Forever Knight, first two episodes

This show has been on my watch list for a while, and I finally sat down with it. It's a bit odd, coming to a show I only know via fandom (given several Highlander fans have written for this and recommended it to me) and an infamous final episode.

I tend to prespoil final episodes when I hear they are widely despised. It's usually for stuff I'd never consider watching anyway, like How I Met Your Mother and St. Elsewhere. But I also watched several takedown videos about the final season of Game of Thrones before going on to watch the first seven seasons, so me and spoilers are frequently on speaking terms.

I can't help it, I'm curious what decision could enrage that many people. It's like a cautionary tale for writers. So I did that for this show ages ago, which is just to say, I know what I'm in for. What happens on the way is the mystery.

So, things I did not know about the show: LaCroix is pronounced La Craw, not La Croy. Schanke has a Ska sound instead of Shh.

Also, since the only thing I know about Natalie is that final episode, I pictured her as being way more like Alys in this episode - nominally professional, but actually swooning over Mr Vampire, wandering into peril and being in need of rescue all the time. I did not like Alys at all.

Natalie is awesome, however. No nonsense. Already knowing the big secret. Flinty, but warm enough to try to help Nick even when he's deep in his cups.

Nick is played by Geraint Wyn Davies, who is a better actor than I realized. I completely forgot about Michael Moore very quickly. Nice speaking voice, too.

This show does a great job with the vampire alcoholism metaphor. I'll be very interested to compare this to Angel as I go along. Nick is being shown as a constant sufferer, with excellent sound design driving home how heroic he is to constantly work around oblivious food sources and abstain. He's self-loathing in a more physical manner than Angel, crippling himself with starvation and seeming to reject the whole Dark Avenger concept Angel couldn't help buy into (to his frequent downfall). Nick is doing a job and trying to stay sober.

LaCroix was mostly there to be evil and die. Two things I liked: Nigel Bennett's impeccable delivery of every line. He's understated, which is a great choice. And how every time I thought the score was providing creepy violin notes, it turned out to be LaCroix doing his own scene setting. Also, he works as a late night talk radio man! He has colleagues who fill in when he's indisposed. This is hilarious to me. Was the station struggling and he's their major donor with an ad-free slot all to himself? Or does he have to deal with commercial breaks and the like? I doubt the show will ever provide a single detail, so I'll just imagine some WKRP-style nonsense in his backstory.

Moving on, Janette has a much more standard vampire job. Running a cool 90s club. Not much to say about her yet. Another nice speaking voice.

Schanke and the whole cop aspect is very much a cop show. He's bumbling and ridiculous, but did have the right idea about the mystery here, so I'm hoping he isn't just used as the comic relief and gets to be a competent cop.

I'm enjoying the vampire lore, comparing and contrasting with later shows and seeing how much of a trendsetter this was. However, all sympathy for its ambition, but I can see why flying has pretty much been abandoned as a vampire trait. I enjoy some good wire work, but you need to be able to see it.

I did enjoy the copious quantities of 90s TV atmosphere, both procedural and gothic. My biggest complaint is the title cards, because the typeface they chose reminds me of those "prove you're not a robot by typing these grotesquely distorted letters" captchas and I can't actually tell who worked on this show. Major design fail.

Most of season one is on YouTube. I look forward to continuing!