Blood Ties II
Jun. 11th, 2009 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAbout a month ago the rest of the short lived tv series Blood Ties was released here in Germany, and so I could complete my watching. Of episodes 12-22, I was in varying degrees amused, impressed or slightly disappointed by the way the show did their turn on various genre archetypes.
Meet your maker: or, the one with the ex. Now, every show with a vampire in it around has done the "vampire who created our sympathetic regular vampire comes back, is trouble for regulars" thing, down to the most recent Being Human, and I'm not saying there is only one good version of this possible. Forever Knight did the Bad Daddy thing with LaCroix quite effectively, then brought on a great twist later on when we met the vampire who had created LaCroix, because Divia was also his daughter (i.e. the daughter he had when he was still human; she became a vampire first, then turned him). Herrik versus Mitchell in Being Human was pretty much a standard variation of Nick versus LaCroix, but made refreshing in that Herrik was deliberately played as unglamorous and thus far more likely to blend in. And it will surprise absolutely no one when I say my favourite variation of the topic are Angel and Darla, not least because the "troublesome ex" part was quickly delegated to just one of many aspects of the relationship, and Darla herself was given more and more layers.
And well, Darla is the obvious comparison when it comes to Christina, especially since the show has Mike and Vicky textually point out the double mother/lover function as well. In all fairness, I could compare Christina not to AtS Darla but to the far more one dimensional BTVS season 1 Darla, in which case Christina would win character points, but I can't shut out my knowledge of the second show. Given this, the whole Christina and Henry and Vicky thing seemed infinitely predictable, down to "you're the past, she's the future". I mean, sorry, but I've seen the Angel/Darla argument at the end of Dear Boy, and this just doesn't compare.
Why the soulmate concept is not a good idea, or, the reincarnation one: now this one, by contrast, really impressed me and was an original take on a familiar trope (reincarnated lovers who keep finding each other again), by showcasing that this carried out to its logical conclusion is actually nto a good idea at all and stiffling to the nth degree. Making the male reincarnated character a teenager and the female one adult was inspired, because the whole concept is a very teenage idea of romance. The whole episode was refreshingly anti OTP, denying that there is something like a One True Love And Ony One, and if it had a moral lesson, it was "hooray for moving on and getting over yourself!" Letting Vicki, Henry and Mike all recognize parallels to their own situations, but in each case not the same parallels, was nicely layered; I'd say the show till the end does not position either Vicki/Henry or Vicki/Mike as the Pairing Which Must Be, and to which the respective other relationship clearly isn't as good, meaningful, or fulfilling.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or, the multiple personality one: meh. Bad knowledge of Freud is bad. Look, Stevenson makes me buy the idea of Dr. Jekyll thinking extracting your evil side into another person is nifty, but mixing a more modern variation of the crazy scientist, i.e. the evil psychiatrist, and have Evil Psychiatrist Mom experimenting on her three sons in the backstory so they embody each the Id, the Ego and the Superego just is too cracked out for me. The Id is not what you think it is, Ms Huff. Neither are the Ego and the Superego. Plus letting Charles be reintegrated the end complete with sinister smile - nah. On the bright side, this one had black and white flashbacks to Vicki's days as a cop and Mike's partner.
Groundhog day, or, the one with the time loop: while I've seen even more variations of this one in various shows than of the troublesome maker topic - I've seen the TNG variation, the BTVS variation, the Xena variation, and this reminds me, isn't there a vid showcasing all the timeloop episodes - I really liked the Blood Ties variation as well. (Not as much as Life Serial, aka the Buffy one, but hey.) Vicky's different takes on the whole Mike-wears-his-lucky-tie thing were funny but also touching, as in the last one she just told him to celebrate, and her grief over his temporary death leading to her last and final attempt to get out of the timeloop really got me.
The Inca Mummy One: I have yet to see a genre show do a mummy episode I really like. HL didn't, BTVS didn't, and Blood Ties didn't, either. Vicky saving Henry and winning the day via dark magic should have been followed up better in the season finale (other than by Henry taking this as his cue to leave town, I mean), after all the "using black magic always comes with a price tag" set-up. Also, the mummy and his minion were dull.
The season (and I suppose series) finale: really doesn't work as a series finale for me. As a season finale, I liked that it put much emphasis on the Vicki-Corinne friendship, and delivered pay-offs to both Mike's boss having threatened to get him expelled and Henry thinking about leaving, but the final Astorath showdown with him leaving in the priest's body was lame. Yes, I get they wanted to keep him as an antagonist instead of getting rid of the demon, but that didn't make it feel as less of a cop-out. The scene with him tempting Vicki via restored vision was effective but would have been far more so if the show hadn't consistently downplayed the degree to which Vicki's eyesight is damaged after the pilot. Also, we never found out whether Mike was able to save the kidnapped girl, and I wanted to know. Lastly, suddenly there was a "whom willl Vicki choose?" emphasis which the show had previously and thankfully avoided; I'm Lost-damaged and hate it when this happens to female characters, and would have preferred instead more follow-up to Vicky's deal with the devil from her pov.
