Heather's Best of 2016

A list of courageous entertainment!

Moonlight: Sonata

Mick: "I can't close the door on Beth."

Throughout the series, the door to Mick's apartment has symbolized the division between Mick and Beth. He's a vampire. She's a human. What sort of future can they have?

Moonlight: What’s Left Behind

“Children are a precious gift. I just like their blood.”

This episode felt like an ode to pre-modernism LA architecture. Back when times were simpler, people used coal, men were men (and not vampires), and women built airplanes but couldn’t change spark plugs. Oh, and those manly men slept with their presumed-dead best friend’s wife and nearly sired an illegitimate child who was raised by someone else. Y’know: the good ol’ days.

Moonlight: Click

Beth: "So where does a vampire take a girl on a date?"

Most of the initial dramatic conflicts introduced at the start of the series are gone, and the barriers separating Mick and Beth don't seem quite so insurmountable any more.

Moonlight: Fated to Pretend

“There’s so much living to do.”

We knew it couldn’t last. I expected it to last a bit longer than this, though. Mick’s humanity had a shelf life of about six months, but he wasn’t taking into account his most human quality: mercy.

Moonlight: The Mortal Cure

Coraline: "I think Beth is starting to like me. She didn't stab me this time."

Gotta love a flashback re-writing the entire French Revolution. It's over the top, but you know, it actually makes story sense. A vampire genocide explains why there aren't vampires everywhere. Coraline being royalty explains her arrogance and sense of entitlement. And the guillotine explains why a mortal cure exists at all. But why does Coraline's nasty brother Lance even care that she took the compound? Are they expecting another vampire genocide in this day and age?

Moonlight: Love Lasts Forever

“At the end of the day, not a lot separates life and death.”

A rather foolishly contrived plot of the week brought us some great emotional revelations, and even some risky storytelling devices. Moonlight probably would have been a great show if it had been given the chance: Sophia Myles was incredible.

Moonlight: Sleeping Beauty

Josef: "She never came out of it. She got lost somewhere in between."

This episode did two cool things: it gave Josef a seriously romantic backstory, and it gave Mick a damned good reason to never turn Beth.

Moonlight: Fleur de Lis

“It was a very complicated relationship.”

According to Josef, “Mick and Coraline’s relationship is one of those terrifying, completely self-destructive freak shows that you spend your whole life searching for, knowing that it can only end with one or both of you dead.” That pretty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

Moonlight: 12:04 AM

Mick: "Shepherd's risen, all right. And he is pissed."

Audrey certainly lucked into the right private detective, didn't she?

The crazed cult leader plot has been done to death, so to speak. It was pretty obvious right from the start that Donovan Shepherd thwarted his own execution because he'd been turned, and I'm glad they didn't try to pretend the audience wouldn't figure that out.

Moonlight: The Ringer

“She’s a dead ringer for Katherine Coraline.”

Alex O'Loughlin spent most of this episode looking completely nonplussed—at Morgan, at the fire photos, at Beth’s idea that he was hitting on her co-worker. I found Mick’s reactions more interesting than the plot of the week, although the is-she-or-isn’t-she emotional roller-coaster definitely ended on a high note. Josef’s sassy comments were pretty delightful, too.

Moonlight: B.C.

Lola: "'Evil' is a word that gets tossed around a lot. Like 'great' or 'awesome'."

When this series first aired, "Fever" kept me watching. But "B.C." closed the deal.

Moonlight: Arrested Development

“Maybe it’s the sum of a million coincidences beyond our control that brings us to a particular place at a particular time.”

It’s all about fate, and everything that gets in the way of fate. In our plot of the week, the killer vampire’s immortality was ruined by a cruel twist of fate (and some really bad acne)—Mick and Beth are just as cursed, only with slightly more epic problems.

Moonlight: Fever

Beth: "You're a delicate flower, Mick St. John."

Tonight's theme was trust.

Moonlight: Dr. Feelgood

“We’ve got a rogue on our hands.”

It’s all about contrasts in this third entry: the doctor who kills, the vampire who saves, the astrophysicist overwhelmed by the minutiae of human interactions. And, on top of it all: the beautiful blond human who is a foil to the dark, mysterious ex-wife.

Moonlight: Out of the Past

Josef: "Humans don't know how to properly deal with their bad guys."

