Show Review - Blood Ties

[2-hour pilot episode, aired Sep. 14 on Space TV]

This show just won a convert. Honestly, it was really good, but not necessarily in the conventional way. It didn't blow me away like other shows have. The storylines, premise, and setting are all been-there-seen-that but by the end of this two hour pilot episode I really really can't wait to see another episode. Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you that it has to do everything with the actors in the show and the characters they played. They won me over. They are what made the show so good.

The central character in the show is 30-something-year-old Vicki Nelson. Vicki is a tough former cop, who quit the force after being relegated to a desk job when she started to lose her sight. She suffers from some sort of degenerative eye disease which apparently will cause her to someday be blind. Vicki can still see, though she has tunnel vision and night blindness, but instead of letting it bring her down, she starts her own private investigation business. In the pilot episode, a young woman named Corrine Fennel hires her to find her boyfriend's killer, telling Vicki that a vampire killed him. Of course, Vicki doesn't believe her but by mid-episode she comes around to the idea when, while out investigating, she meets a really good-looking man named Henry Fitzroy who just happens to be a vampire. When Henry's vampire charms don't work on Vicki (he is capable of hypnotizing humans with his eyes) he is taken aback. Once he convinces Vicki that he is not the bad guy she thinks he is, the two pair up to fight a demon and save Toronto from destruction. Also assisting them is Miki Celluci, a detective on the police force and a former lover of Vicki who is very protective of her.

There is definite onscreen chemistry between Christina Cox and Kyle Schmid, who play the roles of Vicki and Henry. And there is also onscreen chemistry between Christina Cox and Dylan Neal, who plays Mike. This, thankfully, makes the inevitable future love triangle between Henry, Vicki and Mike extremely unpredictable. Most television triangles consist of two people who are right for each other and a third who obviously is not. Blood Ties does not follow that example and I think that serves the show well. It makes me want to tune in next time to see just what happens to these very intriguing characters.