The Twilight Saga books: lame, underwritten, sub-fan fiction level writing with some disturbing messages beneath "it's okay to wait!" message. Not too hard to bear, what with all four books already published, and the proposed fifth (Midnight Sun, Edward's perspective of the events of Twilight, the first book in the saga) put on hold indefinitely, probably never to be published.
The Twilight Saga films: have never seen them, so couldn't possibly comment. But the bastardising of Muse songs to fit the soundtrack grates on my nerves.
True Blood, TV series: HBO really manage to excel themselves with their homegrown TV series. Incredibly sexy, dark, blood-drenched viewing - you can practically feel the swampy heat of the South, even in the most miserable of weather here in Britain. A good show with a nice series length, but not one I've kept up with.
Being Human, TV series: homegrown British drama at its finest. I watched the pilot when it aired way back in January 2008 and immediately instructed my friends to watch it now, dammit! I even signed the petition to the BBC to commission a full series. Two have since aired, featuring only two of the original cast from the pilot (the excellent Russell Tovey of The History Boys and Little Dorrit fame, playing George, the werewolf, and Dylan Brown, playing Seth, a vampire henchman in the first series only), but my goodness the 'replacements' are fabulous.
A third series is definitely on the way, but is to be filmed and set in Cardiff - a big change for the show, which was previously set and filmed in Bristol. For the uninitiated, it concerns Mitchell, a vampire (the wonderfully sexy Aidan Turner), the aforementioned George, and Annie, a ghost, sharing a house, formerly in Bristol. It's warm, witty, dark, thrilling and genuinely fantastic.
Moonlight, TV series: produced by Joel Silver and starring Jason Dohring (both alumni of Neptune High/Hearst College, so to speak), as well as Sophia Myles (New Who, as Madame de Pompadour in Steven Moffat's gloriously romantic Season 2 ep, The Girl In The Fireplace) and Shannyn Sossamon (A Knight's Tale, the spiky haired 'fair lady' to Heath Ledger's fraudulent knight). It had an interesting premise, but one quite similar to the Canadian series, Blood Ties: sexy male vampire and beautiful woman team up to fight crime, sparks fly, woman's significant other gets in the way, fangs cause issues etc. Sadly it lasted only 16 episodes, and never really got the chance to shine.
Blood Ties, TV series: based on the Blood Books series by Tanya Huff, this show lasted for two seasons before losing network support. Featuring a host of beautiful TV tropes, a dangerously sexy male vampire and a reasonably rugged and delicious male cop, this show managed to combine a crime drama with fantasy/horror, with a generous splash of unresolved sexual tension on top. The main cast remained resolutely small, and the fans resolutely loyal, but there are no signs of it returning to our screens afresh any time soon.
And finally, for now, The Vampire Diaries!- based on the books by L.J. Smith, a veteran of the young adult vampire novel (she's the author behind the Nightworld series - set to conclude this summer, as well as many more fantasy/horror novels). These were written LONG before Ms Meyer and her sparkling bloodsuckers came around and were published waaayyy before I was even born in 1991. She followed up her original trilogy with another VD book the next year, due to fan support, and recently began releasing a new trilogy called The Return.
The VD TV series also began airing its first season in September of last year. So far it has managed to juggle high school drama, nefarious plots, and a decent amount of smouldering and brooding, mostly concerning the three leads, but also the intriguing secrets of the small town of Mystic Falls. Thankfully, us Brits don't have to wait 18 months to get our VD fix - it's broadcast every Tuesday at 9pm on ITV2, albeit with a time lag of a few weeks (VD started airing here in February, but we Brits don't do mid-season breaks or winter hiatuses, so we're about level).
You may have noticed, but its Tuesday. And that means its VD day for me! (Well, not really. Tuesdays are actually 90210 days for me, but I'm ahead on those, so for once I get to appreciate the gloom of the Salvatore boarding house and the sheer power of Stefan's brooding stare on the TV, as opposed to my laptop screen.)
So, au revoir! Tomorrow I shall return, armed with a nice little review of tonight's VD ep.
See you soon!
xXx
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