Moonlight

Overall score:

Moonlight is a new CBS show by Joel Silver (producer of Veronica Mars, The Strip, and every huge exploding film in Hollywood) on TV about a vampire detective. While the similarity between its style and pacing and Dresden files on Sci-fi is amusing, it's no Angel and lacks the humor and verve of Joss Whedon's Sunndale-verse.

That doesn't make it bad, I mean the vampire and detective genres are pretty derivative and that makes it tough to have any wiggle room when it comes to an original story. Joss made up for it by creating good characters and writing quirky dialog. Moonlight goes for a poor man's CSI vibe, with some Morgue, blue lights, and police mumbo jumbo--and it kind of works.

Like Dresden, Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) is a rugged, handsome, quasi-scruffy private eye who wants to help people. His vampiric ability gives him a severe edge on other law enforcement types and his Strength and Speed make him a one-man army. To be hunted by him is sort of like being hunted by the private eye equivalent of Superman, or at least a flightless Superman who wanders around in the day looking like he's got a serious hangover or a light allergy.

The formula works because like Dresden, Mick is a good guy who believes in a sense of right and wrong. Thanks to the opening scene and the ending flashbacks it wont be entirely evident at first why Nick is so interested in cracking the Pilot case, but in retrospect it works pretty well.

So where do it and Dresden converge? The light airy shots of L.A. are done just like the light Airy shots of Chicago in Dresden, complete with a Sam Spade style voiceover and dramatic cuts. The idea of a supernatural private eye is kind of ganked (or swiped or stolen) too, though to their credit they did shy away from the whole wizard thing... for now. A nosy reporter who's somehow tied to the protagonist and has an interest in the occult is also strangely familiar.

But maybe I'm being too critical, I mean like I said, the Vampire story and the detective story are some cliched genres and both Dresden and Moonlight suffer from an overindulgence of flashback, voiceover, and slight of hand to conceal the mystery from the viewer until the last few seconds. In the end I don't dislike the show for any of it, though I was kind of expecting to.

If anything I think I might dislike Moonlight for the main characters name "Mick Saint John," which is straight out of a very special episode of the Rockford Files. I also can't help but chuckle at all the Goth mumbo jumbo that reminds me of some of the worst games of Vampire I've played. In the good column, Nick's competitor and sidekick Beth Turner (Sophia Myles) has the earnest reporter with a hint of sleaze down pat, and I nearly burst out laughing when she blurts out, "I'm not leaving without my money shot! Oh my [gosh] did I just say that! I've become a news whore overnight," to her sleazier camera man while she's trying to figure out how to photograph a recently murdered co-ed. It's not the words that sell it, but the actress who manages to sound amused and horrified at herself at the same time. While it's not as good as Joss's dialogue it was kind of cute.

Like all good detective stories Moonlight needs a detective, a string of murdered bodies, a bored and cagey, but utterly clueless police officer, a plucky dame (reporting skills optional), lots of suspects who get almost no screen time, also since it's a Vampire story it needs a crass heartless buddy vampire (Spike..cough...cough) who's sole job is to demonstrate how crass and heartless most Vampires are, all staples of the genre. Its does win with its action and earnestness, and a pretty good stunt and SFX team which make an ordinary car chase fun to watch later. Also it paves the way for a new sport which I like to call Serial Killer Tossing (oh, just short of a hundred yards for the bronze!), but needs much more character development to really become more than a cliche pilot.

Moonlight is not Hemmingway, it's not Proust and heck, it's not Ann Rice, but it is good popcorn fare and the characters are interesting enough to warrant a second look. I'm just hoping the network doesn't screw it up too much in its quest for ratings.

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Written by Maddrjeffe on October 08th, 2007