Moonlight, the greatest show I'd never heard of
I was going through H50 episodes to look for vid clips and felt like a larger dose of Alex O wouldn't be amiss, so I dug up Moonlight. Sixteen episodes and an unusually self-contained cancelled season later, I'm all aglow. How had I never heard of this show before?
Basically? I LOVED IT. If you like Alex O, vampires, hot people, this mortal coil kind of plots and awesome characters and interactions, this is the show for you.
I also got unusually shippy about this show. Sure, there's some slash too if you want it, but Beth is just so awesome and Mick has such great chemistry with her. They have this MFEO vibe going on from the first minute they share a scene and it just gets better and better as the show goes along.
Moonlight ♥
This is Mick.
He's a BAMF vampire.
But he's surprisingly sweet and well-adjusted for a vampire.
He works as a PI.
He was born in the 1920s and had no intention of becoming a vampire until his wedding night in 1952 when his wife turned him without his consent.
This is Coraline, his wife.
She and Mick were married for thirty-odd years before their marriage was ended by death.
To say that they had a complicated relationship would be an understatement.
This is Josef.
Josef is also a BAMF vampire, and Mick's best friend.
He thinks that Mick has an annoying amount of rules and scruples, but he loves him anyway.
This is Beth.
She's a reporter for a gossipy news program that's streaming online, but she's more interested in crime cases than fluff pieces.
She and Mick keep bumping into each other more or less by accident and sparks fly.
This is how Mick looks at Beth the first time they meet (as far as Beth knows).
(And that's not as stalkery as it sounds. Okay, it kind of is, but there's a whole reason and story behind it.)
Together they fight crime.
This is Josh.
Josh is Beth's boyfriend and also the DA.
Here are my spoilery impressions.
Spoilers for all 16 eps.
I don't know quite to begin, so many thoughts after mainlining all the episodes in two days. General impressions? God, but I love this show. It's occasionally cheesy, with major plotholes and occasional plots that are duller than Dullsville, but the character stuff is SO GOOD. Mick and Beth have an amazing chemistry right from the start, Josef really came into his own right, both with his character getting fleshed out and how much he obviously loves Mick. I loved Josh, and later I really liked Ben. Even the morgue guy was lovable.
I also like how they paced things differently than most shows. There's no long wait for "will she or won't she find out about him", she finds out only a few episodes in, and she never gets a knock on her head, no convenient amnesia or whatever. She KNOWS. And her knowing allows for plotlines to evolve. They're also unusually aware that they feel something for each other straight away, it's just that pesky issue of her having a boyfriend and him being an immortal vampire with trust issues.
Their first kiss may also be one of my favorite first kisses ever. It was so sweet and surprising and the way they'd set it up was the way that most shows set up scenarios they're gonna push forward.
I also liked the grey areas of the show. Mick is obviously a good guy who wants to help people and save lives, and yet he doesn't have any qualms with killing when pushed. His best friend doesn't have his moral code and seems to have people killed off left and right without it seeming to bother Mick all that much. Then there's the ep where Beth joins the grey area too, and that was just CHILLING. ♥
It was really interesting to see how Alex O's acting differed from H50, because while I think he's more settled with Steve now than he was in the pilot where I found his acting iffy at best, he still hasn't wowed me. And he's so DIFFERENT as Mick.
I do think Mick plays on a lot of Alex's acting strengths, he does better with the character interactions and romance, I'm not sure he knows quite what to do with Steve's stoic SEAL self. There were a couple of Mick scenes that stood out extra for me, though.
The first, of course, is when Beth finds out. It was just so heart-breaking seeing this BAMF vampire brought to his knees and SO AFRAID of Beth finding out and looking at him like he's a monster. When he begs her to leave and not look at him. O_O
The second scene is when he thinks Josef is dead and he tells Beth that he's not sure if he can even begin to grieve for him, while obviously being close to breaking down. MICK.
Finally, it's that whole amazing scene in 1x13, where Josef tries to prove his point that Mick can't go up against the vampires as human and Mick convinces him to turn him back to a vampire.
Here, have some more pics.
I also LOVE the music on this show. It's like the soundtrack of my life. Sometimes there are songs I've never heard before but love the first time I hear them, other times there are songs I've listened to over and over for years. ♥♥♥♥♥
I zipped some of my favorite songs.
