Moonlight is a good show. Not great mind you, simply good. See I have two very big problems with it, the first being a little Fox megahit series called Angel, and the hundred or so years of vampire tradition thrown right out the window. The show focuses on Mick St. John (the title character played by Alex O'Loughlin) is a Private Investigator handling "unique," often occultish cases on the mean streets of LA. He has one trump card on his side; the fact that he is a vampire. Apparently CBS didn't get the memo that this story has already been played out with the Joss Wheldon series. Considering that WB is fronting the licensing though I think they are trying real hard to re-invent the same flavor without all those pesky Fox headaches. Let's compare the lead characters for a second and you'll see what I mean: Angel (played by actor David Boreanaz) wore a black long coat, drove an old brown convertible (1967 GTX,) was a PI in Los Angeles handling odd cases that cops cannot solve, and had a beautiful blonde love interest that he couldn't have - Mick St. John wears a black long coat, drives an old 1906's brown Mercedes Benz convertible, is a PI in LA handling odd cases that cops cannot solve, and has a beautiful blonde love interest he cannot have.
Seriously, has no one else recognized the pattern here? Take a long look at Angel actor Elisabeth Röhm and see if you don't get a real feeling of Deja Vu. The only real fresh element is Mick's friend Josef (played by Jason Dohring) - I actually really like his character though doubt he could survive his own series.
My second complaint with the show is the way it completely re-invents the vampire. This is like trying to re-invent air, unless you do something totally innovated you are not going to make headlines. While normally I am all for a different, creative approach to an old story, the way vampirism has taken the pop culture in recent years (no thanks in part to the prior Angel and Buffy series) it really makes me wonder what the creator was trying to do here. Mick St. John is almost a Disney character - he's dark, good looking, and has the prince of darkness aura going for him, but there is nothing about his character that makes me NOT want to be a vampire. I shouldn't want to be a vampire! I shouldn't want to envy every bit of his life and then hate him because he hates it - that's bad television. Its kind of like listening to rich people complain about taxes - whatever! Vampires are historically evil creatures, almost all literature makes people not really WANT to be one. So far, other than the pesky eating disorder (and who doesn't have one of those these days) I have yet to see ANY downsides to this lifestyle from the show. I mean come on - these guys can walk in daylight and anything short of napalm doesn't leave lasting scars. Also a lot of the pseudo-science that was built up within the Vampire culture doesn't make sense in this series - and the show fails miserably to explain those questions away. My favorite so far is the inability to reflect on silver, but being able to reflect on any other surface. Vampire Science says vamps are allergic to silver that's why it kills them - CBS vamps can be paralyzed by silver, but apparently the metal just universally ignores them every where else. If you are a fan of vampires this show will leave a coppery taste your mouth after you watch it (*<-- that's a vampire reference - author.).
I will give it some credit though - the show itself isn't bad. It does have some good points such as being a much more adult (yet PG rated) take on the whole business of being immortal. I suspect the network will build up the shiny happy image of Mick St. John before getting any really compelling story writing out - after all the network does broadcast into the bible belt. I do hope the dialog gets smoother (in episode 12:04 Beth (played by Sophia Myles) is having a painfully forced discussion with Audrey (played by Sarah Foret) that just makes you imagine the director holding cue cards out of frame.) And I foresee one huge problem that might be faced before even reaching season 2 - is there anything else evil out there besides vampires? You can't have a mystery series when the answer to EVERY SINGLE problem is "oh, he must be a vampire." If the director brings Drake's secretary (Aisha Kabia) back I'll watch every week - she's a hottie. Now that she's unemployed maybe she can work for Mick!
Seriously though, my advice here is simple - if you want really good vampire television go out and rent Angel. The characters, dialog, and action are far, far, superior. If you are like me and trying to survive the vacuum created by the good occult series being taken off the air then switch over to Torchwood on BBC - that is an amazing new series. I really do hope that Moonlight will get better as time goes on, but I already get the felling it has already begun to burn itself out.
Seriously, has no one else recognized the pattern here? Take a long look at Angel actor Elisabeth Röhm and see if you don't get a real feeling of Deja Vu. The only real fresh element is Mick's friend Josef (played by Jason Dohring) - I actually really like his character though doubt he could survive his own series.
My second complaint with the show is the way it completely re-invents the vampire. This is like trying to re-invent air, unless you do something totally innovated you are not going to make headlines. While normally I am all for a different, creative approach to an old story, the way vampirism has taken the pop culture in recent years (no thanks in part to the prior Angel and Buffy series) it really makes me wonder what the creator was trying to do here. Mick St. John is almost a Disney character - he's dark, good looking, and has the prince of darkness aura going for him, but there is nothing about his character that makes me NOT want to be a vampire. I shouldn't want to be a vampire! I shouldn't want to envy every bit of his life and then hate him because he hates it - that's bad television. Its kind of like listening to rich people complain about taxes - whatever! Vampires are historically evil creatures, almost all literature makes people not really WANT to be one. So far, other than the pesky eating disorder (and who doesn't have one of those these days) I have yet to see ANY downsides to this lifestyle from the show. I mean come on - these guys can walk in daylight and anything short of napalm doesn't leave lasting scars. Also a lot of the pseudo-science that was built up within the Vampire culture doesn't make sense in this series - and the show fails miserably to explain those questions away. My favorite so far is the inability to reflect on silver, but being able to reflect on any other surface. Vampire Science says vamps are allergic to silver that's why it kills them - CBS vamps can be paralyzed by silver, but apparently the metal just universally ignores them every where else. If you are a fan of vampires this show will leave a coppery taste your mouth after you watch it (*<-- that's a vampire reference - author.).
I will give it some credit though - the show itself isn't bad. It does have some good points such as being a much more adult (yet PG rated) take on the whole business of being immortal. I suspect the network will build up the shiny happy image of Mick St. John before getting any really compelling story writing out - after all the network does broadcast into the bible belt. I do hope the dialog gets smoother (in episode 12:04 Beth (played by Sophia Myles) is having a painfully forced discussion with Audrey (played by Sarah Foret) that just makes you imagine the director holding cue cards out of frame.) And I foresee one huge problem that might be faced before even reaching season 2 - is there anything else evil out there besides vampires? You can't have a mystery series when the answer to EVERY SINGLE problem is "oh, he must be a vampire." If the director brings Drake's secretary (Aisha Kabia) back I'll watch every week - she's a hottie. Now that she's unemployed maybe she can work for Mick!
Seriously though, my advice here is simple - if you want really good vampire television go out and rent Angel. The characters, dialog, and action are far, far, superior. If you are like me and trying to survive the vacuum created by the good occult series being taken off the air then switch over to Torchwood on BBC - that is an amazing new series. I really do hope that Moonlight will get better as time goes on, but I already get the felling it has already begun to burn itself out.