Friday Night Vampires!
I’ve always enjoyed vampire stories. Whether the self-flagellating Louis or flamboyant Lestat from Anne Rice’s books, there is something enthralling about the stories.
I’m an avid Doctor Who fan. One of my favorite episodes is Season 2 “Girl in the Fireplace,” where the Doctor (played by David Tennant) meets the Madame de Pompadour (played by Sophia Myles). The energy between them was wonderful. Great scenes. (Rumour has it after the episode Tennant and Myles became an item.)
A friend of mine, another Doctor Who fan, told me about a new vampire series called Moonlight (CBS, episodes available online) which starts Sophia Myles (CBS, 9:00 PM Fridays). The premise is that a private investigator and vampire, Mick St. Jean, investigates crimes and works with Beth (played by Myles), a journalist for an Internet news site, Buzz Wire. The cast has plenty of talent. Unfortunately, the writing is rather stiff. The vampires are not typical: sunlight doesn’t kill them, crosses and garlic have no effect, etc. This week, CBS announced it had requested four more scripts for Moonlight. Good news, over all.
Another good vampire series, playing on Lifetime cable channel, is Blood Ties (Friday, 11PM Eastern, episodes available online). Oh My Goodness. The main character, Vicky Nelson (played by Christina Cox), is a former cop turned PI. She meets up with a vampire, Henry Fitzroy (played by Kyle Schmid), and with him and her ex-partner/lover, homicide detective Mike Celluci (Dylan Neal), they tackle supernatural and paranormal cases. Good eye candy, interesting writing, and good characterization. Outside of periodic cheesiness (see vampire/panther growl-off in Wild Blood), the series is excellent. The story line pulls from Tanya Huff’s Blood Books, so plenty of background material, fleshed-out characters, and great dialog. It’s just much better. The tension between the characters is more believable and even enthralling.
The episode airing this Friday is called “5:55” and looks to be a Groundhog-Day-esque story where Vicky keeps repeating the events of the same day. The trailer looks delicious: A Scene from Episode 3.