The CBS Angel wannabe show of a vampire detective helping the living begins tonight.

From Fangoria

In a scenario with echoes of the WB’s ANGEL, Alex O’Loughlin plays Mick St. John, a Los Angeles detective who also happens to be a 60-year-old creature of the night. He longs for pretty tabloid reporter Beth Turner (Sophia Myles, whose credits include UNDERWORLD: EVOLUTION and last year’s BBC DRACULA, and took over from the presentation’s Shannon Lucio) while getting chastised by his much older undead buddy Josef (VERONICA MARS’ Jason Dohring, who supplanted THE FOG’s Rade Serbedzija). Josef feels Alex should be spending less time helping humankind and more protecting the secrecy of their nocturnal subculture. And Shannyn (THE ORDER) Sossamon replaced Amber Valletta as femme fatale Coraline, who “sired” Mick in the first place. “What we’re trying to do is a vampire show for the 21st century,” Stanton says. “We’re trying to keep it grounded and real—and make it a little more fun and sexy. We have a bigger love-story component than some other similar series that have been out there.”

snip

The big question for Fangorians, however, is how horrific MOONLIGHT will become—and the producers feel that there will be enough bloodshed to keep die-hard fright fans satisfied. “Look, he’s a vampire, he needs blood to survive,” Werksman notes. “He has fangs and super-abilities in terms of strength, speed, hearing, sight and smell, and when he goes up against other vampires, you really see these people being supernaturally cool. To that end, we have a great stunt department and coordinators who are doing amazing things—almost Errol Flynn-like battles between, for example, two vampires in a stairwell, with these guys pummeling each other and biting.”
Of course, when you’re beholden to a major network like CBS, you ultimately want the best of both worlds in terms of viewership, and Stanton and Werksman believe they have delivered the goods. “What we’re doing is making a show that horror fans will get behind, but if you’re not a horror fan, you won’t be scared away by it,” Stanton says.

Here’s what USA Today wrote: ‘Moonlight robs the graves of better shows’:

If you must steal, at least make good use of what you take.

When it comes to grand-scale theft, it’s hard to be more obvious than CBS’ vampire-detective drama, Moonlight. It’s basically Angel without the search-for-a-soul underpinnings that gave Angel depth, and with a more ponderous script and less adept cast.

OK, so maybe it isn’t Angel after all.

snip

Mick is trying to solve a murder; what is the show trying to do? Where tonight’s premiere verges on the comic, the second episode — written by Angel’s David Greenwalt — moves the show in a darker direction. But Greenwalt has since left, so what tone comes next?

Whoever is running Moonlight needs to learn to pay more attention to real-life details. Tonight’s episode asks us to believe that a string of murders could take place without the police interfering with any of the very obvious suspects. The second posits a supposedly well-regarded reporter who writes a book about a convict without looking into his past or speaking to his arresting officer.

Why does it matter? If we don’t buy the “real-life” aspects of a fantasy, we’ll never buy the fantasy itself. That’s one of the crucial lessons ingrained in Angel.

Next time you visit the scene of the crime, steal that as well.

I stumbled upon this site by mere happenstance when I noticed this. What surprises me even more is the parallel and odd similarities the show has with the 90s debunked series Kindred (I believe it aired on FOX?).

I liked Angel and thought it was fun, and this show looks like a “fun” series. As a serious horror genre fan, I knew from the previews it wouldn’t be exactly the best of the best. Yet, the actors involved in the series hold my attention enough to care. The storylines seem a bit predictable but again…it’s rare to find mainstream “vampire” themed series that don’t somehow rehash similar stances.

I watched it tonight and enjoyed it enough to see where it goes….I’m giving this series some room to grow…rarely do pilot episodes, let alone a pilot season, well received immediately.

If I had to give it a rate out of 5 stars…I’d give it 3. It’s not amazing but it’s not horrible. It’s a show that needs to find its feet and (crossing fingers) hopefully maneuver whatever ratings hurtles it encounters.

Thanks for stopping by Valleri. Hope you come back again.

Does anybody remember the series “Forever Knight”?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_Knight

I enjoyed it. I never got to see the third season because they dropped it from our cable.

One more comment about vampires and such creatures.

Is it a testament to human ego or human lack of imagination that we portray all supernatural creatures as obsessed with humans?

To me it’s just different ways of imagining “God.” People like to imagine that angels are falling in love with them, or at least anxious to protect them. Dr. Who finds them endlessly fascinating and admirable. Vampires are ambivalent about killing them because humans are so darn compelling. Witches want to marry them so much they’ll suspend using their powers. God loves them so much he sent his Son to suffer and die to save their souls, and listens to their every prayer with the doting attention of a mother.

I find this perspective on human nature to be very revealing. Humans can’t imagine a creature beyond human concerns. No surprise, but they can’t get their heads around a being with an existence utterly unfettered by the limits of finite earthly beings. An existence like that wouldn’t even be interesting to humans.

Do you think dogs imagine that we relish and meditate on the tremendous varieties of scent to be found on their rear ends?

Do you think dogs imagine that we relish and meditate on the tremendous varieties of scent to be found on their rear ends?

I’m glad that I was finished with my coffee when I read this line…

I’m glad that I was finished with my coffee when I read this line…

Ooops. Sorry about that. I can see that it might have interfered with you relishing your coffee. :p