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crack_van2008-11-02 04:33 pm
arby-m.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2008-11-02 04:33 pm
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Moonlight: An Overview
I was totally skeptical ("another vampire show? who needs it!" see also, "CBS sucks") and held out until almost halfway through the season, but when I finally got around to watching it I was totally hooked by half an hour into the pilot. I know what you're thinking - "I liked this show back when it was called [Dark Shadows]/[Forever Knight]/[Angel]". Yes, I will grant you that it is derivative. Yes, that blonde girl looks an awful lot like Kate, and there are blipverts and billowing coats and helping the helpless. However, here are my counterarguments - 1) Sophia Myles is a far better actress than Elisabeth Rohm, and 2) Jason Fucking Dohring. And if you never really thought DB was hot as Angel (*raises hand*), Alex O'Loughlin is smoking.
I give you Moonlight. (This guide goes up to Ep 1.09 (Fleur de Lis), aired 11/23/07.) All spoilers have been white-fonted for the leery. (The basic plot setup has been de-spoilered for yourpleasure safety.) Disclaimer: this is How I See It (duh) which means mostly babbling about the pretty and snarky references to other actors/shows, with occasional mentions of actual show content tossed in for variety. Do not taunt Happy Fun Overview.
OK first of all, look at this cast. Go ahead, I'll wait. (Note: The link goes to a slightly different (and less pretty, IMHO) pic from the same photoshoot, because it's the only one I have in a decent size.) Moar pics are here.
Do I have your attention? Good. As Andy Ihnatko would say, "Onward".
Cast overview:
Alex O’Loughlin as Mick St. John
Sophia Myles as Beth Turner
JasonFucking Dohring as Josef Konstantin
Shannyn Sossamon as Coraline
recurring guest stars: Marshall from Alias, Poor Man's Ben Stiller, Hot Black DA and Poor Man's Tamila Poitier
Main Characters
Alex O’Loughlin as Mick St. John - I'm still trying to get a handle on Mick as a character. (Whether that's because he has layers or because the writing's not as sharp as it should be remains to be seen.) He's definitely less broody than Angel, but way more broody than Spike. He misses being human quite badly, and is trying to make amends. He's very sort of low-key for a vamp, which is a refreshing change - usually they're all tortured and intense, or evil and intense, or evil and stupid (random vamps on Buffy/Angel). Also, A'OL is just ridiculously hot. He reminds me of a cross between Jon Stewart and Gabriel Byrne. You could also say he's in the same zip code as Russell Crowe/Hugh Jackman. imdb says he's 6'1 but for some reason the way they film him makes him look wee. The pictures don't really do him justice, he's so much hotter in action (ooh, dirty!). Oh and he narrates the voiceover, so if you hate them, you're SOL. It reminds me of Veronica Mars in that there's a definite noir cast to the voiceovers.
Sophia Myles as Beth Turner - Beth is a reporter for an "internet news channel" (I know) who is fairly bright, resourceful, tenacious - all the things I hate about "reporters" as portrayed in movies/tv when they're such stereotypical hard-asses. Somehow SM brings a warmth and likeable quality to the role, such that I really feel like she's a decent person and *gasp* a competent reporter, to boot. Don't be confused by the way SM seems like a Poor Man's Elisabeth Rohm at first blush. She's a wayyy better actress than "The Rohbot" - you may remember her as Reinette from the New Who ep "The Girl In the Fireplace", in which I thought she did quite a good job. Issekritly British, which somewhat explains the slow, deliberate quality to her line deliveries.
Jason Dohring as Josef Konstantin - Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jason Fucking Dohring. Famous
Scientologist and overwifer. Best known on TV as the snarky emo rich kid/eventual woobie Logan on Veronica Mars. Woefully miscast on Moonlight as a 400 year old vampire, he appears to have either no range or to be not really acting at all (see the David Duchovny syndrome). Josef is supposed to be very world-weary and jaded, and paranoid about vamps being outed. He's got the requisite JFDoh character's sekrit inner pain which he masks with sarcasm and occasional rudeness. I find him amusing because he's generally not that convincing (see above about being the same character as Logan). Also, he's pretty damn adorable and I just like looking at him, okay?! Don't judge, you've all been there.
Shannyn Sossamon as Coraline - Coraline is a vamp with an agenda. To say more would be unconscionably spoilery, but suffice to say there's a fair bit of history/backstory there. You may remember Sossamon from movies The Rules of Attraction and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. You wouldn't think she'd be old enough to convincingly play a 300 year old vampire, but SS is surprisingly good as Coraline. It doesn't hurt that she's smoking hot - she's rocking that dark hair/dark eyes/pale skin/Winona Ryder-type thing that I'm a sucker for in women. I've heard complaints that she's a little mannered but I think it works for the character. Note: SS only appears in flashbacks until Ep. 7 "The Ringer".
