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Blood Ties: Bad Juju
"I'm not much for tradition. Or treefrog."
Overall verdict: I'm going to keep watching this show, although I can tell it is going to drive me crazy sometimes.
I am deeply ambivalent about the representation of Vodou in film and TV, so I was worried going into this episode, and I can't say my worries were relieved, although I did like the twist that the Papa Samedi character was actually a good guy and that Vicki's client was the bad guy. I know this is a horror show, but the whole Vodou=zombies and human sacrifice thing gets pretty old. If the only depiction of Catholicism we ever saw onscreen was Satanic Black Masses, I think people would get upset.
Other than the minor detail of the whole case plotline (well, that and the wtf moment that a vampire needs to keep salt in his pantry) I really enjoyed the episode. They really have Vicki's characterization down pat--in fact, I'm remembering that her hard-headedness did drive me pretty crazy sometimes in the books, but for some reason it is working for me onscreen, maybe just because I like to see her jousting with Mike and Henry.
Henry was great in this episode. I wish they'd come up with better special effects for when he switches into his "Prince of Darkness" persuasive mode--it makes me laugh rather than convincing me he's badass--but I completely love his chemistry with Vicki, and he's actually convincing me that he's centuries old rather than a kid, which was something I was a little worried about last week. I really like his banter back and forth with Vicki--like that scene where he says "don't believe everything you see in the movies" and she makes the "undead vampire hands" back at him. I also loved something I noticed in the scene where he and Mike are fighting over Vicki: they kept that little detail from the books that he's shorter than Mike. That actually made made me very very happy, since it's historically accurate that someone born 400 years ago would be shorter, and it also levels the playing field between him and Mike a little bit. I still think they're rushing the Henry-Vicki relationship, but I did genuinely buy that he didn't want what happened to his friend in the 1920s to happen to her.
I'm liking Mike, too. Someone said last week that he kind of reminds them of Paul Gross, and I sort of saw that this week. I sympathize with his skepticism about the supernatural--"Vicki, it's pitch black and you're half-blind. I said that last part out loud, didn't I?" And I would be more annoyed with his overprotectiveness if Vicki wasn't quite so stubborn about jumping directly into the fire with no more protection than the complete conviction that she's fireproof. And damn, I love him sparring with Henry. Sure, calling him a cartoonist isn't *quite* as much fun as the books, when he could call him a romance novelist, but it still works for me.
And finally, Coreen is pretty fun, and I'm amused by the complication her crush on Henry is likely to cause. I still miss Tony, though. And I hope we haven't lost Henry's canonical bisexuality. I hope they're just waiting until we're invested in the characters to show that.
Edited to add: oh, and I found a Blood Ties community:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
bloodties_tv.
Overall verdict: I'm going to keep watching this show, although I can tell it is going to drive me crazy sometimes.
I am deeply ambivalent about the representation of Vodou in film and TV, so I was worried going into this episode, and I can't say my worries were relieved, although I did like the twist that the Papa Samedi character was actually a good guy and that Vicki's client was the bad guy. I know this is a horror show, but the whole Vodou=zombies and human sacrifice thing gets pretty old. If the only depiction of Catholicism we ever saw onscreen was Satanic Black Masses, I think people would get upset.
Other than the minor detail of the whole case plotline (well, that and the wtf moment that a vampire needs to keep salt in his pantry) I really enjoyed the episode. They really have Vicki's characterization down pat--in fact, I'm remembering that her hard-headedness did drive me pretty crazy sometimes in the books, but for some reason it is working for me onscreen, maybe just because I like to see her jousting with Mike and Henry.
Henry was great in this episode. I wish they'd come up with better special effects for when he switches into his "Prince of Darkness" persuasive mode--it makes me laugh rather than convincing me he's badass--but I completely love his chemistry with Vicki, and he's actually convincing me that he's centuries old rather than a kid, which was something I was a little worried about last week. I really like his banter back and forth with Vicki--like that scene where he says "don't believe everything you see in the movies" and she makes the "undead vampire hands" back at him. I also loved something I noticed in the scene where he and Mike are fighting over Vicki: they kept that little detail from the books that he's shorter than Mike. That actually made made me very very happy, since it's historically accurate that someone born 400 years ago would be shorter, and it also levels the playing field between him and Mike a little bit. I still think they're rushing the Henry-Vicki relationship, but I did genuinely buy that he didn't want what happened to his friend in the 1920s to happen to her.
I'm liking Mike, too. Someone said last week that he kind of reminds them of Paul Gross, and I sort of saw that this week. I sympathize with his skepticism about the supernatural--"Vicki, it's pitch black and you're half-blind. I said that last part out loud, didn't I?" And I would be more annoyed with his overprotectiveness if Vicki wasn't quite so stubborn about jumping directly into the fire with no more protection than the complete conviction that she's fireproof. And damn, I love him sparring with Henry. Sure, calling him a cartoonist isn't *quite* as much fun as the books, when he could call him a romance novelist, but it still works for me.
And finally, Coreen is pretty fun, and I'm amused by the complication her crush on Henry is likely to cause. I still miss Tony, though. And I hope we haven't lost Henry's canonical bisexuality. I hope they're just waiting until we're invested in the characters to show that.
Edited to add: oh, and I found a Blood Ties community:
bloodties_tv.
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