Loonatic's Favorite Off-Brand Urban Fantasy TV Series
1. Witchblade (2001-2002)
New York City Detective Sara Pezzini has never quite been a play-by-the-rules type, though when balanced by her father, captain, and partner her determination and intuition serve her well. But when she begins losing friends and family, fate takes a sharp left turn into the supernatural. A foot chase after a hitman leads her into an encounter with the Witchblade, an ancient gauntlet with a mind of its own. Protecting her from harm and granting her unpredictable powers, the Witchblade sets her on a path shadowed by corporate giants and layered with her family's past.
No doubt inspired by the success of the better-known Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, we see another fierce, multi-dimensional female lead going toe-to-toe with supernatural baddies. But instead of dealing with the sometimes tiresome genre of coming-of-age, Witchblade follows the Angel direction of dropping us into a grittier, matured series. The idea was based on a popular comic book series of the same name, though it thankfully upgrades the wardrobe from skimpy cover art into "hey ladies can be sexy wearing pants" zone. Yancy Butler's performance as Det. Pezzini is striking, not terribly subtle but able to convey a lot of grief, uncertainty, and strength all at once. The character's struggles to come to terms with the artifact and negotiate a balance of her old life and new are compelling to watch. Add in the characters of Kenneth Irons and Ian Nottingham, who are somewhere between helpful and diabolical, and you get some interesting plotlines. The early 2000s was strong with this one, so the style gets a bit heavy-handed at times with its fast-paced edits and edgy tone. Overall though this is a great series that went before its time.
2. Dresden Files (2007)
When the office door opens, Harry Dresden is never sure what will walk in. As the only wizard listed in the Chicago phonebook, people and creatures of all sorts come to him when they need a little extra help with a supernatural problem. Always a bit rumpled and two steps from broke, Dresden always seems to find the deep end of every case. Along the way he has to sort through vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, and more, figuring out who are the victims, femme fatales, evil-doers, and red herrings. Add in the High Council's enforcer Morgan breathing down his neck and a skeptical but sharp Lt. Constance Murphy on the look out, Dresden's life is in the very least never boring.
Sound familiar? It should, seeing as it also popped up in the recent urban fantasy novels post. Based on Jim Butcher's series of novels, Dresden Files brings to the small screen the adventures of Chicago's snarkiest wizard-detective. Using the characters and plots of the books, the series plays with some of the ideas rather than trying for canon-perfect storylines. For a Syfy channel series it does a decent job with casting, in particular Paul Blackthorne as Harry Dresden and Terrence Mann as Bob the Skull. Reading through the speculation before this came out, its seems like a lot of people were really hoping for Nathan Fillion to be Dresden (and I can get that), but I think Blackthorne does a pretty good job grounding the character. And in a nice trick they bring the air spirit Bob out of enchanted object status and into a full character portrayed by Terrence Mann. Besides being an entertaining foil/sidekick it also solves the problem of the book's first person perspective and gives Dresden somebody to talk to other than himself. The series may only really skim the surface of Dresden's darker nature, but I can appreciate its lighter side of noir.
3. Being Human (2011-2014)
Trying to make it in Boston and figure out their lives are three very non-standard twenty-somethings. Aidan's been a vampire for over 200 years who's never gotten the hang of vampire politics. Josh's life was turned inside out when he was turned into a werewolf, and now is trying to figure out how to live with his curse. And Sally is recovering from a shocking new predicament: dying young and now anchored to the house as a ghost. As they learn to live together and explore their unique situations, their own mistakes and outside forces threaten their newfound powers and freedoms.
This was the north American spin on BBC's Being Human, though seeing I've never seen that version I can't contribute anything useful as to how the two versions compare. In any case, I liked this series because it found a curious niche all its own. It exists just outside the teenage angst world of Buffy, Teen Wolf, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, toning down the hormones but still keeping it sort of coming-of-age. When I first saw it I was in college, so the characters really clicked for me. Sure they're not exactly normal, but at the heart the show is about them facing their twenty-something problems and getting through things together as friends. The effect is a charming intimacy with relatable characters, which is pretty rare in a genre that seems to glorify the self-exiled loner. Sure they all have dark sides and have to grow and confront their respective issues, but it's kind of nice in that they're not on their own.
4. Moonlight (2007-2008)
Decades ago Mick St. John was unwittingly turned into a vampire by his bride-to-be. And though he's figured out how to live with his condition, he's had to craft his own code that puts him at odds with some of his brethren. Now working as a private detective in Los Angeles, he crosses paths with Beth Turner, an investigative reporter he'd saved from being turned when she was a child. Finding it more and more difficult to hide his altered nature from a determined Turner, St. John ends up testing his code and crossing into new territory. Even more complications show up in the form of vampire society and the arrival of other troubles from his past.
All right, so sue me if this drifts more into traditional drama salted with vampires. There's a fairly center-stage romance sub-plot, but no more than the more recent and very popular Lucifer series. For me what matters is that it does some justice to making modern vampires. As seen in the Twilight book/film series, putting vampires in the modern age can go very wrong. With Moonlight I can appreciate that it puts vampires in a modern city and give us some faceted characters, avoiding the go-to trope of turning vampires into those "we're going to rule/end the world" creatures as seen in Blade, Underworld, and a host of others. An entertaining case-of-the-week crime drama with great performances from Alex O'Loughlin and Sophia Myles.
