Moonlight – season 1 – review (TV series)

Directed by: various

First Aired: 2007

Contains spoilers

Moonlight, which has just concluded its UK run on Living TV, concerns a vampire detective, Mick St John (Alex O’Laughlin) following him as he solves cases around LA – often with internet news reporter Beth (Sophia Myles) in tow – and laments his vampiric existence, wishing for a cure.

At first glance this sounds awfully like series gone before. Forever Knight had a cop solving crime and lamenting his vampire existence, Angel, the Buffy spin-off, had a vampire detective, in LA, lamenting his vampire existence and, more recently, Blood Ties had a vampire who became involved with a detective and, whilst he seemed comfortable with his vampirism, was a moody git.

The similarities are patently there, though there were some lore aspects that changed and the series, despite what defenders might say, did appropriate aspects of previous series. This is not necessarily a bad thing, if that produces a worthwhile whole, after all the vampire genre has appropriated and developed ideas and lore through the centuries. The series, unfortunately, did start weakly. Derek, over at Sacred Monsters warned me about this but suggested that I stick with it – it gets better. This was true but I do not think it ever reached the heights it could have done.

Our main character, Mick, is only recently (in vampire terms) turned and hates his vampiric existence. He seeks a cure. He was turned by his wife Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon) and more recently killed her when she kidnapped a little girl who grew to be reporter Beth. Meeting Beth again, who is the girlfriend of DA Josh Lindsey (Jordan Belfi), sets a romantic entanglement thread going and, to me, we have just hit upon the two weakest aspects of the show.

I am getting really sick of vampires who hate their ‘condition’; it has become a tired staple of the genre. Let us examine human nature, and admit that I am a cynic, but power corrupts. It seems less than likely that a person who is given a power – in this case vampirism – is then going to lament it. They are more likely to revel in it. Take Josef Kostan (Jason Dohring), Mick’s vampire friend. He, to me, was a far more interesting character and more true to his nature.

The other problem area was the angst filled, we are from two worlds, romance. It isn’t original – Forever Knight had a similar thing going on but it was far less central to the plot – and in respect of Angel, the relationship baggage brought from the previous Buffy series was more interesting as there was a real cost to the relationship – his soul. That said, I find Sophia Myles a personable actor and she is becoming a genre staple, having appeared in both Underworld as a vampire and the recent Dracula adaptation as Lucy.

Coraline comes back into the show and, it seems, has become human. Nothing new there to be honest as a vampire ex-lover returning as a human was also done in Forever Knight. This storyline, however, became interesting. Mick doubting his own sanity and senses and then everything added regarding the source of the cure, which was temporary, and the background to it. This dated back to the French revolution, the guillotine was created to deal with vampires and there seems to be a shadowy body of French aristocrat vampires. Interesting but then dropped as a concept thereafter – perhaps it would have been expanded had the series been picked up for a second season. I will mention the episode, also, in which Josh died – one I found to be powerfully shot.

Lore wise things are slightly different, the show putting its own spin on vampirism. Blood exchange is necessary to turning and it can go horribly wrong. A stake through the heart does not kill but immobilises (which, despite not being mainstream lore, is not original), thus pulling the stake out lets them move again. Silver hurts but sunlight does not destroy immediately and the vampires can stand some exposure. One oddity was sleeping in fridges. Why? Research suggests that it is because, during the day, they decompose and it slows the process and thus stops them smelling. Begs the question as to what they did pre-fridges, were there a lot of smelly vampires wandering around?

Other than that they are super strong, can leap far, senses are heightened and they can gain flashes of events from the smell of blood (useful for the detective that). Vampire blood can be processed into a drug that gives humans a feel of being a vampire – again, not original: vampire ash was a street drug in Blade the series and vampire blood could be ingested for short moments of vampiric existence in Dance of the Damned for instance. Beheading and fire kills and there is a crew of vampire cleaners to disguise their messes.

This was okay and perhaps, if it had been allowed to run, it would have grown into something worthwhile. A conspiracy against the LA vampires was hinted at in the finale coda, something that threatened their secretive existence. There were some standout moments and I did like the French clan storyline (and was disappointed when it petered out). That said there were also some rather boring moments and some tired old aspects (I hate being a vampire and cannot love the mortal girl!). I can’t do much more than nudge this just over average 5.5 out of 10.

The series imdb page is here.