Supporting cast:
Jordan Belki as Josh. Aka the Poor Man's Ben Stiller. SRSLY. This guy'snot bad looking pretty damn hot, actually but his character reminds me so much of Ben Stiller's character from Reality Bites that I almost can't stand it. Mild-mannered, long-suffering, slightly whiny boyfriend to Beth.
Brian White as Lt. Carl Davis. Aka Hot Black DA. His character's pretty generic but he's easy on the eyes, so I'm ok with him. Also sometimes his reactions to Beth's continual meddling crack me up. Works with Josh in the DA's office. Most often heard saying "I can't discuss an ongoing investigation".
Kevin Weisman (aka Marshall from Alias) as Steve the camera guy. He's got more of a bit part, and I've not noticed any significant difference between "Steve" and Marshall-from-Alias, but KW amuses me so there you have it.
Tami Roman as Maureen ("Mo" - which right there puts my teeth on edge, I can't explain why but it just sounds so lame) Williams, Beth's boss at the newspaper. Aka Poor Man's Tamila Poitier. She's not the world's best actress, and combined with the character being badly written (she only has one note and it is "Where's the sexy story? MOAR SEX KTHXBAI"), she gets on my nerves. Thankfully her scenes are usually pretty short, and she doesn't stick around for the entire season.
The Plot:
Mick is a vamp who was turned against his will - on his honeymoon, fifty-odd years ago. He chose to stop feeding on humans out of guilt. Relatively recently Mick rescued a young girl from a burning house. Now the girl's grown up and he only stalks her a little, on his days off from his job as freelance detective with the LAPD. This is the bare minimum I can say without getting too spoilery.
Ships:
The obvious (and heavily pushed bycanon CBS's Marketing CrackMonkeys) was McBeth aka Mick/Beth (aka MickBeth which is a terrible portmanteau so I choose not to recognize it). Yes, (spoiler for first episode only) he knew her as a girl. But I see this dynamic as different than the one between Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba in Sin City - whereas the latter frankly skeeved me out something awful, I don't mind that aspect here so much. Maybe because we don't see that much of Young!Beth? Or maybe because A'O really doesn't look like he's more than twice her age, unlike Bruce Willis & Jessica Alba. Anyhoo, it's not as creepy as it sounds. They're suitably intense, though if I am feeling honest I will admit their chemistry is not as good as Mick/Coraline's. There's something of a Buffy/Angel vibe between them for sure, in that Mick knows better - and yet. Beth could choose to walk away and probably be happier in the surface sense - and yet. There's just something there that they keep coming back to, that won't leave them alone, whether or not it's good for them in the long run. I like that in a relationship.
The second most obvious is Moralick aka Mick/Coraline (I may have made up that portmanteau). Their chemistry is really quite good, personally I just get a little turned off by the fact that (spoiler) she's a manipulative psychobitch, but YMMV. They have a dark & fucked-up history, which normally would be a recipe for a good ship, but I'm too blinded by the McBeth to be able to appreciate it. Or maybe it's just that established relationships in general don't thrill me.
The dark horse and only real slash pairing would be Jock (Josef/Mick). (Sidebar: Yeah, I hate that pairing nickname. I mean really - that's the best you can come up with?) Pretty much the most viable slash option out there, unless you get into weird territory like Josh/Mick or Marshall-from-Alias/Hot Black DA. Personally I don't see it - yet (never say never!) - but more power to those that do.
The subtle, yet obvious canon alternative Josef/Beth (Joth? Besef? Haven't heard nicknames yet) - this one is interesting, I bet it'll end up being pretty popular. I like it - their chemistry's pretty good and I like how (spoiler) Josef is so disdainful of human females, yet he's palpably intrigued by Beth. Definite potential here.
Oh and last but not least, apparently Coraline/Beth has some legs, at least from the fic I've seen. It's a very sick vibe, natch, usually revolving around the way Coraline wanted to raise Beth with Mick as her daughter, and then going into more 'cesty territory from there. Because of that, I would say that Mick/Coraline/Beth is a viable trio as well.
LJ Comms: Note: Quite a few of these seem to be obsolete, but they're good ideas - someone should start them back up!
