Writer: Jill Blotevogel
Director: Dennis Smith
Cast: Alex O'Loughlin (Mick St. John), Sophia Myles (Beth Turner), Brian J. White (Lieutenant Carl Davis), Quinton Newton (Levi), Mark Totty (Jerry Drake), Alicia Randolph (Young Audrey), Mark Tomesek (Warden Cooley), Sarah Foret (Audrey Pell), Gideon Emery (Donovan Shepard), Paul Keeley (D.A George Quinlan), Mark D. Espinoza (Father Garza), Lorena Segura (Bronwyn), Aisha Kabia (Miriam), Christopher Guyton (Phillips), Mark Totty (Jerry Drake) & Alicia Randolph (Young Audrey)
After a killer is executed on Death Row, Beth befriends the girl who testified against him in court, but needs Mick's help protecting her from more attacks...
Writer Jill Blotevogel half-remakes her Fever episode here, with Beth (Sophia Myles) and Mick (Alex O'Loughlin) again protecting a young woman who witnessed a murder. This time it's Audrey Pell (Sarah Foret), whose parents were killed by serial killer Donovan Shepard (Gideon Emery), and whose testimony in court has resulted in his death by lethal injection. But has Shepard returned from beyond the grave, to seek revenge?
If you can forgive 12:04 AM's similarities to Fever (and a few other episodes), this is actually one of the better instalments of Moonlight. It helps that there's a decent villain in Shepard -- whose deep-set eyes, lanky frame, snake-grin, and long hair, provide genuine chills. He's a walking cliché, but he's also far more threatening than a randy teenager and leggy Holly Valance!
Also interesting were Shepard's misguided followers --a "Family" of goths, chanting outside the prison waving placards of support. I hoped we'd see more of them (as it's intriguing how disaffected youth gravitate towards the macabre), but their involvement was only limited to a nutjob spooking Audrey as she took a shower. It was fun, but I wanted more than a red herring.
A blossoming friendship between Beth and survivor Audrey also felt forced and implausible. I just don't think a key witness in a renowned trial would stay overnight in a journalist's apartment -- hours after meeting said reporter at the execution of her parents' killer! Sure, Beth's a friendly person, but doesn't Sarah have anywhere else to go? It struck me as a limp way to get the characters together, and their heart-to-heart about living with childhood trauma didn't click either. Beth was just four years olf when she was kidnapped (and only half-remembers the event), whereas Audrey was 10 and recalls her experience vividly. I suppose it worked well enough, but it left me cold.
Still, the driving force of the storyline was quite tense and often exciting, with the confusion surrounding Shepard supernatural return handled well. Of course, Moonlight seems unable (or unwilling), to tell stories that don't involve vampirism – so it was inevitable that Shepard had cheated death by becoming a vampire, paying for a bite from visiting Father Garza (Mark D. Espinoza) minutes before his execution.
Mick confirms Shepard has become a vamp after discovering his dead body has been replaced in the morgue by murdered D.A Quinlan (a man instrumental in putting Shepard on Death Row), so it's down to Mick to stop Shepard before he gets to Audrey on his hit-list. It all culminates with another well-staged fight between the two vampires at the home of a film producer hoping to make a movies based on Shepard's life. Needless to say, the slimy producer instead gets a slashed throat.
Also in the mix, Beth discovers Mick's file that he keeps on her -- full of photos dating back to when she was a little girl. She seems unsettled at this revelation at first but in the denouement she unpredictably admits to Mick that she always knew, deep down, that he was her "guardian angel". Well, the show certainly gets a move on: Beth discovered Mick was a vampire in episode 2, and a mere 6 episodes later she knows he rescued her as a toddler. Maybe in episode 10 they'll start dating, and be married with kids by season's end?
I'm not complaining. It's refreshing for questions to be answered in weeks rather than months, or years, on a TV show. I just hope the writers have other avenues to explore once the connection between Mick, Beth and Coraline's histories are explained and explored. For now, I don't particularly look forward to episodes of Moonlight every week, and there are some aspects I find irritating (the awful gumshoe narrating and the general soppiness), but the past few episodes had snap to them, and it looks more polished. The fights are pretty bone-crunching here, while boys will appreciate an icky throat slash and a shot of a decapitation (albeit brief).
Overall, while everything still reeks of Angel (with the vibe of Charmed), 12:04 AM is further evidence that Moonlight is settling into a formula that works, and refuses to stay still. It might not have the guts, intelligence and storytelling depth I prefer in fantasy/sci-fi drama, but it's well-pitched at an audience clamouring for a supernatural romance without any pretensions. It's not going to change the television landscape, or earn anyone an Emmy award, but it can entertain.
