An open note about Vampires/Demons with Souls:

Who'd a thunk that 1992 would have been so prolific a year. In 1992, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER was released in theaters. It was a gay little romp with Kristy Swanson and Luke Perry setting the groundwork for a fantastic TV show to come.

In that same year, a small TV show would set the ground work for Buffy. Now whether this was intentional or not is unknown to me, but I feel is worth mentioning. It shows how a good idea can be made even better, with the right set up.

What show am I referring to? If you haven't guessed, it's FOREVER NIGHT, currently being shown in re-runs on the SCI-FI CHANNEL.

FOREVER NIGHT stars Geraint Wyn Davies as Detective Nicholas Knight (clever, huh?) a vampire who was sired in another century, but who tries to fight his animal urges. He becomes a cop (who is "conveniently" allergic to daylight, and is therefore assigned a night shift) who tries to find a cure for his Vampire "illness."

Now, I've had the fortune (good or bad, I am still not sure) of seeing this program recently. On the whole, there isn't much of a comparison to be made between Nick and Angel. The part about a soul isn't even mentioned (as far as I have seen.) But I do have to say that the overall portrayal of vampires in JW's world is more structured than the one in FOREVER NIGHT. It was a decent show, but it's a good example of how Joss and Co. can bring a freshness to an idea which (in the case of KNIGHT) seemed to tire rather quickly and be condemned to the storyline "Nick gets tempted to be a vampire again and fights to maintain his sanity."

Now onto another revelation which I stumbled onto yesterday. The WB has a show called CHARMED.

As most know, CHARMED stars Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan and Holly Marie Combs as three sisters who are witches. What I discovered yesterday while watching is that Julian McMahon plays a character named Cole. Cole is the boyfriend of Alyssa Milano's character and was described yesterday as being a demon with a soul, something also described as very rare. I did not get to find out why he has a soul, but I have enough info to get me thinking.

Does every demon with a soul have to wear all black, brood a lot and not be trusted by all of the lover's friends? I suppose so. But this is just a little hinky. I don't know when Cole was introduced as the demon with a soul on CHARMED, but it makes you wonder if (when the WB was first in danger of losing BUFFY) it tried to rejigger one of it's shows to try to fill the void in case of a ratings falloff.

This may be a stretch, and I don't have enough info to speak definitively, but I can at least have it rub me the wrong way. I don't know if I like CHARMED or not, I've been watching it as a lead-in to ANGEL. I just find that it's a bit of a coincidence for my taste.

Either way, for now I like ANGEL the best. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

  posted by J @ 12:29