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Some thoughts on Ultraviolet (1998)
Apr. 10th, 2025 11:00 amAnother YouTube upload I discovered, and since it was only six episodes long, I gave it a try. After all, it has Stringer Bell and Jane Bennett hunting vampires. There was no way I didn't want to see that. And Susannah Harker was a revelation as Angie, who is so reserved and yet so destroyed, with the darkest backstory of anyone in the show. Having only seen her playing sweet Jane, it was so fascinating to watch.
Idris Elba as Vaughan was also great, but less surprising to me. There was also Philip Quast as the sardonic, scary as hell priest leading the team, who started out fairly background but whose role expanded at the end.
The first episode is somewhat dry, as it prefers to focus on Everyman Copper Michael (played by Jack Davenport, who I guess is famous from a bunch of stuff I've never seen), newly initiated into the vampire hunting life when his best friend Jack is turned. Between the show's avoidance of actual vampire discussion (the word is never used in any episode) and the requirement of setting up Michael's ordinary life before it all goes to hell, it's mostly just getting the pieces in position, but as of the second episode it turns into an extremely dark, gripping procedural with 90s conspiracy overtones.
It's also an unusual take on vampire warfare because the vampires rarely get their hands dirty, preferring to manipulate humans to do their work for them. They are organized and scientifically-minded, trying to preserve their increasingly self-destructive food supply. Meanwhile, their food supply objects to losing their status as the dominant predator of the world. It's a very cold premise, that keeps borrowing 90s headlines to lend a sense of realism to proceedings. There are definitely victims of the vampires, but they don't kill to feed, so the war is a vicious, silent struggle for dominance while regular people wander clueless, occasionally used as pawns or guinea pigs. Meanwhile, Michael looks on in horror, unsure if he's completely buying in or not, and toying with the hope of getting fired.
The writing throughout is quite subtle, and it rarely spells things out for the audience, which I appreciated a lot. Further thoughts under a cut. ( Read more... )
Idris Elba as Vaughan was also great, but less surprising to me. There was also Philip Quast as the sardonic, scary as hell priest leading the team, who started out fairly background but whose role expanded at the end.
The first episode is somewhat dry, as it prefers to focus on Everyman Copper Michael (played by Jack Davenport, who I guess is famous from a bunch of stuff I've never seen), newly initiated into the vampire hunting life when his best friend Jack is turned. Between the show's avoidance of actual vampire discussion (the word is never used in any episode) and the requirement of setting up Michael's ordinary life before it all goes to hell, it's mostly just getting the pieces in position, but as of the second episode it turns into an extremely dark, gripping procedural with 90s conspiracy overtones.
It's also an unusual take on vampire warfare because the vampires rarely get their hands dirty, preferring to manipulate humans to do their work for them. They are organized and scientifically-minded, trying to preserve their increasingly self-destructive food supply. Meanwhile, their food supply objects to losing their status as the dominant predator of the world. It's a very cold premise, that keeps borrowing 90s headlines to lend a sense of realism to proceedings. There are definitely victims of the vampires, but they don't kill to feed, so the war is a vicious, silent struggle for dominance while regular people wander clueless, occasionally used as pawns or guinea pigs. Meanwhile, Michael looks on in horror, unsure if he's completely buying in or not, and toying with the hope of getting fired.
The writing throughout is quite subtle, and it rarely spells things out for the audience, which I appreciated a lot. Further thoughts under a cut. ( Read more... )