Here are two of them on YT:
All The World - Fauxliage
The Bird And The Worm - The Used
HD Screencaps can be found here.
I may or not be uploading some eps...
Basically? I LOVED IT. If you like Alex O, vampires, hot people, this mortal coil kind of plots and awesome characters and interactions, this is the show for you.
I also got unusually shippy about this show. Sure, there's some slash too if you want it, but Beth is just so awesome and Mick has such great chemistry with her. They have this MFEO vibe going on from the first minute they share a scene and it just gets better and better as the show goes along.
Moonlight ♥
This is Mick.
He's a BAMF vampire.
But he's surprisingly sweet and well-adjusted for a vampire.
He works as a PI.
He was born in the 1920s and had no intention of becoming a vampire until his wedding night in 1952 when his wife turned him without his consent.
This is Coraline, his wife.
She and Mick were married for thirty-odd years before their marriage was ended by death.
To say that they had a complicated relationship would be an understatement.
This is Josef.
Josef is also a BAMF vampire, and Mick's best friend.
He thinks that Mick has an annoying amount of rules and scruples, but he loves him anyway.
This is Beth.
She's a reporter for a gossipy news program that's streaming online, but she's more interested in crime cases than fluff pieces.
She and Mick keep bumping into each other more or less by accident and sparks fly.
This is how Mick looks at Beth the first time they meet (as far as Beth knows).
(And that's not as stalkery as it sounds. Okay, it kind of is, but there's a whole reason and story behind it.)
Together they fight crime.
This is Josh.
Josh is Beth's boyfriend and also the DA.
Here are my spoilery impressions.
Spoilers for all 16 eps.
I don't know quite to begin, so many thoughts after mainlining all the episodes in two days. General impressions? God, but I love this show. It's occasionally cheesy, with major plotholes and occasional plots that are duller than Dullsville, but the character stuff is SO GOOD. Mick and Beth have an amazing chemistry right from the start, Josef really came into his own right, both with his character getting fleshed out and how much he obviously loves Mick. I loved Josh, and later I really liked Ben. Even the morgue guy was lovable.
I also like how they paced things differently than most shows. There's no long wait for "will she or won't she find out about him", she finds out only a few episodes in, and she never gets a knock on her head, no convenient amnesia or whatever. She KNOWS. And her knowing allows for plotlines to evolve. They're also unusually aware that they feel something for each other straight away, it's just that pesky issue of her having a boyfriend and him being an immortal vampire with trust issues.
Their first kiss may also be one of my favorite first kisses ever. It was so sweet and surprising and the way they'd set it up was the way that most shows set up scenarios they're gonna push forward.
I also liked the grey areas of the show. Mick is obviously a good guy who wants to help people and save lives, and yet he doesn't have any qualms with killing when pushed. His best friend doesn't have his moral code and seems to have people killed off left and right without it seeming to bother Mick all that much. Then there's the ep where Beth joins the grey area too, and that was just CHILLING. ♥
It was really interesting to see how Alex O's acting differed from H50, because while I think he's more settled with Steve now than he was in the pilot where I found his acting iffy at best, he still hasn't wowed me. And he's so DIFFERENT as Mick.
I do think Mick plays on a lot of Alex's acting strengths, he does better with the character interactions and romance, I'm not sure he knows quite what to do with Steve's stoic SEAL self. There were a couple of Mick scenes that stood out extra for me, though.
The first, of course, is when Beth finds out. It was just so heart-breaking seeing this BAMF vampire brought to his knees and SO AFRAID of Beth finding out and looking at him like he's a monster. When he begs her to leave and not look at him. O_O
The second scene is when he thinks Josef is dead and he tells Beth that he's not sure if he can even begin to grieve for him, while obviously being close to breaking down. MICK.
Finally, it's that whole amazing scene in 1x13, where Josef tries to prove his point that Mick can't go up against the vampires as human and Mick convinces him to turn him back to a vampire.
Here, have some more pics.
I also LOVE the music on this show. It's like the soundtrack of my life. Sometimes there are songs I've never heard before but love the first time I hear them, other times there are songs I've listened to over and over for years. ♥♥♥♥♥
I zipped some of my favorite songs.
Here are two of them on YT:
All The World - Fauxliage
The Bird And The Worm - The Used
HD Screencaps can be found here.
I may or not be uploading some eps...