Ultraviolet
Fri, Apr. 9th, 2004 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterThanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elke_tanzer for the rec!
Finally caught it on Sci Fi in a three day marathon (two eps per day).
The first day, I was not attracted to the show much at all. In fact, I had figured on not making the effort to go all the way to the boy's room (I don't have cable) to watch the next two installments. I think it was a combination of the writers throwing me right into the world (not bad in and of itself), which was not so great when coupled with the fact that I had to kind of get used to British TV and the whole 11 at night thing.
British TV, from what I've seen, feels a little different. It's hard to pinpoint how -- different camera angles or composition maybe, definitely less background music. And people speaking with British accents. This is not a bad thing, it just takes a while for my ear to get used to. It's odd. Sometimes if an Australian or Irishperson or Scot or British person talks, the words wash over and it takes me a little while to realize it's the English language. I get that way about accented Chinese too -- it takes me a bit to get used to the proper Beijing accent, as opposed to the sort of Taiwan accent (people don't differentiate as much between sh and s, the curling tongue sounds).
Anyway. I think the big thing was that they had it playing from 11-1, and I am perpetually short on sleep, and it was really hard to stay awake during a smart show in which not that many Big Exciting Things happen.
I'm very glad the boy had a meeting the next day, so we headed over anyway.
X-Files does vampires. I particularly enjoyed just how scientific everything was, how careful the special unit was in investigating and in trying not to draw conclusions, and how little of the supernatural crept in. The first four episodes feel fairly deadpan, not much emotional involvement, except, there is under the professional exteriors. And I liked that the people on the team (with the exception of Michael (Jack Davenport)) were very matter of fact and in general not leaking angst out of every orifice, despite having more than sufficient reason to.
I also couldn't get over the fact that Jane Bennett (from BBC Pride and Prejudice) is now a vampire hunter. She (Angela March in Ultraviolet) is the doctor of the group, very Scully-esque, very loved her.
The individual episodes, up to the fifth, all felt as though they were stand-alones, and it seemed as though the series could continue forever in a sort of X-Files way, with MOWs (or, er, Vampires of the Week) and an underlying, very restrained emotional and mythic arc (well, ok, early X-Files). And in the sixth episode, somehow they manage to tie everything from the previous episodes together brilliantly.
I particularly enjoyed vampirism as a metaphor for AIDS in one episode (although now that I think and analyze it a bit, it feels a little controversial) and the use of vampirism like the use of mutanthood in X-Men. The vampires are particularly convincing about them being a non-threat (they don't kill the people they drink from, no talk of the metaphysical soul, unlike Buffy) and of phrasing the hunt for them as paranoia and the fear of people who are different, much like prejudice of other sorts. It's a slippery slope, and while the moral compass came down on one end at the end of the show, I think if they had made more episodes, it would have been tossed around even more and muddied up even more. Not that it wasn't grey already in the eps we had. I also liked the abortion dialogue in another episode and the surprise affiliation of one clinic.
One particular sequence I liked was the one in which one of them (I coudln't get anyone's name straight) is trapped with vampires about to awaken and the despair, the trembling hands loading the gun, the thought of suicide first, and finally scraping at a chance to survive. That sequence frightened me and made me tense and nervous in a very uncomfortable way.
And I like how Michael messes it up and that it isn't made better by the end.
elke_tanzer for the rec!Finally caught it on Sci Fi in a three day marathon (two eps per day).
The first day, I was not attracted to the show much at all. In fact, I had figured on not making the effort to go all the way to the boy's room (I don't have cable) to watch the next two installments. I think it was a combination of the writers throwing me right into the world (not bad in and of itself), which was not so great when coupled with the fact that I had to kind of get used to British TV and the whole 11 at night thing.
British TV, from what I've seen, feels a little different. It's hard to pinpoint how -- different camera angles or composition maybe, definitely less background music. And people speaking with British accents. This is not a bad thing, it just takes a while for my ear to get used to. It's odd. Sometimes if an Australian or Irishperson or Scot or British person talks, the words wash over and it takes me a little while to realize it's the English language. I get that way about accented Chinese too -- it takes me a bit to get used to the proper Beijing accent, as opposed to the sort of Taiwan accent (people don't differentiate as much between sh and s, the curling tongue sounds).
