by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
Since the demise of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 2003 and Angel in 2004, network TV has suffered from a sever lack of vampires. It’s a serious problem CBS is attempting to solve with Moonlight, a series with a strikingly familiar premise and, it turns out, a whole lot of problems. Moonlight can be seen at 9 pm on Fridays.
In the pilot episode we meet Mick St. John (Alex O’Loughlin), a private investigator who just happens to be a vampire. Over the years, he has been using his special talents (heightened senses, quick reflexes, mega-strength- all thanks to his vampirism) to help mortals. The do-gooder behavior is a bit of an annoyance for Mick’s mentor, Josef (Jason Dohring), a 400-year-old vampire who believes humans are good for food and little else. It’s present day LA when Mick meets Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), an Internet reporter who immediately captures the undead PI’s cold heart. While he deals with his feelings for this mortal woman, Mick must also come to terms with his past and solve heinous crimes along the way.
Over the years, I’ve embraced Buffy via early morning reruns on FX, but I’m still not what you would call a huge fan of the show or its spin-off Angel. I do know enough about both, though, to be able to draw some parallels with the newest vampire series on the block. It seems the creators were definitely enamored with Angel’s premise since the whole vampire detective with a soul thing is almost a carbon copy. Those desperate to fill the void that Angel’s cancellation left will most likely be thrilled with Moonlight, which will definitely give them their vamp fix each week. Some die-hard Buffyverse fans, on the other hand, will probably be sharpening their wooden stakes. The characters just aren’t as strong, the mysteries of the week are weak and the writing is lacking in a major way. A lot of what people loved about the Buffyverse shows were the witty banter and the chemistry between the characters. Moonlight just doesn’t have much of either. O’Loughlin and Myles are not believable as a potential couple, which hampers a lot of the pseudo-flirty dialogue and the real heart of the series as a whole. Without that vampire/mortal so-wrong-its-right passion, the show’s left with a bunch of crappy mysteries so simplistic the audience figures out whodunit before the end of the first act. We’ve got enough of those shows on the air as it is!
With any shows or films that deal with supernatural creatures, you have to be willing to suspend your disbelief and roll with it and many quality television series’ have gotten me to do just that. With Moonlight, not so much. The problem isn’t the vampire thing, I can buy that, it’s that the writers can’t seem to make the non-vampire stuff halfway plausible. The show is supposed to be a mystery/crime drama set in a version of the present that happens to have vampires secretly walking among us. Beyond this, modern day logic should apply. And yet, the police chief completely ignores the major news anchors, but is more than willing to chat up a newbie journalist for a tabloid website a la TMZ, even going so far as to allow the intrepid reporter to wander into a crime scene and snap photos of a dead co-ed. Say what? An author writes a book about a convicted murderer without ever interviewing the arresting officer, but somehow manages to get a hold of 50-year-old photographs of the nobody PI working the case. Huh? A 90-year-old vampire detective, who spends his time hanging out at crime scenes and solving murders, hasn’t changed his name or appearance to hide his secret after all these years. Really? I mean, is it so hard to make the basic, real-life logic work? Apparently so, since both of the episodes that have aired so far have been plagued with stuff like this from start to finish.
Now, that’s not to say that Moonlight is all bad. The series has a definite film noir feel to it, complete with shady characters, a couple of femme fatales and a whole lot of narration from our fanged Philip Marlowe. It’s a nice touch and it works with the theme. The show also isn’t completely devoid of charm, mostly thanks to Jason Dohring, whose three years of playing rich, sarcastic, brooding bad boy, Logan, on Veronica Mars has primed him for a role like Josef, the rich, sarcastic, brooding vampire. The roles are so similar, even down to the hand gestures, that I find myself referring to the character as Logan. As a long time fan of Veronica Mars, who is still mourning its demise, the snarky familiarity of Dohring’s performance is more than enough to interest me, at least for a little while.
Despite all of its flaws, I’ll give Moonlight a few more episodes before writing it off completely, mostly out of my slightly sick need to see more of Undead Logan, I mean Jason Dohring at nearly any cost. But, with its Friday night timeslot getting even more crowded this week- NBC’s brilliant series Friday Night Lights just came back and the buzz-generating Women’s Murder Club will premiere on ABC October 12th- I’m not sure how much longer my loyalty will hold out. Moonlight’s gotta get some teeth soon or it’s losing a space on my TiVo.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
