Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Forever Knight: Hunters

John Kapelos is a fantastic actor (you’ve seen him in The Breakfast Club and The Shape of Water), so an episode centered on his character, Detective Schanke, is going to be a good one.

But even though it’s about Schanke, this episode succeeds because it's about vampires. I know, it's a vampire cop show, so it's always about vampires, but some episodes don't involve Nick's immortality. Last week he could have just about been any ol’ cop solving a case. The vampire stuff didn’t really come into play. Also, no Janette last week. I’m not just nursing an old crush here; the episodes without Janette tend to lack vampire content, and when the vampire show isn’t about vampire stuff, well, it’s just Law & Order with historical flashbacks.

When Schanke is under attack from a mysterious assassin, who seems to know the police’s every move, there’s only one thing to do: stash him in Janette’s club, The Raven.

The Raven is the best part of the show. Vampires hang out there. Normal people dance the night away, completely unaware. And when Nick shows up, Janette feels a stirring and the screen practically melts.

So Janette’s pretty bummed when Nick shows up and all he wants is for her to babysit Schanke. She agrees, because she’s hot for Nick. He really doesn’t deserve her.

But the meat of the episode is that Nick’s past is under fire. Apparently, modern technology has caught up with the vampire world, and one of the Nick’s co-workers has discovered that he... doesn’t exist. Oops.

TV show episodes usually have one big story (the A-plot) that moves alongside a smaller, more personal story (the B-plot). In a bad episode, we’d have to endure tedious, heart-to-heart talks in the B-plot that never relate to anything else, while waiting for the A-plot to come back around, but in "Hunters," the two halves work together to make a whole.

Not only is the B-plot interesting on its own, because the newfangled computer system nearly reveals Nick’s secret, but it develops the overarching story of vampires living in the modern era. AND when we learn the computer guy is the assassin (explaining how he could track police movements) all of our stories tie up in a nice bundle.

Flashback

Seeing Schanke on the run reminds Nick of the time he, Janette, and La Croix were on the run from some hunters who trapped them in a house. It was a near death experience, and none of them could wait for their chance to strike back. Nick’s afraid that feeling will drive Schanke to act too fast. He’s right.

Quotes

"I promise you, I will be right back. Cross my heart."
"Please don't do that in front of me."

Little Bites

-Fashion Police: The lady selling newspapers wears a big dumb hat that could have come from a cartoon about big dumb hats.

-Familiar faces: Rachel Luttrell, the desk officer who discovers Nick doesn’t exist, is known for her work on Stargate: Atlantis as Tayla Emmagan, and she also did stunt work for Avengers: Endgame.

-Vampire Lore: a tech-savvy vampire named Merlin helps other vampires set up their fake identities so they can actually exist on paper. He’d be a neat character to see more of. (We don’t.) Also, some vampires sleep in coffins, but they don't have to.

-Wasting time: While Nick’s supposed to be driving around Toronto to find the killer, he makes time to go home, change, lounge around his place, and then change again and go back to work.

-In the flashback, I think it’s funny when Janette screams to the hunters, “We’ve done nothing to you!” Because they’re, you know, vampires. Janette and La Croix kill people for fun. They’re not a pity case.

-Janette is hysterical all throughout this episode.

-If you missed the fact that the IT guy is the killer, don’t feel bad. That guy’s barely on screen, and he wears different costumes every time. They could have thrown us a bone.

-This one reminds me of my trip to Toronto, because my wife and I went to the Raven, where so much of this episode takes place. It’s a restaurant with an outdoors theme now. Anyway, we geeked out about it, but no one we met had ever heard of the show. Also, we’re pretty sure the alley behind our hotel room is where they filmed half of the outdoor shots.

Final Analysis: Good story, fun vampire stuff, and a satisfying conclusion. Five out of Five IT lab coats.

Adam D. Jones is a writer, musician, and medievalist who feels a kinship for vampires because his sensitive eyes that make it difficult to go outside during the day.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for explaining in an earlier review what the "EuroMinutes" are. As an Australian I had always thought they were integral to the episodes.
    Not sure whether it actually counts as such, but I really like the scene where Nick is driving around Toronto and we finally get to hear "Touch the Night" at full volume. Fred Mollin and Lori Yates did great work on Forever Knight. (And I just checked, soundtrack album available on iTunes.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy to help!

    It's hard to remember that far back, but when this show aired, the music was ahead of its time. I always enjoy it.

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.