Moonlight: A Look at the New, CBS Series

I refrained from writing a Moonlight preview out of the simple fact that I wanted to get a good feel for what the show is about. Being a Buffy and Angel fan, I didn't want that to color my judgment of the new CBS series.

The 'detective vampire' premise was awfully familiar, which almost stopped me from watching it to begin with. When CBS announced that Jason Dohring was joining the cast as Josef Konstantin, how could I not watch? His character, Logan Echolls, was by far my favorite from the Veronica Mars days.

So far, the show has kept me entertained. I learned to love the chemistry between Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) and Beth Turner (Sophia Myles). The cases from week to week are fresh and exciting. The fighting is top-notch. And, the vampire rules and legends set it aside from other vampire shows in the past.

Last week's episode, B.C., had Mick and Beth (as usual) investigating two separate cases that somehow intertwined. Josef enlists Mick's help to find an ancient female vamp that stood him up. Beth is covering a fashion shoot when one of the models drops dead from an overdose from a drug that the police can't identify. They soon realize that the woman that Mick is looking for is the manufacturer of the drug that Beth is trying to identify.

Holly Valance gave a wonderful performance as a 500+ year old vamp, Lola, who is hunting other vamps to use their blood as a hot new drug for humans. Using a nightclub as a front, she sells the drug to humans to give them the feel of being invincible and desired. Above everything else, the drug gives them a sensual feeling; making them thirsts for the permanency of feeling like an immortal.

Because she is hunting vampires, and the cops are right on her trail and two seconds from finding out the secret ingredient in the Black Crystal drug, Mick has to track her down and stop her. Going up against the powerful female vampire may be too much than he can handle since, with her vast years over him, she knows tricks that he hasn't witnessed before.

In the meantime, Beth, being her normal curious self, decides to research the drug by putting it in her system. The feeling of being desired and connected to everything leads her to Mick's front door. This was the sweetest part of the episode for me. After she invited him upstairs for a sexual rendezvous, and maybe an opportunity to be turned, I was really worried that he would let his own feelings for her cloud his judgment and he would take advantage of the situation. That wasn't the case. He held her under, what I assume was a cold shower, and coaxed her down from her vamp high.

In the final showdown between Mick and Lola, he was almost outmatched until he used her own devices against her. Getting a hold of her, he dumped her into the silver-laced water, leaving her in a suspended state. Having on a split minute to get rid of the evidence before the police was introduced to the cold hard fact that vampires do exist, he blew the warehouse up.

I have to say that this was one of my favorite episodes. I am a sci-fi freak and watch the cool tricks that Lola had up her sleeve was strangely satisfying for me. All we need now is for Josef and Mick to exhibit those same set of skills.

At first I though that Alex O'Loughlin was a strange choice for the leading character. Not that I knew of his work previously to the show, but he just didn't have the look I thought would be appealing as a kick-ass vampire detective. Once again my Angel-bias overruled my senses. Now I have come to love Alex and his character Mick. He does a great job of conveying his torment of living that thin line between the two worlds. Plus, I think I am becoming addicted to his smile, and I love the fact that he does that a lot around Beth.

In previous episodes, I felt as if the brilliance of Jason Dohring's true ability was underused. I've seen what he can do on Veronica Mars and the people at Moonlight weren't showing any of that. He is far too talented to just sit around in suits and talk. This week, I was mildly satisfied with his storyline.

Jason had a way of showing so much emotion in the Logan Echolls character. Even while he was torching down community pools, you could see the tortured soul underneath and couldn't help but to feel sorry for him. I saw a little bit of that this week when Josef found out Lola was dead. Jason Dohring was dead on conveying to the audience that he had feelings for Lola, and even though he knew it was beneficial to stop her, he didn't want anything to happen to her. Even when he warning Mick about her being powerful and that he pretty much didn't stand a chance against her, I felt like that little speech was more for Lola's benefit than him just looking after a friend.

Ron Koslow and Trevor Munson are co-creators of the show and are joined by Erin Mayer as the writers of this particular episode. Paul Holahan served as director.