Blood Ties – Season One (2007/Horror TV/Eagle DVD)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Episodes: C+

 

 

After the rise and fall of The X-Files, along with the bizarre success of the TV Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the rush to try to have another such hit show in the same genres was on.  The Dresden Files rightly bombed and Supernatural (both reviewed elsewhere on this site) somehow managed to hold on to enough of an audience to survive.  Guess those Buffy fans had to find something.  Now from Canada comes the strangest and most unintentionally funny of all the shows we have seen from this wave to date.  Blood Ties has the most interesting premise, based on the Tonya Huff book series featuring heroine Victoria Nelson.

 

Vicki (Christina Cox, once of Forever Knight, looking like Gillian Anderson and maybe Ally Walker by way of The Sopranos) has had to leave the police force due to vision issues, but still does private investigating.  This has hindered her relationship with Mike (Dylan Neal) and she is not sure if things will pick up or she will just hang on until more inevitably bad things happen.  One night, she sees a strange assault that turns into murder and is not sure what has happened or who the killer is.  Eventually, she meets Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid, Cronenberg’s A History Of Violence) who she thinks is the killer, but turns out to be a comic book artist and… a vampire!

 

However, he is a good vampire, in control of his historical passions and bloodlust, assimilating well, even if he is not a “daywalker” (say, like Blade) and they eventually team up to fight supernatural evil, including some that they have personal connections to.  The episodes are:

 

1)     Blood Price (in two parts)

2)     Bad Juju

3)     Gifted

4)     Deadly Departed

5)     Love Hurts

6)     Heart Of Ice

7)     Heart Of Fire

8)     Stone Cold

9)     Necrodome

10)  Post Partum

11)  Norman

 

 

On the good side, the leads have some chemistry and they have a good idea that includes some good moments in the scripts here and there.  Unfortunately, after any good scene, you get some bad ones.  Consistent problems include really bad dialogue, very bad visual effects (I know they have a low budget, but does the digital have to look this bad?) and to get the widest possible audience, they throw in anything and everything but the kitchen sink to get viewers interested.  This means they are bored, cannot focus and are trying too hard instead of just letting the show work on its strong points.

 

As a result, this was not picked up by any Horror cable network, but by Lifetime because of the appeal of the two male leads, but when you strip away the bells, whistles, junk and many problems that come through the inexperience of the mostly unknown cats and crew, there is a good show here somewhere and when the show does not work, it sometimes becomes an unintentional laugh fest.  This includes some odd camp moments the makers seem not to be aware of and creator-for-the-TV version Peter Mohan has lost control of.

 

Though not as annoying as Buffy, it is no X-Files and cannot compete against the show that most made it possible: Kolchak: The Night Stalker.  They too seem to fight different monsters every week (like Medusa), so you could say all the monsters that used to be in Chicago are now in Canada.

 

Cox grows into her role, Neal does his best as a somewhat background character (think the boyfriend on later Bionic Woman episodes with the Burt Reynolds’ mustache) but it is Schmid who is the real star.  He has his character nailed down from scene one, is totally believable as a 470-years-young vampire connected to royalty and gets the best lighting, lines and fight scenes of the show.

 

Some things get tired after a while, like the all-black vampire eye bit, the darker “seductive” vampire voice and too many bad digital “other supernatural dimension” moments that render the show silly.  The show wants to be a detective drama, but is never able to make that work, but it is enough of a hit that it will continue.  Whether it will improve remains to be seen, but it still decides to keep the idea of vampire existence a secret like most shows and unlike HBO’s True Blood (reviewed elsewhere on this site) where there existence is now public knowledge and they are a new minority.

 

I should add that because vampire stories are so over told and lately overdone and overproduced, the show has to start with every bad pop culture reference and pseudo joke it can cram into a teleplay, then set its own ground rules.  This is yet another case where the crucifix and holy water have limited to no effect, but sunlight and some other items still work.  For better and worse, Blood Ties is worth a look if you have an interest in this type of fiction or to see a genre series gone wacky.

 

The program was shot in HD video and is not anamorphically enhanced, but letterboxed 1.78 X 1.  Detail is an issue as a result, but color and other clarity points save the picture from being worse, though one wonders if it is a 1080i production over 1080p.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has limited surrounds, but is a good recording, though some harshness from the digital recording and mixing is present and the pseudo-Rock score (including the theme song) are as annoying as they are forgettable.  Extras include the first episode of the second season entitled D.O.A., a long preview launch for the show and a half-hour segment from an entertainment series promoting the show.

 

 

For more on the show, here is the link to our coverage of Season Two:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9104/Blood+Ties+%E2%80%93+Season+Tw

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo