--- title: Review: Starz's Shining Vale Is More Than Meets the Eye description: Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear star in a haunted house horror comedy that takes a few episodes to come into its own. canonical: https://time.com/6153984/shining-vale-review/ author: Judy Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-03-03T14:25:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T13:57:31.442Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: There's More to Starz's 'Shining Vale' Than Meets the Eye og:description: Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear star in a haunted house horror comedy that takes a few episodes to come into its own. og:url: https://time.com/6153984/shining-vale-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5887c10bd280b254/698a2f9a457a520dc8d66305/svl1-102-070921-0029-a-1800x1200-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Shining Vale S1 - 2022 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: There's More to Starz's 'Shining Vale' Than Meets the Eye twitter:description: Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear star in a haunted house horror comedy that takes a few episodes to come into its own. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5887c10bd280b254/698a2f9a457a520dc8d66305/svl1-102-070921-0029-a-1800x1200-1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # There's More to Haunted House Horror-Comedy _Shining Vale_ Than Meets the Eye > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Mar 3, 2022 2:25 PM UTC  Greg Kinnear and Courteney Cox in 'Shining Vale' Greg Kinnear and Courteney Cox in 'Shining Vale'Kat Marcinowski/Starz  by [Judy Berman](https://time.com/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman TV Critic Mar 3, 2022 2:25 PM UTC _Shining Vale_ might, at first, make you question Tolstoy’s famous claim that “each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” In the new Starz horror comedy, which premieres on March 6, an emasculated dad moves his unfaithful wife and their two teen children out of Brooklyn and into a huge, old, dimly lit house in quaint Shining Vale, Conn. You have surely seen versions of these characters and this setup before. Terry (Greg Kinnear) hopes the change of scenery will bring Pat (Courteney Cox) back to him; Pat, the author of a steamy best-seller that sounds like a [_Fear of Flying_](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2110281%5F2110282%5F2110293,00.html) for the [_Fifty Shades_](https://time.com/3706587/fifty-shades-of-grey-movie-review/) era, hopes it will inspire her to finish the long-delayed sequel. Unfortunately, the place might already be harboring a ghost or two. Haunted-house shows have been popping up everywhere in the past decade, from the [debut season of FX’s _American Horror Story_](https://entertainment.time.com/2011/10/05/tv-tonight-american-horror-story/) to the British sitcom _Ghosts_ and its hit stateside remake on CBS. More often than not—and particularly in Mike Flanagan’s popular Netflix [_Haunting_](https://time.com/5419832/haunting-of-hill-house-red-room-explained/) [duology](https://time.com/5898095/haunting-of-bly-manor-turn-of-the-screw/)—the spectral infestation symbolizes the psychological woes of the house’s current human occupants. Ghost children become playmates for isolated kids. Ghost servants keep us mindful of the class politics of spooky mansions. Into that overcrowded attic of imagery, _Shining Vale_ throws the archetypal blocked writer (is the show’s title supposed to echo [_The Shining_](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,924179,00.html)?) and hints of small-town housewife horror à la [_The_ _Stepford Wives_](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,912902,00.html). The town’s anachronistically domestic women—one of whom introduces herself as “Mrs. Stephen Edwards”—seem scandalized by Pat and her book. Terry, a corporate drone who still brags about his Ivy League pedigree, tries on various macho archetypes: the decisive patriarch, the rugged woodsman, the breadwinner who commutes home every night to a docile wife. A nerdy son, Jake (Dylan Gage), who’s addicted to his AR headset and a rebellious, scantily clad daughter, Gaynor (Gus Birney), add more tropes to the pile. The show doesn’t have as much to add to contemporary conversations around family, creativity, gender, or mental illness as it seems to think. Even if you read the scene as tongue-in-cheek, it’s hard not to cringe when Pat’s mercenary editor Kam (Merrin Dungey) opines that “Artists work best when they’re fighting their demons” and invokes [Sylvia Plath](https://time.com/5905427/sylvia-plath-honeymoon-ted-hughes/). Creators Jeff Astrof (_Trial & Error_) and Sharon Horgan (_Catastrophe_) front-load _Shining Vale_‘s least original elements, at the expense of the witty raunch that is Horgan’s trademark. (“You look like you’re auditioning for Pornhub,” Pat tells Gaynor in one of the only truly funny moments from the premiere. “You don’t audition for Pornhub, your ex-boyfriend puts you on it,” Gaynor retorts.) Spoiler embargoes prevent me from saying much about the plot twists that go a long way towards correcting the show’s course, although fun supporting turns from [Mira Sorvino](https://time.com/4978659/mira-sorvino-harvey-weinstein-sexual-harassment/) and [Judith Light](https://time.com/4307017/judith-light-lgbt-courage/) certainly help. Suffice to say that if you can hang on until episode 3, you’ll find a stranger, more amusing haunted-house story lurking behind all the peeling wallpaper. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6153984/shining-vale-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6153984/shining-vale-review/"},"headline":"There's More to Haunted House Horror-Comedy Shining Vale Than Meets the Eye","datePublished":"2022-03-03T14:25:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T13:57:31.442Z","description":"Courteney Cox and Greg Kinnear star in a haunted house horror comedy that takes a few episodes to come into its own","url":"https://time.com/6153984/shining-vale-review/","keywords":["review","culturepod"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5887c10bd280b254/698a2f9a457a520dc8d66305/svl1-102-070921-0029-a-1800x1200-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Judy Berman","jobTitle":"TV Critic","url":"https://time.com/author/judy-berman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5887c10bd280b254/698a2f9a457a520dc8d66305/svl1-102-070921-0029-a-1800x1200-1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Shining Vale S1 - 2022","caption":"Shining Vale S1 - 2022","creditText":"Kat Marcinowski/Starz","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6153984/shining-vale-review/","name":"There's More to Haunted House Horror-Comedy Shining Vale Than Meets the Eye"}}]}] ```