Reviewing VC Andrews' Dawn (Part 1: "Dawn")

So this year, Lifetime is returning to the VC Andrews pool with their adaptation of the legendary author's Dawn series. As we all know, Andrews' most known work was, of course, Flowers in the Attic, and we've seen Lifetime air not only that adaptation, but the prequel series as well. I'm somewhat familiar with Andrews' work, though I've never read the books. I have watched the films, though, especially the Ruby series, which I absolutely loved!

The centerpiece of the series, of course, is Dawn Longchamp, and as we see, she's part of a happy and upbeat family. That, alone, had me wondering, "Is this really a VC Andrews work?" I don't know much, but I know this: we don't see actual functional families in Andrews' work. Anyway, Dawn's family consists of parents Ormond and Sally Jean, and older brother Jimmy, and there is another child on the way. As we see, Jimmy and Dawn are attending a prestigious prep school, and instantly, Dawn makes quite a bad impression on the school's "queen bee," Clara Jean Cutler, as Dawn inadvertently dimes her out for smoking.

So yeah, we have school drama, which increased with Clara Jean's cruel pranks and her refusal to accept Dawn's attempted olive branch. Here's where the complication comes in. Clara Jean's brother, Phillip Cutler, likes Dawn, and I mean like likes her. So there's that. Of course, Jimmy isn't too fond of this budding relationship, and the same goes for Ormond, who doesn't trust anyone from the wealthy Cutler family. I know the feeling; the name Cutler turns my stomach as well, but for different reasons.

Anyway, Dawn ends up winning the nod to perform a solo at the school's concert, doing so against Clara Jean, but it's at that moment that tragedy hits. I mentioned that Sally Jean was expecting. Unfortunately, the labor took so much out of her, but she managed to give birth to a healthy baby girl named Fern. Sadly, Sally Jean (despite all attempts) wouldn't recover, and after the concert, Sally Jean passes on, much to the extreme heartbreak of the entire family, especially Dawn.

However, in typical VC Andrews fashion, it gets crazier. It's later revealed that Dawn isn't actually a Longchamp; rather, she's a member of the Cutler family, and afterwards, Ormond is taken into custody and charged with kidnapping. The evidence comes in the form of a birthmark that was also shown on the abducted baby Cutler, named Eugenia. Eugenia Cutler. That name screams "blue bloods," and no, I'm not talking about the long running CBS series. So Dawn now has her school nemesis as her sister, and even more twisted, Phillip is actually her brother.

So Dawn is moved into the Cutler house, but the welcome is chilly at best. Though her new parents, Laura Sue and Randolph Cutler are welcoming, the family's matriarch, Lillian Cutler, well...isn't. Lillian, in all her blue blooded Karen glory, puts Dawn to work as a chambermaid, verbally abuses her, forcibly calls Dawn by her birth name, and makes false accusations against her. It's a terrible situation for Dawn, as pretty much everyone in that house is under her thumb. Even worse, Phillip pretty much makes attempts to get physical with her, and even assaults her, because he's not going to let something as "trivial" as being Dawn's biological brother stop him from hooking up with the woman he loves. Oh boy. And of course, Clara Jean continues her torment towards her schoolmate turned biological sister.

Dawn still refuses to believe that the couple she knew as her parents for all her life, actually stole her, and she learns that their might be more to this "abduction" than meets the eye. She has one moment of happiness when Jimmy visits her, though he ends up being arrested after Clara Jean catches him, and that, along with falsely setting up Dawn as a thief, earns Clara Jean a well deserved slap from Dawn, which came after Clara Jean boldly admitted to being jealous of Dawn/Eugenia due to the family's obsession with their missing daughter. As for the whole "abduction," Dawn gets the entire truth from the family's caretaker, Mrs. Dalton.

So as it turned out, the Longchamps didn't abduct Dawn, it was actually Lillian who took Dawn and gave her to the Longchamps, who worked for her at her hotel. The reason: Dawn was actually the result of one of Laura Sue's affairs, and wasn't Randolph's biological child, leaving Lillian enraged over the concept of a non-Cutler being part of the family. She paid off the Longchamps to cover up the truth, because of course she did. Dawn was now armed with everything to stand up against her diabolical grandmother, and after threatening to go public, she makes her terms. First off, Dawn ordered Lillian to use her influence to get Ormond out of jail. Next, she demanded to be treated like a member of the family, to attend a school with a good musical program, and most of all, to be referred to as Dawn. Game, set, and match, at least at this point.

The Dawn series will take up the remaining Saturdays in July, with Part 1, "Dawn," airing on July 8, 2023. As I stated before, the film has a star studded cast, and it includes Brec Bassinger as the titular Dawn Longchamp. This isn't Bassinger's first time on Lifetime; she appeared in the 2018 Lifetime horror/thriller, Killer Under the Bed, though, of course, she's best known for her three seasons on The CW's Stargirl as Courtney Whitmore, the titular superheroine. The cast also includes Jesse Metcalfe as Ormond Longchamp; Metcalfe played the title role in the 2006 comedy, John Tucker Must Die, and also appeared on Desperate Housewives and Hallmark's Martha's Vineyard Mysteries series. Speaking of familiar names from Hallmark, Miranda Frigon (Lynn Liggett-Smith from the Aurora Teagarden series, played Laura Sue Cutler, while husband Randolph Cutler was played by Jason Cermak, who is fresh off his villainous appearance in The Baby Swindler.

The biggest name in the cast has to be Donna Mills, who was at her venomous best as evil matriarch Lillian Cutler. Donna Mills is a big-time household name, with an acting career spanning seven different decades, though her best claim to fame was playing regular villainess Abby Cunningham on the long-running CBS series, Knots Landing, which was a spinoff of another long-running series: Dallas. From what I learned, Mills relished in playing evil roles, saying in an interview that she was "tired of playing the victim," and that Abby "stirred things up," which she loved. Since then, Mills has played her share of villainesses, including an appearance on Cold Case as another evil matriarch, Lauren Chambers. Mills is clearly enjoying playing Lillian, and I myself definitely enjoyed seeing her in action. Of course, she's not done yet.

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