As I've said before, I fully acknowledge that Moonlight is derivative. But it's derived from lots of stuff I love, sort of like fantasy show smorgasbord. A little Angel, some Forever Knight, a touch of Highlander, my favorite actor from Veronica Mars. There's even a reckless girl reporter who gets into constant trouble, so you can add Superman to the list. And most importantly, Moonlight has star-crossed Buffy-ish romance, and I'm a sucker for that. Mick is a monster who saved the life of a little girl twenty-two years ago and has watched over her ever since. That's basic beauty and the beast. Very romantic. Not stalker-like at all.

Moonlight: No Such Thing as Vampires

“The food is mouthing off about the farmer.”

Due to popular demand—and our first annual Vampire Month—Billie and I are going to alternate reviews of Moonlight. We drew straws, and I wound up with the pilot. Once I looked it up on Netflix, though, I realized something. Something important. I’ve actually seen this episode before. I just forgot all about it.

Moonlight

Reviews |
Related Links | Cast

Moonlight (2007-2008) was a short-lived but much loved series starring Alex O'Loughlin as immortal vampire private detective Mick St. John, Sophia Myles as investigative reporter Beth Turner, and Jason Dohring as Mick's pragmatic vampire friend, Josef.

Although the mysteries of the week were rarely compelling, the chemistry and skill of the stars, the attention to local LA color, and the consistent vision of the writers made it a delightful show. Moonlight had so much potential, and just missed the Twilight craze by months. The CBS execs were probably kicking themselves. "Vampires are hot now! We threw away hot vampires!"

Reviews

1.1 No Such Thing As Vampires
1.2 Out of the Past
1.3 Dr. Feelgood
1.4 Fever
1.5 Arrested Development
1.6 B.C.
1.7 The Ringer
1.8 12:04 a.m.
1.9 Fleur de Lis
1.10 Sleeping Beauty
1.11 Love Lasts Forever
1.12 The Mortal Cure
1.13 Fated to Pretend
1.14 Click
1.15 What’s Left Behind
1.16 Sonata

Related Links

Angel reviews
Buffy the Vampire Slayer reviews
A couple of random Hawaii Five-0 reviews

Cast

Alex O'Loughlin (Mick St. John)
Sophia Myles (Beth Turner)
Jason Dohring (Josef Kostan)
Shannyn Sossamon (Coraline)

Reflections on a rather bizarre season

This has been a season of strangeness. And disappointment.

It started out so well, too. We had a veritable scad of possibly terrific new genre shows. And everything came to a screeching halt with the writers' strike. And then everything kind of turned into crap.

Bionic Woman started strong, but turned into a huge, honking disappointment. Pushing Daisies is clever, I suppose, but it's so twee that it makes my teeth hurt. Chuck just doesn't do anything for me, as much as I wish it did. I actually liked Reaper a lot at first because it made me laugh, but it didn't innovate; we got the same episode over and over, and I finally stopped watching it. (I'm not even going to talk again about the possible new Knight Rider series; already did.)

I liked Journeyman. I really did. I'm not crying that it's gone, but I thought it had something. And I liked New Amsterdam even more. They were going for a sort of serious Highlander, with an immortal character who was out there on his own with no mythology and no other immortals to make him less unique. A man with multiple careers, many families, descendants all over the place, including one who was his best friend. New Amsterdam was cool, and it was acquiring some interesting depth. And of course it was canceled.

And I'm almost too heartbroken to talk about my favorite new show this past season: Moonlight. Its ratings were even pretty good, and it was just getting started. Why, oh why did they have to cancel Moonlight? Yes, its quality was, shall we say, variable, but it was so much fun. I savored every episode, and it was the one I was really pulling for. Damn. Yes, I've heard that there's a faint, tiny possibility that some other network will save it. But I wasn't born yesterday, and I'm not counting on it.

The only new show I really enjoyed that is getting a second season is Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. At least I got something.

As of tomorrow, Lost will be done for an extremely long time, and I'm certain they'll leave us with an agonizing cliffhanger. Battlestar will be hitting its hiatus in a couple of weeks, again almost certainly leaving us with an agonizing cliffhanger -- and who knows how long it will be until we get the final ten episodes. (I'm hoping for fall, but I betcha they'll hold out on us until January.)

Usually I play catch-up during the summer, taking on old shows and doing retro reviews. I've decided that this summer, I'm going to finally finish Six Feet Under and Highlander. I really can't take on another new show: this fall and winter, I'll be doing way too many. The only saving grace is that they're not all starting at the same time.

With my two favorite actors now off the show, I'm thinking seriously about dropping Smallville. Or postponing doing reviews until the DVD comes out.

Anyway, that's what's going on with me. What do you think? Suggestions? Comments?