film review III

I was going to post this on Lori's blog under the Dr.Who recap but it got taken over with some Kingpin quotes [ my fault, I started it]
Besides, Lori can't have the all limelight with her impressive reviews ;)
I'm gonna be a glory hog for a bit and write a review.

The other day I checked the Dr. Who on the imdb site and discovered that its producer, Joe Ahearne, also did one of my favorite UK sci fi miniseries--Ultraviolet. [not to be confused with a lame movie of the same title ]
Think of it as an X-files type mini series, except it's about vampires instead of UFO's. The word 'vampire ' is never used. They are called Code 5 [ Roman numeral V] , or leeches, or parasites.
I saw it on the Sci-fi channel about 5 years ago. Really enjoyed it and found it on dvd.
What I like about it is that it's got "good angst".Conspiracy & paranoia are key ingredients to this show [much like X-files was]

The story starts out with two cops: Jack is going to get married the next day.Mike is his partner-- and is also the best man. Mike gets a phone call from Jack's snitch/ informant pleading for Jack. Mike, being the responsible best friend, decides to handle the potential crisis situation himself.
Well, the snitch gets killed and Mike loses the suspect. He escaped in the Underground and doesn't even show on the station's security cameras. The problem gets more f'ed up for Mike because the next day Jack has disappeared and the poor fiance has been dumped on their wedding day. Ouch.
Some strange internal affairs people show up at the church and it's non-wedding gathering, looking like they already know what happened. Mike promises the bride-not-to-be that he'll find Jack, and find out what's happened to him. Even if it may come out that Jack was a bad cop on the take.
Mike discovers that Jack was not only a bad cop, but a weird cop too. The more weird stuff he finds out with his new friends from the Goth Squad, the less he can say to Jack's girl. Which causes problems in their friendship because by now it's obvious to the audience and to everyone else on the show--except fiance girl--that Mike has always been secretly in love with her, even his old partner Jack figures it out. Awkwaaard.

The following episodes deal with Mike coping as he becomes a member of this secret, modern day Inquistion. The rest on his team are a scientist, a soldier, and former priest--all of them have a healthy dose of bitter tragic histories. Not a happy crew to work with.
Anyway, the series has them investigate cases with 'Code V' suspicions. The cases often have some scientific discovery that leads to a bigger picture of what the vamps might be trying to do.

More on the part re: every one being miserable. That's important. The vamps aren't like the ones on Angel, they don't transform into a monster face. Their battles are more psychological. The humans are emotionally fragile, while the vamps are confident and argue [very convincingly] that they are being persecuted---because they don't require a kill, they can feed like mosquitos and move on. They want humans to see them as a minority race, beings who have every right to exist just like humans.To me, they're kind of like a cult. "We only take those who want to go", all the while pointing out their opponent's weaknesses : loneliness, sickness, lack of faith etc. Ahearne does a very good job with getting his stories to a grey area where you do feel sympathy with the vamps and you can understand why a person chooses to become one. The 'crossing over' explainations, I really liked because I never bought it in other horror movies. It's usually depicted as a sexy seduction --and it always comes off as silly to me.
In this show, some are 'drafted' and some go willingly because they are morally weak cowards.

If you find this series at your local rental store, check it out since there's not much on tv in the summertime.
photos: official site [ link at imdb]