list.
Merlin was a pretty good show with a crap ending. Damien doesn't appear to be worth the investment.