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
alex_oloughlin - an Alex O comm
beth_josef - self-explanatory
givemetheblood - a Mick character comm
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
coralinefans - self-explanatory
jock_supporters - I say again, come ON - this sounds like a comm for used jockstraps
josef_elle - crossover between Moonlight and Heroes (Kristen Bell plays Elle on Heroes - obviously some people are still trying to keep Veronica Mars & Logan alive in the guise of the actors' other parts)
josefscommunity - fans of Josef/Jason D.
mickbeth - ditto
mickbeth_daily - self-explanatory
mickandbeth - ditto
mickcoraline - ditto
ml_ficathons - self-explanatory
ml_fic_digest - ditto
ml_btvs - Moonlight/Buffy crossovers
ml_transcripts - self-explanatory
ml_fic_complete - completed ML fanfic
ml_fic_digest - weekly Moonlight fanfiction round up
mlnewsletter - the Newsletter
m00nlight_art - ditto
moonlight_award - fan-nominated ML icons
moonlight_cross - crossovers with Moonlight and Mick
moonlight_ic - "icontest" comm
moonlight_icon - icons
moonlight_fic - fic
moonlight_fics - more fics
moonlight_music - how this differs from tuned_moonlight I have no idea
moonlight_slash - slash
moonlight_snark - They Watch It For The LOLs
moonlight_story - MOAR fic
moonlight_tv - official CBS forum
moonlight_uk - UK ML comm
moonlight_wts - Moonlight Way Too Serious (I think they mean they're obsessed)
moonlightarmy - comm to save Moonlight
moonlightasylum - adults-only fic comm
moonlightonward - a RPG set after the finale
moonlightquotes - ditto
moonlightrumble - another icontest comm
oloughlinstills - Alex O stills
ru_moonlight - Russian ML comm
stjohnmoonlight - St. John by Moonlight
tuned_moonlight - dunno what this is - something to do with music & the show obviously
welove_jd - Jason F'in Dohring fangroup
TWoP:
Single thread under Sci-Fi shows - 321 pages and counting, no recaps but given fandom's mixed experiences with TwoP recappers in the past, that may be for the best. Maybe we'll see the show on "Brilliant But Canceled" one of these days.
Other resources:
Episode Guide at Epguides.com
Moonlightfans.com - right now it appears to consist entirely of forums.
"Our Vampires Are Different" -excellent Wikipedia-style article delineating the different vampire rules.
moonlight-detective.com
Moonlight Archive
Moonlight Line
Wank:
As anyone who reads Fandom Wank knows, there's been a lot of Moonlight wank lately, mostly revolving around fandom's efforts to save the show. Read the hilarious "Sleezer" saga Parts I, II, III, IV and V! And undoubtedly more to come.
MOAR:
In a nutshell, why should you watch this show? All my meta shallowness about the pretty aside, it's got an intriguing backstory, the characters are interesting, there's a sort of laid-back irony to the writing that is fun - this is not a show that takes itself too seriously. And while it seems that Vampire Detectives are almost their own genre now, I like how they put some twists on the vamp mythology that keep things lively. Also! If you watch the pilot and are not very enthused, watch the next ep - the pilot is by far the worst ep in the series so far. (Given how much fiddling was done with it, I'm surprised it's as watchable as it is.) Not really a good indicator of the overall show quality.
And as I'm sure you've all heard, the show's been cancelled. Those of us who prefer to write in closed canons should see this as an opportunity! And it's coming out on DVD in January '09. Or you could wank about it endlessly and thus provide amusement for the rest of us. Your choice, really.
Please, feel free to chime in with recs and any other info you may have - I wrote this guide a while back and I'm sure there's more stuff out there now, and I'd love to read some great ML fic.
I give you Moonlight. (This guide goes up to Ep 1.09 (Fleur de Lis), aired 11/23/07.) All spoilers have been white-fonted for the leery. (The basic plot setup has been de-spoilered for your
OK first of all, look at this cast. Go ahead, I'll wait. (Note: The link goes to a slightly different (and less pretty, IMHO) pic from the same photoshoot, because it's the only one I have in a decent size.) Moar pics are here.
Do I have your attention? Good. As Andy Ihnatko would say, "Onward".