Still, overall: pity the show didn't continue. It was an enjoyable one.
Meet your maker: or, the one with the ex. Now, every show with a vampire in it around has done the "vampire who created our sympathetic regular vampire comes back, is trouble for regulars" thing, down to the most recent Being Human, and I'm not saying there is only one good version of this possible. Forever Knight did the Bad Daddy thing with LaCroix quite effectively, then brought on a great twist later on when we met the vampire who had created LaCroix, because Divia was also his daughter (i.e. the daughter he had when he was still human; she became a vampire first, then turned him). Herrik versus Mitchell in Being Human was pretty much a standard variation of Nick versus LaCroix, but made refreshing in that Herrik was deliberately played as unglamorous and thus far more likely to blend in. And it will surprise absolutely no one when I say my favourite variation of the topic are Angel and Darla, not least because the "troublesome ex" part was quickly delegated to just one of many aspects of the relationship, and Darla herself was given more and more layers.
And well, Darla is the obvious comparison when it comes to Christina, especially since the show has Mike and Vicky textually point out the double mother/lover function as well. In all fairness, I could compare Christina not to AtS Darla but to the far more one dimensional BTVS season 1 Darla, in which case Christina would win character points, but I can't shut out my knowledge of the second show. Given this, the whole Christina and Henry and Vicky thing seemed infinitely predictable, down to "you're the past, she's the future". I mean, sorry, but I've seen the Angel/Darla argument at the end of Dear Boy, and this just doesn't compare.
Why the soulmate concept is not a good idea, or, the reincarnation one: now this one, by contrast, really impressed me and was an original take on a familiar trope (reincarnated lovers who keep finding each other again), by showcasing that this carried out to its logical conclusion is actually nto a good idea at all and stiffling to the nth degree. Making the male reincarnated character a teenager and the female one adult was inspired, because the whole concept is a very teenage idea of romance. The whole episode was refreshingly anti OTP, denying that there is something like a One True Love And Ony One, and if it had a moral lesson, it was "hooray for moving on and getting over yourself!" Letting Vicki, Henry and Mike all recognize parallels to their own situations, but in each case not the same parallels, was nicely layered; I'd say the show till the end does not position either Vicki/Henry or Vicki/Mike as the Pairing Which Must Be, and to which the respective other relationship clearly isn't as good, meaningful, or fulfilling.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or, the multiple personality one: meh. Bad knowledge of Freud is bad. Look, Stevenson makes me buy the idea of Dr. Jekyll thinking extracting your evil side into another person is nifty, but mixing a more modern variation of the crazy scientist, i.e. the evil psychiatrist, and have Evil Psychiatrist Mom experimenting on her three sons in the backstory so they embody each the Id, the Ego and the Superego just is too cracked out for me. The Id is not what you think it is, Ms Huff. Neither are the Ego and the Superego. Plus letting Charles be reintegrated the end complete with sinister smile - nah. On the bright side, this one had black and white flashbacks to Vicki's days as a cop and Mike's partner.
Groundhog day, or, the one with the time loop: while I've seen even more variations of this one in various shows than of the troublesome maker topic - I've seen the TNG variation, the BTVS variation, the Xena variation, and this reminds me, isn't there a vid showcasing all the timeloop episodes - I really liked the Blood Ties variation as well. (Not as much as Life Serial, aka the Buffy one, but hey.) Vicky's different takes on the whole Mike-wears-his-lucky-tie thing were funny but also touching, as in the last one she just told him to celebrate, and her grief over his temporary death leading to her last and final attempt to get out of the timeloop really got me.
The Inca Mummy One: I have yet to see a genre show do a mummy episode I really like. HL didn't, BTVS didn't, and Blood Ties didn't, either. Vicky saving Henry and winning the day via dark magic should have been followed up better in the season finale (other than by Henry taking this as his cue to leave town, I mean), after all the "using black magic always comes with a price tag" set-up. Also, the mummy and his minion were dull.
The season (and I suppose series) finale: really doesn't work as a series finale for me. As a season finale, I liked that it put much emphasis on the Vicki-Corinne friendship, and delivered pay-offs to both Mike's boss having threatened to get him expelled and Henry thinking about leaving, but the final Astorath showdown with him leaving in the priest's body was lame. Yes, I get they wanted to keep him as an antagonist instead of getting rid of the demon, but that didn't make it feel as less of a cop-out. The scene with him tempting Vicki via restored vision was effective but would have been far more so if the show hadn't consistently downplayed the degree to which Vicki's eyesight is damaged after the pilot. Also, we never found out whether Mike was able to save the kidnapped girl, and I wanted to know. Lastly, suddenly there was a "whom willl Vicki choose?" emphasis which the show had previously and thankfully avoided; I'm Lost-damaged and hate it when this happens to female characters, and would have preferred instead more follow-up to Vicky's deal with the devil from her pov.
Still, overall: pity the show didn't continue. It was an enjoyable one.
