Alex O'Loughlin stars as Mick St. John in Moonlight.
© Richard Cartwright/CBS
I like bucking the buzz; the chatter about Moonlight was pretty negative, but I'm always rooting for an underdog to pull off an upset and be a show that's worth watching. The reverse certainly happens often enough: highly touted shows often end up spiralling down the tubes into Dudsville, which is why I'm starting to get an uneasy feeling about Pushing Daisies – it could be great, or it could be 2007's answer to Best of the West (the touchstone example of the show with press so glowing its failure felt like betrayal).
Ultimately it's the shows that get little notice but concentrate on steadily building in quality that ultimately become classics, like Cheers (bottom-rated in its first season); in the sci-fi / fantasy world I think of Supernatural, which started with modest expectations and has since redeemed them manyfold. Out of the crop of new shows it's hard to tell which has the legs for a long, base-growing run; but I'll be very surprised if Moonlight survives into the spring.
Comments
This show is Angel, the Buffy spin off, with out the campy humor. Moonlight takes itself a little to serious. I enjoy a good vampire tale and I am also liberal on traditional vampire rules but moonlight offers nothing new to the genre. I guess CBS knew this . . . thats why its on Fridays at 9.
Doug hit the nail on the head when he said this is like Angel without the humor–I’d also add that it’s like Forever Knight, only without the melodramatic charm. Angel pioneered the hip, edgy vampire hero, while FK gave us a deliciously morose, thick-heeaded but lovable hero with a healthy 8 centuries under hs belt (making the series worth it for the period flashbacks alone!) After that, Moonlight’s flashbacks to the 50′s–which could just as easily have been the 80′s or the 1880′s for all the sense of place they give us–ring rather hollow. I have to say, though, I’m enjoying the casting of Alex O’Loughlin as Mick St. John. The character may be your basic brooding-remorseful-loner-vamp archetype, but O’Loughlin gives the two-dimensional character as much depth as the writing allows him to. He’s sexy and fun to watch, despite the painfully awkward dialogue. While I agree it may not be long before this series goes the way of the dodo, I, for one, will miss it when it does. It’s nothing special…but I enjoy it nonetheless.
Personally, I enjoy this show. Yes, it’s a bit predictable but I didn’t watch Angel or Forever Knight, they just didn’t interest me. I find this show refreshing in that it doesn’t paint him as a monster while there are monsters all around. It also certainly doesn’t hurt that O’Loughlin is some of the best eye candy to be featured on tv in quite some time.
This show may become a big hit for vampire lovers. Even if you get past the fact that they are vampires, you’ll still get some interesting characters. For One Alex O’Loughlin portrayed the character of Mick well because Alex has that hero look. And Mick is mostly investigating then kicking butt. Another character that appeals to me is Josef. Jason Dohring really grasped that character. His sarcasm is clearly shown when needed and his sadness is caught on screen at points. I could tell from watching him portray Logan Echolls on Veronica Mars that he has a great future ahead. Josef is also my favorite character. He’s a 400 year old guy that has seen everything that is meant to be seen and his personality is a pompous billionaire who seems to have not loved or been loved. And clearly he has. Moonlight is a good show if you are a fan of investigations, vampires, and twisted love.