Cast overview:
Alex O’Loughlin as Mick St. John
Sophia Myles as Beth Turner
Jason
Shannyn Sossamon as Coraline
recurring guest stars: Marshall from Alias, Poor Man's Ben Stiller, Hot Black DA and Poor Man's Tamila Poitier
Main Characters
Alex O’Loughlin as Mick St. John - I'm still trying to get a handle on Mick as a character. (Whether that's because he has layers or because the writing's not as sharp as it should be remains to be seen.) He's definitely less broody than Angel, but way more broody than Spike. He misses being human quite badly, and is trying to make amends. He's very sort of low-key for a vamp, which is a refreshing change - usually they're all tortured and intense, or evil and intense, or evil and stupid (random vamps on Buffy/Angel). Also, A'OL is just ridiculously hot. He reminds me of a cross between Jon Stewart and Gabriel Byrne. You could also say he's in the same zip code as Russell Crowe/Hugh Jackman. imdb says he's 6'1 but for some reason the way they film him makes him look wee. The pictures don't really do him justice, he's so much hotter in action (ooh, dirty!). Oh and he narrates the voiceover, so if you hate them, you're SOL. It reminds me of Veronica Mars in that there's a definite noir cast to the voiceovers.
Sophia Myles as Beth Turner - Beth is a reporter for an "internet news channel" (I know) who is fairly bright, resourceful, tenacious - all the things I hate about "reporters" as portrayed in movies/tv when they're such stereotypical hard-asses. Somehow SM brings a warmth and likeable quality to the role, such that I really feel like she's a decent person and *gasp* a competent reporter, to boot. Don't be confused by the way SM seems like a Poor Man's Elisabeth Rohm at first blush. She's a wayyy better actress than "The Rohbot" - you may remember her as Reinette from the New Who ep "The Girl In the Fireplace", in which I thought she did quite a good job. Is
Jason Dohring as Josef Konstantin - Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Jason Fucking Dohring. Famous
Scientologist and overwifer. Best known on TV as the snarky emo rich kid/eventual woobie Logan on Veronica Mars. Woefully miscast on Moonlight as a 400 year old vampire, he appears to have either no range or to be not really acting at all (see the David Duchovny syndrome). Josef is supposed to be very world-weary and jaded, and paranoid about vamps being outed. He's got the requisite JFDoh character's sekrit inner pain which he masks with sarcasm and occasional rudeness. I find him amusing because he's generally not that convincing (see above about being the same character as Logan). Also, he's pretty damn adorable and I just like looking at him, okay?! Don't judge, you've all been there.Shannyn Sossamon as Coraline - Coraline is a vamp with an agenda. To say more would be unconscionably spoilery, but suffice to say there's a fair bit of history/backstory there. You may remember Sossamon from movies The Rules of Attraction and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. You wouldn't think she'd be old enough to convincingly play a 300 year old vampire, but SS is surprisingly good as Coraline. It doesn't hurt that she's smoking hot - she's rocking that dark hair/dark eyes/pale skin/Winona Ryder-type thing that I'm a sucker for in women. I've heard complaints that she's a little mannered but I think it works for the character. Note: SS only appears in flashbacks until Ep. 7 "The Ringer".
Supporting cast:
Jordan Belki as Josh. Aka the Poor Man's Ben Stiller. SRSLY. This guy's
Brian White as Lt. Carl Davis. Aka Hot Black DA. His character's pretty generic but he's easy on the eyes, so I'm ok with him. Also sometimes his reactions to Beth's continual meddling crack me up. Works with Josh in the DA's office. Most often heard saying "I can't discuss an ongoing investigation".
Kevin Weisman (aka Marshall from Alias) as Steve the camera guy. He's got more of a bit part, and I've not noticed any significant difference between "Steve" and Marshall-from-Alias, but KW amuses me so there you have it.
Tami Roman as Maureen ("Mo" - which right there puts my teeth on edge, I can't explain why but it just sounds so lame) Williams, Beth's boss at the newspaper. Aka Poor Man's Tamila Poitier. She's not the world's best actress, and combined with the character being badly written (she only has one note and it is "Where's the sexy story? MOAR SEX KTHXBAI"), she gets on my nerves. Thankfully her scenes are usually pretty short, and she doesn't stick around for the entire season.
The Plot:
Mick is a vamp who was turned against his will - on his honeymoon, fifty-odd years ago. He chose to stop feeding on humans out of guilt. Relatively recently Mick rescued a young girl from a burning house. Now the girl's grown up and he only stalks her a little, on his days off from his job as freelance detective with the LAPD. This is the bare minimum I can say without getting too spoilery.
Ships:
The obvious (and heavily pushed by
The second most obvious is Moralick aka Mick/Coraline (I may have made up that portmanteau). Their chemistry is really quite good, personally I just get a little turned off by the fact that (spoiler) she's a manipulative psychobitch, but YMMV. They have a dark & fucked-up history, which normally would be a recipe for a good ship, but I'm too blinded by the McBeth to be able to appreciate it. Or maybe it's just that established relationships in general don't thrill me.
