(September
26th, 2007. - Editor)
Alex O'Loughlin (The Shield), Amber Valletta (Premonition), Rade
Sherbedgia (Twenty-Four) and Shannon Lucio (The O.C.) star in the dark
and brooding drama series Moonlight, airing Fridays on CBS.
Charismatic and resourceful private investigator Mick St. John
has been a
vampire since he was bitten by his bloodsucking bride, Coraline, 60
years ago. Although he still looks like a man in his 30's, he is now
almost 100 years old. Though he is forced to find fresh blood to
sustain himself, he struggles against his basic vampire nature, using his sharpened
senses to help the living. This doesn't sit well with Coraline and most
of the other vampires, including his enigmatic friend Josef. Mick's life
gets more complicated
when he begins to fall for Beth Turner, a reporter who just so happens
to be investigating the ongoing rash of unusual homicides in the area.
Is there even a chance Beth would consider joining Mick's world as his
lover?
There is a classic character of The Vampire in literature. It seems as
soon as you adopt the classic formula, you are free to place that
character in a variety of situations and time frames. As long as you
stick to a few basic rules, you take all kinds of liberties with the
rest of your story. There is another classic dramatic character, the
anti-hero. There are less rules attached to this kind of character,
but usually they are people who find themselves in a situation that
they did not want to be in and don't necessarily want to help solve.
Combining the two is an odd enough mixture, but on top of that, the
writers of this series have created a good-guy vampire character who
battles others of his kind, presumably to stop them from bringing
other innocent humans into the undead. That is certainly a plot that
has never been tried on television.
Technically, this series is a dark and brooding drama that takes full
advantage of advances in low light photography and digital animation
to create a very believable collection of bad guys and some great
fight scenes, but of course those are much better in the pilot episode
than they will be later in the season, when the pressure of completing
episodes on time will stretch the special effects crew beyond their
limits and their budgets.
As the stress mounts, the writers will be forced to give us more drama
and less action, so the plot and the characters have to be first rate.
Series star Alex O'Laughlin is a likeable enough guy, but I just don't
see a television audience buying this character on a long term basis.
There is the possibility of a small and loyal following that could
keep the show on the air longer than expected, but I'm betting this
one does not make it a full season on CBS. There may be an afterlife
somewhere on the television dial, but network primetime is not the
spot.
The future of this series is unclear, as demonstrated by the network's
placement of it on Friday night, typically not a strong night for
drama series. Lack of publicity for the series, combined with rumors
they are already retooling the series, spells more trouble. I wish
them well, but this one is doubtful.
-- Editor --
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