Anyway. I think the big thing was that they had it playing from 11-1, and I am perpetually short on sleep, and it was really hard to stay awake during a smart show in which not that many Big Exciting Things happen.
I'm very glad the boy had a meeting the next day, so we headed over anyway.
X-Files does vampires. I particularly enjoyed just how scientific everything was, how careful the special unit was in investigating and in trying not to draw conclusions, and how little of the supernatural crept in. The first four episodes feel fairly deadpan, not much emotional involvement, except, there is under the professional exteriors. And I liked that the people on the team (with the exception of Michael (Jack Davenport)) were very matter of fact and in general not leaking angst out of every orifice, despite having more than sufficient reason to.
I also couldn't get over the fact that Jane Bennett (from BBC Pride and Prejudice) is now a vampire hunter. She (Angela March in Ultraviolet) is the doctor of the group, very Scully-esque, very loved her.
The individual episodes, up to the fifth, all felt as though they were stand-alones, and it seemed as though the series could continue forever in a sort of X-Files way, with MOWs (or, er, Vampires of the Week) and an underlying, very restrained emotional and mythic arc (well, ok, early X-Files). And in the sixth episode, somehow they manage to tie everything from the previous episodes together brilliantly.
I particularly enjoyed vampirism as a metaphor for AIDS in one episode (although now that I think and analyze it a bit, it feels a little controversial) and the use of vampirism like the use of mutanthood in X-Men. The vampires are particularly convincing about them being a non-threat (they don't kill the people they drink from, no talk of the metaphysical soul, unlike Buffy) and of phrasing the hunt for them as paranoia and the fear of people who are different, much like prejudice of other sorts. It's a slippery slope, and while the moral compass came down on one end at the end of the show, I think if they had made more episodes, it would have been tossed around even more and muddied up even more. Not that it wasn't grey already in the eps we had. I also liked the abortion dialogue in another episode and the surprise affiliation of one clinic.
One particular sequence I liked was the one in which one of them (I coudln't get anyone's name straight) is trapped with vampires about to awaken and the despair, the trembling hands loading the gun, the thought of suicide first, and finally scraping at a chance to survive. That sequence frightened me and made me tense and nervous in a very uncomfortable way.
And I like how Michael messes it up and that it isn't made better by the end.
Tags:
(no subject)
Sat, Apr. 10th, 2004 12:08 am (UTC)If you're looking for fanfic...
*pimp pimp pimp*
(no subject)
Sat, Apr. 10th, 2004 12:20 am (UTC)And prior to that, I read your first sentence and thought you were talking about Vaughn on Alias! Hee.
Vaughan is very awesome.
(no subject)
Sat, Apr. 10th, 2004 03:00 am (UTC)I didn't see this when it was first shown in the UK
Sat, Apr. 10th, 2004 05:34 am (UTC)I don't follow the fandom, but I hear that there was a minor kerfuffle recently as the authors said something in public along the lines of "Where are you people getting this moral ambiguity stuff from? Vampires are EVIL! EVIL!! EVIL!!!".
Re: I didn't see this when it was first shown in the UK
Sat, Apr. 10th, 2004 09:06 pm (UTC)I don't know.. I think the show itself made the vampires ambiguous, or at least made a pretty heavy point about that ambiguity. It concludes on a more morally certain ground, but I don't think they fully wrap up the question for me.
(no subject)
Sat, Apr. 10th, 2004 07:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Sat, Apr. 10th, 2004 09:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Tue, May. 17th, 2005 12:04 pm (UTC)One particular sequence I liked was the one in which one of them (I coudln't get anyone's name straight) is trapped with vampires about to awaken and the despair, the trembling hands loading the gun, the thought of suicide first, and finally scraping at a chance to survive. That sequence frightened me and made me tense and nervous in a very uncomfortable way.
This is my favorite sequence in the entire series, hands down. I almost want to watch The Wire just to see more Idris Elba.
(no subject)
Tue, May. 17th, 2005 03:31 pm (UTC)I adore the Scully-like Dr. March