New York City Detective Sara Pezzini has never quite been a play-by-the-rules type, though when balanced by her father, captain, and partner her determination and intuition serve her well. But when she begins losing friends and family, fate takes a sharp left turn into the supernatural. A foot chase after a hitman leads her into an encounter with the Witchblade, an ancient gauntlet with a mind of its own. Protecting her from harm and granting her unpredictable powers, the Witchblade sets her on a path shadowed by corporate giants and layered with her family's past.
No doubt inspired by the success of the better-known Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, we see another fierce, multi-dimensional female lead going toe-to-toe with supernatural baddies. But instead of dealing with the sometimes tiresome genre of coming-of-age, Witchblade follows the Angel direction of dropping us into a grittier, matured series. The idea was based on a popular comic book series of the same name, though it thankfully upgrades the wardrobe from skimpy cover art into "hey ladies can be sexy wearing pants" zone. Yancy Butler's performance as Det. Pezzini is striking, not terribly subtle but able to convey a lot of grief, uncertainty, and strength all at once. The character's struggles to come to terms with the artifact and negotiate a balance of her old life and new are compelling to watch. Add in the characters of Kenneth Irons and Ian Nottingham, who are somewhere between helpful and diabolical, and you get some interesting plotlines. The early 2000s was strong with this one, so the style gets a bit heavy-handed at times with its fast-paced edits and edgy tone. Overall though this is a great series that went before its time.
2. Dresden Files (2007)
When the office door opens, Harry Dresden is never sure what will walk in. As the only wizard listed in the Chicago phonebook, people and creatures of all sorts come to him when they need a little extra help with a supernatural problem. Always a bit rumpled and two steps from broke, Dresden always seems to find the deep end of every case. Along the way he has to sort through vampires, werewolves, demons, ghosts, and more, figuring out who are the victims, femme fatales, evil-doers, and red herrings. Add in the High Council's enforcer Morgan breathing down his neck and a skeptical but sharp Lt. Constance Murphy on the look out, Dresden's life is in the very least never boring.
Sound familiar? It should, seeing as it also popped up in the recent urban fantasy novels post. Based on Jim Butcher's series of novels, Dresden Files brings to the small screen the adventures of Chicago's snarkiest wizard-detective. Using the characters and plots of the books, the series plays with some of the ideas rather than trying for canon-perfect storylines. For a Syfy channel series it does a decent job with casting, in particular Paul Blackthorne as Harry Dresden and Terrence Mann as Bob the Skull. Reading through the speculation before this came out, its seems like a lot of people were really hoping for Nathan Fillion to be Dresden (and I can get that), but I think Blackthorne does a pretty good job grounding the character. And in a nice trick they bring the air spirit Bob out of enchanted object status and into a full character portrayed by Terrence Mann. Besides being an entertaining foil/sidekick it also solves the problem of the book's first person perspective and gives Dresden somebody to talk to other than himself. The series may only really skim the surface of Dresden's darker nature, but I can appreciate its lighter side of noir.
3. Being Human (2011-2014)
Trying to make it in Boston and figure out their lives are three very non-standard twenty-somethings. Aidan's been a vampire for over 200 years who's never gotten the hang of vampire politics. Josh's life was turned inside out when he was turned into a werewolf, and now is trying to figure out how to live with his curse. And Sally is recovering from a shocking new predicament: dying young and now anchored to the house as a ghost. As they learn to live together and explore their unique situations, their own mistakes and outside forces threaten their newfound powers and freedoms.
This was the north American spin on BBC's Being Human, though seeing I've never seen that version I can't contribute anything useful as to how the two versions compare. In any case, I liked this series because it found a curious niche all its own. It exists just outside the teenage angst world of Buffy, Teen Wolf, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, toning down the hormones but still keeping it sort of coming-of-age. When I first saw it I was in college, so the characters really clicked for me. Sure they're not exactly normal, but at the heart the show is about them facing their twenty-something problems and getting through things together as friends. The effect is a charming intimacy with relatable characters, which is pretty rare in a genre that seems to glorify the self-exiled loner. Sure they all have dark sides and have to grow and confront their respective issues, but it's kind of nice in that they're not on their own.
4. Moonlight (2007-2008)
Decades ago Mick St. John was unwittingly turned into a vampire by his bride-to-be. And though he's figured out how to live with his condition, he's had to craft his own code that puts him at odds with some of his brethren. Now working as a private detective in Los Angeles, he crosses paths with Beth Turner, an investigative reporter he'd saved from being turned when she was a child. Finding it more and more difficult to hide his altered nature from a determined Turner, St. John ends up testing his code and crossing into new territory. Even more complications show up in the form of vampire society and the arrival of other troubles from his past.
All right, so sue me if this drifts more into traditional drama salted with vampires. There's a fairly center-stage romance sub-plot, but no more than the more recent and very popular Lucifer series. For me what matters is that it does some justice to making modern vampires. As seen in the Twilight book/film series, putting vampires in the modern age can go very wrong. With Moonlight I can appreciate that it puts vampires in a modern city and give us some faceted characters, avoiding the go-to trope of turning vampires into those "we're going to rule/end the world" creatures as seen in Blade, Underworld, and a host of others. An entertaining case-of-the-week crime drama with great performances from Alex O'Loughlin and Sophia Myles.
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