Star of Petals on the Wind Captivating

Star of television’s steamy Petals on the Wind, New Zealand actor Rose McIver, who plays Cathy Sheffield, “emerges as a captivating and surprisingly shrewd leading lady”, Variety reviewer Geoff Berkshire writes.

“[Petals picks] up 10 years after the surviving Dollanganger children – Cathy, Christopher (Wyatt Nash) and Carrie (Bailey Buntain) – escaped the attic where they were imprisoned by fundamentalist grandmother Olivia (Ellen Burstyn) and murderous mother Corinne (Heather Graham).

“This is plot- and not character-driven material, making it near impossible to get a handle on what kind of person Cathy is. But McIver manages to bring welcome nuance to a role that easily could’ve become a standard one-note soap opera heroine.

“Hitting the air a mere four months after Lifetime scored a ratings bull’s-eye with guilty pleasure literary adaptation Flowers in the Attic, sequel Petals on the Wind certainly looks and feels like a rush job, but nevertheless improves on its predecessor in nearly every way. Where Flowers was airless and po-faced, Petals is manic and sudsy, speeding through a treasure trove of sleazy plot twists like CliffsNotes on crack.”

Auckland-born McIver, 25, will soon star in CW television network’s iZombie.

Original article by Hillary Busis, Entertainment Weekly, May 23, 2014.