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TV Review: Blood Ties


I'm smitten and Lifetime is the one to blame. Their new original series Blood Ties premeired last night and Vicki wasn't the only one bite by Henry's charm.

The IMDb's tagline for the show goes like this: "A detective to keep her cool. A vampire to keep her warm. Some women have it all..." And they're right.

Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox) is sitting pretty as an ex-cop turned private investigator who must team up with a handsome "man of the night" vampire and her studly "man of the day" ex-partner in order to solve a crime.

The cast has chemistry (oodles of it) and from all sides. The witty banter hit its marks. The show's pace keeps you engaged and the characters interaction is well-versed in subtleties. The Toronto setting is a perfect backdrop for the story. The special effects aren't over the top and Vicki knows how to rock a black leather jacket. All these ingredients combine together to make a really good pilot episode.

I enjoyed seeing a couple of familar faces, Dylan Neal from the CBS Soap The Bold and Beautiful as the sarcastic ex-partner and Kyle Schmid from The Disney's Channel's The Cheetah Girls as the charming vampire. Both guys have their hotness, but Schmid's portrayal of the playful yet seductive vampire graphic novelist definitely gives him the upperhand in my department.

Blood Ties offers some interesting spins on vampire folkore such as Henry (Schmid) is able to look at himself in the mirror, wears a cross and isn't afraid of garlic. The show touches upon several spiritual aspects, but one that really stood out was when Henry said the demons make the humans think they are in control but in actuality they are being taken advantage of. That's something the Holy Bible warns us about.

All in all, this show offers a solid foundation of possiblities to make it a winning series but I hope that it isn't reduced to a "freak of the week" cycle and it doesn't lost sight of its focus on the characters and get too heavy into introducing the audience to dark side folklore.

Head over to the official website to read the blog of Tanya Huff, whose books the series is based on.



Hat tip to SciFiChick for giving me a heads up about this show.

8 comments:

Angela/SciFiChick said...

Can't wait to watch this.. I have it recorded on my DVR, but didn't want to stay up late last night..
I've only heard good things so far, so I'm excited!

Unknown said...

Ugh! More vampires?! Well, it does show that humankind has a definate desire for eternal life. The premise sounds cool, but I;m not crazy about the vampire wearing a cross. However, in Salem's Lot, my fav vampire story (well Fright Night was pretty good too), anyways in Lot, vampires didn't fear crosses unless the people holding them actually had faith. So from that angle I like the idea. And the demon plot line is excellent if they keep it. Hey, remember my story idea about the demons making contact with...well I should write it out as a story. Where can I do that? Is there someplace on CSFF that I can work out story ideas?

Karen said...

Angela, tell me what you think after you watch it.

Top, there is an active yahoo critque group that a bunch of Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy (CSFF) writers belong to (including me). You can check it out at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Christian_Fic_WRE_Crit_Group/

Also, check out The Lost Genre Guild at http://www.lostgenreguild.com/ It's a group for Christian speculative fiction writers. I just recently joined.

Karen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Karen said...

Top, for some reason Blooger isn't letting me write the whole link for the Crit Group. I tried to post the link in another comment but it came up the same so I deleted it. I sent you a MySpace message with the full URL.

Angela/SciFiChick said...

I reviewed it yesterday.. loved it.

Karen said...

Angela, I just checked out your review. I totally agree.

SQT said...

I so need to watch this. It's been sitting on my Tivo for days and I just haven't had the chance. I'm so glad you reviewed it. I read the first couple of books in the series but I think I overdosed on vampire fiction because I read some Laurel Hamilton and Charlaine Harris at about the same time. They haven't overdone it on TV yet so this should seem pretty fresh; thank goodness.