Mick St. John, irish racial slur vampire detective archetype extraordinaire!

None of the reviews I've read so far have been very positive. Strangely, all the reviews I've read so far also use corny vampire puns as their titles. How often do critics get to use corny vampire puns? Vampiric terms such as "sucks" and "bites" apply much easier to a negative review than a positive review. Maybe all the critics actually liked the show but decided to write a negative review because they couldn't think of a positive vampire pun. Maybe?

Televisionary: This Bites: A Look at CBS' "Moonlight"
What's Alan Watching?: Put a stake in it?
The Watcher: 'Moonlight' is a draining experience

I really, really hate the trend of using themed puns all throughout a review.  

And yeah, it's not looking very hopeful for Moonlight.  We'll see, though.

Well hey, it was actually pretty good.  I guess I'll have to stop making fun of it now.

It's going to take a while for me to get used to Jason Dohring as a vampire, though.  It's hard to take him seriously when he's walking around with Logan Echoll's face.

I haven't got to see it yet, but it's encouraging you liked it. I'm looking forward to it.

Moonlight - 1x01 - No Such Thing as Vampires

Synopsis: Mick St. John teaches us that vampires can't be killed with stakes, and they aren't allergic to holy water and garlic, but they do have perfect hair.

Review: Meet Mick St. John, PI. He's not a vampire with a soul, but he is a vampire with morals. Evidently most vampires think they're old fashioned. Logan Echolls...I mean, Josef Konstantin...remarks that he knows Mick has his "morals and scruples," but they don't seem to be important to Josef. Vampires (like all good monster tales except for the occasional slasher) are metaphors. Over their long literary history, vampires have been metaphors for a lot of different things. Not being able to select just one, Moonlight decided to throw in the whole kit and caboodle of traditional vampiric metaphors.

• Addiction (Mick shooting up with blood)
  
• Desire (Beth's unquenchable desire for a story compared with Mick's natural desire for blood)
  
• Sexual (The professor and his cadre of wannabes)
  
• Amoral/Moral Ambiguity (Josef and his "morals and scruples" spiel)
  
• Survival (Josef warns that if humans discovered vampires exist that vampires would become extinct)
  
• Human Nature (Mick's narration, "You don't have to be a vampire to get a taste for blood.")
  
• The only metaphor they intentially avoided was any religious metaphor with the assertion that crucifixes and holy water have no effect on vampires.

Some have complained that Jason Dohring's characterization of a several-hundred-year-old vampire was too immature. I thought it was absolutely brilliant. He brought a fun spark to each scene he was in. At first, Beth and Mick seemed set up for a romantic relationship down the road. Then they complicated it by the fact he's been watching out for her since she was a little girl. That makes any kind of romance a little creepy, but it's inevitable she'll discover he's a vampire eventually. (And did anyone else guess the little girl was Beth the instant they saw the photo in the flashback?)

Comparisons have and will be made with Angel and Veronica Mars. It's nice to have a vampire who's not broody and a detective who's not angsty. This series can rightly be called neo-noir--something initially attempted by Angel that the writers soon gave up on, and something often used to describe Veronica Mars, but the writers there were often mixing in other genre elements. The only thing Moonlight was missing to make it full blown film noir was fedoras. It even had a black-and-white-client-entering-PI's-door scene. I could have done without the silently disappearing shtick. I would like to see Moonlight take on cliches like this and twist them around Burn Notice style. (Is every show set in a big city about crime contractually required to frequently use night city skyline shots?)

Moonlight's vampires have super smell and super hearing, and, of course, they heal really fast. With Mick's sense of justice, television has a new superhero. "No Such Thing as Vampires" was an excellent introduction to the series and had a decent plot that included very little supernatural elements but did explore occultism. The episode ended with an action-heavy last few minutes, and the season begins with an 8 out of 10.

Rating: 8 out of 10

I posted my review of the pilot to StS TV Reviews.

I liked the second episode as well.  I think the actors are getting used to their roles a little more.

Uh...spoiler below.



I was really glad when he told Whats-Her-Name that he is a vampire at the end.  I was worried that they were going to do the Clark/Lana thing where they drag it out for several seasons until no one even cares anymore.  So good job, writers.

I too was happy Beth discovered he was a vampire so early in the series--especially since every other series this season, Bionic Woman, Chuck, and Reaper are all plagued by the Super Secret Superhero Syndrome. I've seen the first six episodes now, and they have all been excellent. The series continues to improve. I love how they are developing Beth and Mick's relationship. I think this is probably the most underappreciated new series of the season. I hope that doesn't cause it to be cancelled, because it really is good.