Blood Ties, first disc
Aug. 10th, 2008 02:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSo I've watched the first disc, which is the first five episodes. It doesn't suck. Bounces along with your horror standards and a fair bit of style.
But I'm not sure what it's about yet.
Private Investigator stories are, as I understand it, about drawing a line, slightly further out than the police but way short of the bad guys. I felt that in the books Vicki had a choice between the police way, and her old partner, or the tooth and claw violence, or her new guy. And the red pleasure the new way offered was so seductive. And... it totally felt like she lost, in the last books. She was making a line between, seeing the darkness but not falling to it, and then... not so much. Happy slaughter fun time. Seemed to be missing the point.
In the TV series I'm just not getting that tension. Maybe it's on a slow build or something, but right now the cop looks pure stupid for suspecting the pretty boy vampire, like it's anti vampire racism and not reasonable. And... well, no, there's some hints. His idea of how to ask questions in bars, for instance. Picking up cop guy by the throat. Little things like that. Just... it don't feel like clear distance and tension and her between.
Forever Knight worked vampire-as-cop with all the temptations concentrated in one person. The line was in him, the hunger and all. Which is always so, temptation inside. So it is here, but she's got outside people for illustration. And her kid sidekick to be the unjaded fascination and the one who demonstrates how dangerous it is to poke this particular power source. So that's improvement, potentially, adding her. It's just... The two guys just play like they're jealous and possessive, and since this TV series hasn't made clear if Vicki is sleeping with either of them it is even more stupid than usual.
It also irritates that this version seems to have made Henry straight. I mean... okay, only five episodes, and he's only been interested in other people in... most of them, but... Where's the pretty guys? There were guys in the books. Why not on TV? It's like taking the sparkle out of the lemonade. Sure, it's still drinkable, but... *sigh*
So, what I like is the thing where she'll see what cops train themselves not to see. I dislike the thing where that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
Also, in 5 episodes, we had a two parter with a creepy guy, followed by three episodes of killer women. Black woman killing with voodoo, creepy little girl killing with her imaginary friend, somebody's mother persuading them to kill themselves so she can use his ghost to do killing. In all three there's been a man who looked like they were the creep but turns out to be the victim. Two out of three probably survived it. The black man got dead.
Just from that list, does the problem become clear?
It has a little wiggle room to work with, but... I'm not loving the stats thus far.
Also? Creepy little girl? Killed her mother, but by the end of the episode it was all hugs and happies. Um, hello, *killed her mother*. Realise she's real small, but could there possibly be consequences? No, criminal wouldn't at that small neither. Still. Something weird there.
The writing is a bit clunky in places, but it's the first five episodes so they're forgiven a bit. I'm not getting used to the color saturation. It's interesting, but odd.
The demon tattoos have possibilities.
If the theme is power and the (mis)use thereof, there's good stuff to plumb there.
But I'm not feeling the guys as... fully formed or fully differentiated enough to be carrying any kind of tension. Vicki isn't making choices in between them, she's using both of them to solve cases and getting fed up when they get grr at each other about it. It's like all the zing fell out of it.
Also it doesn't help that I only really fancy the vampire.
... and Vicki. And Coreen. Er, okay, that helps.
I'll keep watching, but I'm kind of meh about a lot of it right now.
But I'm not sure what it's about yet.
Private Investigator stories are, as I understand it, about drawing a line, slightly further out than the police but way short of the bad guys. I felt that in the books Vicki had a choice between the police way, and her old partner, or the tooth and claw violence, or her new guy. And the red pleasure the new way offered was so seductive. And... it totally felt like she lost, in the last books. She was making a line between, seeing the darkness but not falling to it, and then... not so much. Happy slaughter fun time. Seemed to be missing the point.
In the TV series I'm just not getting that tension. Maybe it's on a slow build or something, but right now the cop looks pure stupid for suspecting the pretty boy vampire, like it's anti vampire racism and not reasonable. And... well, no, there's some hints. His idea of how to ask questions in bars, for instance. Picking up cop guy by the throat. Little things like that. Just... it don't feel like clear distance and tension and her between.
Forever Knight worked vampire-as-cop with all the temptations concentrated in one person. The line was in him, the hunger and all. Which is always so, temptation inside. So it is here, but she's got outside people for illustration. And her kid sidekick to be the unjaded fascination and the one who demonstrates how dangerous it is to poke this particular power source. So that's improvement, potentially, adding her. It's just... The two guys just play like they're jealous and possessive, and since this TV series hasn't made clear if Vicki is sleeping with either of them it is even more stupid than usual.
It also irritates that this version seems to have made Henry straight. I mean... okay, only five episodes, and he's only been interested in other people in... most of them, but... Where's the pretty guys? There were guys in the books. Why not on TV? It's like taking the sparkle out of the lemonade. Sure, it's still drinkable, but... *sigh*
So, what I like is the thing where she'll see what cops train themselves not to see. I dislike the thing where that doesn't seem to be going anywhere.
Also, in 5 episodes, we had a two parter with a creepy guy, followed by three episodes of killer women. Black woman killing with voodoo, creepy little girl killing with her imaginary friend, somebody's mother persuading them to kill themselves so she can use his ghost to do killing. In all three there's been a man who looked like they were the creep but turns out to be the victim. Two out of three probably survived it. The black man got dead.
Just from that list, does the problem become clear?
It has a little wiggle room to work with, but... I'm not loving the stats thus far.
Also? Creepy little girl? Killed her mother, but by the end of the episode it was all hugs and happies. Um, hello, *killed her mother*. Realise she's real small, but could there possibly be consequences? No, criminal wouldn't at that small neither. Still. Something weird there.
The writing is a bit clunky in places, but it's the first five episodes so they're forgiven a bit. I'm not getting used to the color saturation. It's interesting, but odd.
The demon tattoos have possibilities.
If the theme is power and the (mis)use thereof, there's good stuff to plumb there.
But I'm not feeling the guys as... fully formed or fully differentiated enough to be carrying any kind of tension. Vicki isn't making choices in between them, she's using both of them to solve cases and getting fed up when they get grr at each other about it. It's like all the zing fell out of it.
Also it doesn't help that I only really fancy the vampire.
... and Vicki. And Coreen. Er, okay, that helps.
I'll keep watching, but I'm kind of meh about a lot of it right now.