TVSquad

As a fan of the CBS series Moonlight, I've been keeping an eye on news about the show lately to know if it would be renewed or not. Lately, most articles made me optimistic since they said that the show had a good chance of getting a second season. Actually, some people said it was almost a done deal because the CBS Friday night lineup was doing very well. But, as people keeping tabs on the upfronts know, things can change in a split second.

CBS wants to see where a few of its under-performing shows are going before deciding their fate. The network ordered four more scripts for both Moonlight and Cane. Moonlight, a series about vampires in Los Angeles, is the net's lowest-rated show on Friday nights (it's in the 10 pm time slot). And Cane is ranked 8th on Tuesday nights.

While I can't say much about Cane, I can say that I was mighty disappointed in Moonlight. I'm a big fan of Jason Dohring from Veronica Mars, but I found him horribly miscast as "the oldest vampire in LA" (or maybe he'll always be Logan Echolls to me).

(S01E04) "You're a delicate flower, Mick St. John." - Beth

Since Jen is on a trip, I'm taking over reviewing duties this week for Moonlight. Sorry for the delay in posting the review. My phone company thought it would be funny to switch my phone number with someone else's on Friday night. This meant no Internet access until the phone company took care of the problem on Sunday morning! Yikes!

As Jen said two weeks ago, even if a lot of people don't like this series, it seems that I too have a higher tolerance for it and I enjoy vampire smut. Plus, the shows I tape on Friday nights and watch over the weekend are all about me not having to think too much while being entertained (the other show on my Friday watch list is Las Vegas). Moonlight falls right into that category.

Hot from this morning's Variety: NBC has purchased the rights to a new script by O.C. writer John Stephens. Warner Brothers TV will produce the show under a previous deal Stephens made with the peacock network.

The premise of the show? What starts as a normal cop-show takes a "hilariously horrifying" twist when the not-so-super police officers have to face the likes of vampires, mummies and other supernatural ghouls -- return of werewolf man?

(S01E11) Woo hoo, the last episode before the season finale (as show promos are so fond of saying). So far Krista's been turned into a vampire, seen her whole family killed, had her hand sliced off and grown back, etc. Marcus, meanwhile, has discovered the cure to all the ills of vampirism, and declared war on all enemy houses. And Blade has ... Well, Blade is still Blade. Basically he seems to run around killing non-essential vampire day-players far from the central story arc of the series. But that was before this week. Blade comes along nicely this time, bags a major player and Sticky gets more dialog this episode in some well-played scenes with Collins than he's had in the rest of the series combined.

Now explain to me how the purebloods have managed to survive all these centuries when they so easily get duped into believing that Chase has converted to their side against Marcus. If that isn't enough, why in the world is Marcus so sure a bomb on the company Lear jet is gonna do the trick to wipe out Charlotte and her crew of purebloods. Right after the crash Charlotte and her assistant "Lurch" wick away a few drops of blood, feed on nearby campers and are back on their way. It's not even that close a call for them -- though it did make Charlotte very thirsty. Good plan Marcus.

(S01E10) First thing we learn this week is that there are clubs in Detroit where a vodka tonic still only cost an inflation-fighting four bucks. Secondly, if you frequent such clubs, be prepared to encounter masked super-villains who channel Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and collect teeth.

Krista gets locked up by Shen and Blade to detox from her sex and blood feast with Marcus last episode. This is a gruesome episode, with lots of dungeons, torture and references to historical sadists like Gilles de Rais. It fails to be very scary and this torture-fest made me impatient for them to bring back Richard Roundtree, or for at least some mention of all the other threads they've put on the back burner, if not dropped altogether. Where's Boone been lately?

(S01E06) My DVR picked up the last five minutes of Spike's timely lead-in for Blade tonight: Lethal Weapon. Seems there is no escaping Mel Gibson this week.

