By Brandon Nolta

Damn vampires; no sense of boundaries or letting a guy sleep. That’s probably what Mick (Alex O’Loughlin) is thinking when his buddy Josef (Jason Dohring) starts banging on the lid of his high-tech coffin/freezer and wakes his ass up. Turns out that one of Josef’s on-again, off-again flings has disappeared, and Josef wants Mick to find her. At what is probably the same time, Beth (Sophia Myles) is taking a break from the crime beat and covering a fashion show with as little condescension as she can manage, which isn’t much. Turns out to be lucky for Beth, as one of the models suddenly convulses and drops dead. Is it a crime? According to the cops and lawyers that suddenly show up, that’s a safe bet.

Mick thinks Josef is holding out on him, so he works on his buddy and finds out a few things: the fling, an ancient yet hot vampire named Lola (guest star Holly Valance), stole a cool million from Josef and used it to buy a metric ton of silver, which is kind of like a mortal running out and buying a lot of mustard gas. Spurred on by the model’s death, Beth’s investigation takes her to a hot new nightclub, which features a certain ancient bloodsucker in the VIP lounge. Mick’s investigation, spurred on by Josef, takes him to a bunch of corpses in barrels and an up-close experience with silver. Yes, Mick got screwed on that deal.

Anyway, Mick takes one of the bodies into a connection at the morgue and finds out that it was a vampire who a) was soaked in silver, which is a paralytic agent for the nosferatu, b) drained of blood and c) set on fire. Damn. Once Mick and Beth compare notes, they realize they’re working the same case, and they set off for the nightclub together. They confront Lola together just in time to see Beth’s boyfriend the deputy D.A. and the cops raid the place, at which point things start to become clear: Lola is involved in putting out a drug called black crystal using the nightclub as a front. What’s the connection to Mick’s nasty discoveries? The primary ingredient of the drug is vampire blood, thus explaining the crispy vamp in a drum. That’s just icky.


But, it wouldn’t be a network drama without a complication, and Beth provides it by sampling some of the black crystal, which acts like Ecstasy with a turbocharger on her. Does Mick take advantage of her? Take a guess; he may be a predator from an amoral tradition, but he’s the hero of the show. Anyway, a long shower in their clothes and a nap later, Mick and Beth are ready to bring the noise against Lola before the law swoops in and blows the cover of the undead. Are there complications ahead? Well, duh, but you can assume Mick saves the day.

Somewhat surprisingly, the creators manage to up the creep factor substantially with this plot line; the image of paralyzed vamps in their tanks recalls THE MATRIX and their miles of podded humans, and it ain’t pretty. Vampires aren’t scary anymore (too damn familiar), and MOONLIGHT doesn’t do anything to change that perception, but it does at least take its mythology seriously and attempts to explore its ramifications. It’s a better show than anybody usually expects from network TV, and hopefully, MOONLIGHT will run long enough to prove it. Place your bets …