Tweet
Released by: Warner Brothers
Released on: 1/20/2009
Director: Ron Koslow, Trevor Munson
Cast: Alex O'Loughlin, Sophia Myles, Jason Dohring, Shannyn Sossamon
Year: 2007
Purchase From Amazon
The Series:
The short lived Moonlight managed to find itself a bit of a cult following before it got the axe and went off the air after only a handful of episodes. The series followed a man named Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin) who makes a pretty healthy living as a private investigator in Los Angeles. What his clients don't know about him is that sixty years ago, his wife, Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon), bit him and turned him into a vampire.
As Mick goes about taking various cases and solving various mysteries, he starts to fall for a human woman named Beth Turner (Sophia Myles). On top of that, he has to deal with Coraline's intrusions into his life and with his vampiric mentor, Josef Kostan (Jason Dhoring).
As the series progresses, we learn about the past that Mick shares with Beth, how he saved her from the same curse of eternal life he's been afflicted with, and about the connection with Coraline and Josef. The character development is fairly strong in the series and the writing reasonably clever, though you've got to wonder how it is that the 'mortals' in the series don't instantly pick up on who is a vampire and who isn't, as they don't do a particularly good job of hiding their true nature. On top of that, there's a group of human's so infatuated with the vampires they know exist that they willingly allow themselves to be used as food - again, without much regard to secrecy.
Logical issues like that aside, however, Moonlight isn't a bad series - in fact, it's fairly entertaining most of the time. O'Loughlin makes for a likeable enough protagonist and he does a good job with the humorous side of his predicament as well as the more dramatic aspects required of his character. His interaction with the rest of the principal players is believable enough. As Mick goes about his business trying to do the right thing, right crime, woo Beth, and not get wasted by the other vampires in the series we're taken along for the ride and even if it's fairly disposable entertainment, it's still entertainment.
The series is consistently well shot, making great use of its Los Angeles locations and effectively capturing the glitz and the glamour as well as the city's seedy underbelly. Mick defies vampire tradition by living it up as he sees fit. He's not the type of vampire to spend his time skulking around and brooding in the shadows, instead he spends his spare time talking to chicks and hanging out in his sweet, hip pad. Had the writer's strike not shot the series down before it had a chance to really spread its wings it probably would have lasted longer as it is a fun updating of the vampire mythos.
The complete series of Moonlight contains the following episodes:
Video/Audio/Extras:
The anamorphic 1.78.1 widescreen transfer isn't all that remarkable thanks in no small part to some obvious compression artifacts evident in many of the darker scenes. There's some aliasing and shimmering present throughout as well. The elements used were obviously in great shape as there are no problems at all with print damage, dirt or debris and color reproduction looks great, but the authoring issues definitely hurt this release.
The English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track leaves little room to complain. Dialogue stays clean and clear from start to finish and there are no problems with hiss or distortion at all. The levels are all properly balanced and generally things sound very good across the board. Optional subtitles are included in English only.
Aside from some static menus and episode selection options, this release is completely barebones.
The Final Word:
Moonlight turns out to be a fairly enjoyable mix of vampirism and fairly typical television drama, two elements that shouldn't work but which, thanks to some clever writing and solid acting, actually do. Unfortunately Warner's release doesn't look so hot and contains no extra features at all, which will certainly be a disappointment to the series' cult following.