On the ongoing subject of Blade's relative unimportance to this show, especially compared with Krista (Jill Wagner), I will give that theme a rest this week and merely refer you to insightful comments posted last week by techjitsu and others. I live in hope of a Blade-centric episode one day, and this almost promises to qualify at first, as the daywalker has to transport a pregnant woman (Vanessa) whose unborn baby Marcus wants for something to safety. Or take her someplace, they are on a train to Paris anyway. Turns out Blade (Kirk Jones) is taking her to see a doctor he trusts. "Delivery" -- get it? Their travel is punctuated by several brief fight scenes, and it turns out she's not actually pregnant -- at least in the conventional sense.

Krista goes to an art opening with Marcus, and has one of her signature poignant moments, this time while looking a depressing painting made by a fellow Gulf vet. Her uncle shows up, and tells Krista her Mom has taken ill.

Chase (Jessica Gower) survived! Now Marcus sends Krista to Berlin the complete Chase's mission to bring the pregnant woman back to him. Krista objects, briefly. OH COME ON!!! Marcus has a whole frikkin' clan of vampires that he allegedly controls and he sends Krista?!? Again?!?!

(S01E04) A big chunk of Blade's past is revealed when the daywalker gets captured by survivors of a street gang that had rescued him as a homeless kid years before. Blade then spends the entire episode chained-up, getting the bejesus beat out of him. Turns out the gang - now called the Bad Bloods - is where Blade got his signature look. His tats are gang tats.

Blade repaid his adopted bro's by turning them all into vampires. Not nice -- but remember he was just a kid. The ganstas don't let him forget that, and keep calling him "little one" which has to hurt at least as much as does the beating he takes. Also, seems getting turned by Blade makes you persona-non-grata in the undead community - so these dudes have been hunted into near-extinction by Chthon and the other vampire Houses. Now the Bloods want to trade Blade to Marcus in exchange for peace in our time. Great! Just what I needed, another faction to try and keep track of. But it's a pretty cool wrinkle added to Blade's history, and anyway, the gang looks to be history itself after tonight.

Meanwhile, Krista, for her half of the episode, is still pained, conflicted, and smoking hot.

(S01E03) For those who forgot to tune-in or record Blade The Series opposite the second half of Nightmares & Dreamscapes, or were perhaps still digesting the Project Runway premiere (don't lie, you know who you are): SpikeTV's resident daywalker Blade (Kirk Jones) and newbie hemoglobin-addict Krista (Jill Wagner) had to fight their separate battles this week. In order to find out more about the Aurora vaccine, Blade hunts down an ex-guinea pig one used by head Detroit-vamp Marcus's -- a sort of tweeker dude called Sands, while smashing progressively harder barriers (hotel room drywall, then brick wall, then big iron door) in the process.

Blade: The Series, which we've mentioned a few times in the past, is finally in production for Spike TV with a premiere set for July 5 (but don't forget the "real" two-hour premiere on June 28). Confusing enough for you? Okay, good. The new series will be based on the comic book about a half-man half-vampire who battles evil creatures of the night. The two-hour "kick off" will focus on Blade's new partnership with a human woman mired in the world of vampires as she investigates the death of her twin brother. Ooh, sounds dramatic and suspenseful and all that stuff. Okay, so I'm not big into the whole "vampire" thing, but what about the rest of you? Anyone excited about this?

 

I'm not one of the many people who worship at the altar of Joss Whedon, though it's only because I never really watched any of his programs much. The only exception is Angel, which I caught later on DVD. I thought Angel  was a dark and compelling show, but nothing could prepare me for Cherub, the vampire with bunny slippers. You see, Cherub is a vampire who was given a pair of cursed bunny slippers, and now he wallows in his own remorse. He must never fall in love with Muffy, the Vampire Chiropractor, for if he experiences a moment of perfect back adjustment he'll become Cherubus and do unspeakably evil things, like making prank phone calls to Ashley Judd.

Cherub is a Web-only program created by Caution Zero Network. You can watch the trailer here. The series begins on February 10.