8 April 2008
LivingTV, 10.00 pm
Director: Dennis Smith
Cast: Alex O'Loughlin (Mick St. John), Sophia Myles (Beth Turner), Brian J. White (Lieutenant Carl Davis), Quinton Newton (Levi), Mark Totty (Jerry Drake), Alicia Randolph (Young Audrey), Mark Tomesek (Warden Cooley), Sarah Foret (Audrey Pell), Gideon Emery (Donovan Shepard), Paul Keeley (D.A George Quinlan), Mark D. Espinoza (Father Garza), Lorena Segura (Bronwyn), Aisha Kabia (Miriam), Christopher Guyton (Phillips), Mark Totty (Jerry Drake) & Alicia Randolph (Young Audrey)
After a killer is executed on Death Row, Beth befriends the girl who testified against him in court, but needs Mick's help protecting her from more attacks..."Come on; two vampires and two lovely ladies --
in my day, we called that a party."
in my day, we called that a party."
-- Shepard (Gideon Emery)
Writer Jill Blotevogel half-remakes her Fever episode here, with Beth (Sophia Myles) and Mick (Alex O'Loughlin) again protecting a young woman who witnessed a murder. This time it's Audrey Pell (Sarah Foret), whose parents were killed by serial killer Donovan Shepard (Gideon Emery), and whose testimony in court has resulted in his death by lethal injection. But has Shepard returned from beyond the grave, to seek revenge?
If you can forgive 12:04 AM's similarities to Fever (and a few other episodes), this is actually one of the better instalments of Moonlight. It helps that there's a decent villain in Shepard -- whose deep-set eyes, lanky frame, snake-grin, and long hair, provide genuine chills. He's a walking cliché, but he's also far more threatening than a randy teenager and leggy Holly Valance!
Also interesting were Shepard's misguided followers --a "Family" of goths, chanting outside the prison waving placards of support. I hoped we'd see more of them (as it's intriguing how disaffected youth gravitate towards the macabre), but their involvement was only limited to a nutjob spooking Audrey as she took a shower. It was fun, but I wanted more than a red herring.
A blossoming friendship between Beth and survivor Audrey also felt forced and implausible. I just don't think a key witness in a renowned trial would stay overnight in a journalist's apartment -- hours after meeting said reporter at the execution of her parents' killer! Sure, Beth's a friendly person, but doesn't Sarah have anywhere else to go? It struck me as a limp way to get the characters together, and their heart-to-heart about living with childhood trauma didn't click either. Beth was just four years olf when she was kidnapped (and only half-remembers the event), whereas Audrey was 10 and recalls her experience vividly. I suppose it worked well enough, but it left me cold.
Still, the driving force of the storyline was quite tense and often exciting, with the confusion surrounding Shepard supernatural return handled well. Of course, Moonlight seems unable (or unwilling), to tell stories that don't involve vampirism – so it was inevitable that Shepard had cheated death by becoming a vampire, paying for a bite from visiting Father Garza (Mark D. Espinoza) minutes before his execution.
Mick confirms Shepard has become a vamp after discovering his dead body has been replaced in the morgue by murdered D.A Quinlan (a man instrumental in putting Shepard on Death Row), so it's down to Mick to stop Shepard before he gets to Audrey on his hit-list. It all culminates with another well-staged fight between the two vampires at the home of a film producer hoping to make a movies based on Shepard's life. Needless to say, the slimy producer instead gets a slashed throat.
Also in the mix, Beth discovers Mick's file that he keeps on her -- full of photos dating back to when she was a little girl. She seems unsettled at this revelation at first but in the denouement she unpredictably admits to Mick that she always knew, deep down, that he was her "guardian angel". Well, the show certainly gets a move on: Beth discovered Mick was a vampire in episode 2, and a mere 6 episodes later she knows he rescued her as a toddler. Maybe in episode 10 they'll start dating, and be married with kids by season's end?
I'm not complaining. It's refreshing for questions to be answered in weeks rather than months, or years, on a TV show. I just hope the writers have other avenues to explore once the connection between Mick, Beth and Coraline's histories are explained and explored. For now, I don't particularly look forward to episodes of Moonlight every week, and there are some aspects I find irritating (the awful gumshoe narrating and the general soppiness), but the past few episodes had snap to them, and it looks more polished. The fights are pretty bone-crunching here, while boys will appreciate an icky throat slash and a shot of a decapitation (albeit brief).
Overall, while everything still reeks of Angel (with the vibe of Charmed), 12:04 AM is further evidence that Moonlight is settling into a formula that works, and refuses to stay still. It might not have the guts, intelligence and storytelling depth I prefer in fantasy/sci-fi drama, but it's well-pitched at an audience clamouring for a supernatural romance without any pretensions. It's not going to change the television landscape, or earn anyone an Emmy award, but it can entertain.
8 April 2008
LivingTV, 10.00 pm