The dark horse and only real slash pairing would be Jock (Josef/Mick). (Sidebar: Yeah, I hate that pairing nickname. I mean really - that's the best you can come up with?) Pretty much the most viable slash option out there, unless you get into weird territory like Josh/Mick or Marshall-from-Alias/Hot Black DA. Personally I don't see it - yet (never say never!) - but more power to those that do.
The subtle, yet obvious canon alternative Josef/Beth (Joth? Besef? Haven't heard nicknames yet) - this one is interesting, I bet it'll end up being pretty popular. I like it - their chemistry's pretty good and I like how (spoiler) Josef is so disdainful of human females, yet he's palpably intrigued by Beth. Definite potential here.
Oh and last but not least, apparently Coraline/Beth has some legs, at least from the fic I've seen. It's a very sick vibe, natch, usually revolving around the way Coraline wanted to raise Beth with Mick as her daughter, and then going into more 'cesty territory from there. Because of that, I would say that Mick/Coraline/Beth is a viable trio as well.
LJ Comms: Note: Quite a few of these seem to be obsolete, but they're good ideas - someone should start them back up!
alex_oloughlin - an Alex O commbeth_josef - self-explanatory givemetheblood - a Mick character commcoralinefans - self-explanatoryjock_supporters - I say again, come ON - this sounds like a comm for used jockstrapsjosef_elle - crossover between Moonlight and Heroes (Kristen Bell plays Elle on Heroes - obviously some people are still trying to keep Veronica Mars & Logan alive in the guise of the actors' other parts)josefscommunity - fans of Josef/Jason D.mickbeth - dittomickbeth_daily - self-explanatorymickandbeth - dittomickcoraline - dittoml_ficathons - self-explanatoryml_fic_digest - dittoml_btvs - Moonlight/Buffy crossoversml_transcripts - self-explanatoryml_fic_complete - completed ML fanficml_fic_digest - weekly Moonlight fanfiction round upmlnewsletter - the Newsletterm00nlight_art - dittomoonlight_award - fan-nominated ML iconsmoonlight_cross - crossovers with Moonlight and Mickmoonlight_ic - "icontest" commmoonlight_icon - icons moonlight_fic - ficmoonlight_fics - more ficsmoonlight_music - how this differs from tuned_moonlight I have no ideamoonlight_slash - slash moonlight_snark - They Watch It For The LOLsmoonlight_story - MOAR ficmoonlight_tv - official CBS forum moonlight_uk - UK ML commmoonlight_wts - Moonlight Way Too Serious (I think they mean they're obsessed)moonlightarmy - comm to save Moonlightmoonlightasylum - adults-only fic commmoonlightonward - a RPG set after the finale moonlightquotes - dittomoonlightrumble - another icontest comm oloughlinstills - Alex O stillsru_moonlight - Russian ML commstjohnmoonlight - St. John by Moonlighttuned_moonlight - dunno what this is - something to do with music & the show obviouslywelove_jd - Jason TWoP:
Single thread under Sci-Fi shows - 321 pages and counting, no recaps but given fandom's mixed experiences with TwoP recappers in the past, that may be for the best. Maybe we'll see the show on "Brilliant But Canceled" one of these days.
Other resources:
Episode Guide at Epguides.com
Moonlightfans.com - right now it appears to consist entirely of forums.
"Our Vampires Are Different" -excellent Wikipedia-style article delineating the different vampire rules.
moonlight-detective.com
Moonlight Archive
Moonlight Line
Wank:
As anyone who reads Fandom Wank knows, there's been a lot of Moonlight wank lately, mostly revolving around fandom's efforts to save the show. Read the hilarious "Sleezer" saga Parts I, II, III, IV and V! And undoubtedly more to come.
MOAR:
In a nutshell, why should you watch this show? All my meta shallowness about the pretty aside, it's got an intriguing backstory, the characters are interesting, there's a sort of laid-back irony to the writing that is fun - this is not a show that takes itself too seriously. And while it seems that Vampire Detectives are almost their own genre now, I like how they put some twists on the vamp mythology that keep things lively. Also! If you watch the pilot and are not very enthused, watch the next ep - the pilot is by far the worst ep in the series so far. (Given how much fiddling was done with it, I'm surprised it's as watchable as it is.) Not really a good indicator of the overall show quality.
And as I'm sure you've all heard, the show's been cancelled. Those of us who prefer to write in closed canons should see this as an opportunity! And it's coming out on DVD in January '09. Or you could wank about it endlessly and thus provide amusement for the rest of us. Your choice, really.
Please, feel free to chime in with recs and any other info you may have - I wrote this guide a while back and I'm sure there's more stuff out there now, and I'd love to read some great ML fic.