Monday, October 6, 2008

Vampire Shows: A Bloodly Good Time?

As a general rule, I like vampire themed series. Forever Knight was excellent, and of course BTVS was simply one of the top 5 shows in the history of popular entertainment.

That said, a bad vampire show is the worst, which brings us to... Moonlight. Oh, it had a couple of things I thought were cool, such as the idea that a stake through the heart wouldn't kill a vamp, but only paralyzes them (Until, for instance, they can be decapitated, which does kill `em). I also liked the actors themselves for the most part. That said, Moonlight jumped the shark from the start by breaking the cardinal, definitive, vampire show/flick "rule that must not be broken", namely vamps
running around in bright daylight.

No, no, no, no no. Vampires are called "creatures of the night" for a reason people.

You can play around with some of the other rules if you want. Break/bend some of the other rules, like, vamps can fly, or no they can't. Or, Vamps can't enter a dwelling without an invitation, or, whatever. None of the other rules bother me much when "broken" (Although I'm not too fond of the silver/silver oxidant killing substance. See: Blade) but the daylight walking thing for all vamps most of the time... forget it. You lost me from that point. I'm out. Unless one uncovers the Gem of Omara, it's just a weak-ass plot concept that's beyond lame and it should be noted that every series that tries to pull that stunt dies a well-deserved quick ratings death.

Sadly, another, far, far, superior show, BLOOD TIES, (Who knew Lifetime had it in them?) has gone to canceled series heaven well before it's time. It actually got decent ratings, but some sort of other nonsense wiped it out.


True Blood? I'll review it soon. Need to see more to make a real judgment, but the first episode was weak.

1 comment:

Victor Dodington said...

While I'm happy with the anti-sun standards usually applied in modern vampire fiction, I must note that in the forefathers of the genre (Lord Ruthven in Polidori's story, Dracula in Stoker's novel, etc) had no issues with daylight, or at the very worst, were less potent in the daytime. Sunlight killing has been a wonderful device, but is not in any sense a historical requirement from the folklore or early fiction.