A beautiful journalist with a shadowy memory that shaped her life, a handsome private investigator surrounded by intrigue and stories that were complex and mysterious, Moonlight had it all.
This stylish vampire story, with a classy cast and well written episodes did not last on network television, but thanks to DVD we can enjoy the series again.
Given the current craze for vampires, it is surprising that Moonlight was cancelled. The Friday night “death slot” may have killed it, although many people talked about the show and looked forward to it as part of the weekend viewing schedule.
It even had such a loyal fan base, there are stories in the media about Red Cross Blood Donation drives, organized by the show’s viewers to indicate their interest in keeping it on the air.
In viewing the episodes for this review, I was struck again by the things that had first drawn my attention to the series. The characters were portrayed in a unique manner and the production had a finesse and quality not often seen in either paranormal or cop shows. It was set in present day Los Angeles, but there was a feel of timeless storytelling and more than a nod to the film noir genre.
Early on the vampires were established as a self-sufficient community, living amongst human beings, but not often recognized. Their culture and abilities were very different, and they were a mixture of good and bad, just like their human counterparts. This allowed more story than just a conflict between the two groups to develop. Beth’s search to understand her scattered memories led to revelations about these unusual co-habitants of human society.
Mick St. John (Alex O’Loughlin) and Beth Turner (Sophia Myles) were brought together when both were investigating a crime scene at which a co-ed appeared to have been murdered by a vampire. In the beginning, Beth had no idea that vampires were a reality, but in the friendship that she soon developed with Mick, there were multiple opportunities to learn who and what these beings were.
Along with Beth, the audience discovered that (in this series) some of the most accepted vampire “lore” was false. They could go outside in the day time, however they wore very dark glasses and tried to stay out of intense sunlight. Staking one of these vampires only paralyzed rather than turned the being into dust. While they had superior strength, and seemed immortal because of fast healing and long years beyond the human norm, in truth they were like humans in that they existed until something or someone killed them.
Crucifixes did nothing, but silver was lethal. One fun element of the show was to see what new fact or ability would be revealed, and how all of this built a picture of beings who thought, felt, planned and grieved so similarly to us. Josef (played by Jason Dohring) soon became a favorite character, as his worldly wise approach and sense of humor tinged with irony played well against the youthful passion of the younger vampire Mick.
Moonlight The Complete Series is presented on four discs containing all 16 (of the too few) episodes. A brochure with program notes and stills from the series is included, and the episodes are presented in English audio but with numerous languages in subtitles. A disappointment is that there are no special features.
I think I remember seeing a “making of” special on television that I felt certain would be included, but sadly it is not on any of the discs. The only special is that the recap for each episode may be turned off.
Moonlight wasn’t a silly or adolescent type paranormal show, it appealed to those who loved a good story presented by actors whose accomplished renditions of characters added layers to the episodes.
Moonlight - The Complete Series is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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