Blood Ties—Wrapup

A quick wrapup of the season, since I fell behind in this series, as well.

Necrodome
This might have been more interesting if I hadn't already seen this plot done to death on so many other shows. An interesting twist on the Fight Club premise, though--raising professional fighters from the dead to fill the fighting ranks.

Post Partum
Mike and Vicki pose as husband and wife to get the scoop on magical goings-on at a fertility clinic. Apparently another popular starting point for episodic TV, as we saw this on the Dresden Files, as well. This episode had some cute scenes between Vicki and Mike--and Mike was much more likeable than he has been--but overall seemed slow to me.

Norman
The "Season Finale," aka the last episode they're running straight in a row because they're saving the second part of the season for fall. Vicki's tattoos start to bother her when Norman, the demon-summoning geek from the pilot episode, returns. This time he has shapeshifting abilities. Whackiness ensues. This actually worked surprisingly well as a "finale," bookending Vicki's story nicely. Maybe they planned it that way, after all.

Blood Ties returns with the back nine of the extant 22 episodes in the fall.

Some Good News

Lifetime has picked up 9 more episodes of Blood Ties. From the wording of the article, it's not clear if this is 9 additional episodes, or the back nine from the initial deal. In any case, the show will continue past the first run of 12 episodes.

Lost has been picked up by ABC for three more seasons--with a catch. The seasons will be 16 episodes each, for a total of 48--the equivalent of roughly 2 seasons at the traditional US 22-25 episodes per year. I've said before that I think this is a good idea--it gives the writers a goal to shoot for to tie up the increasingly convoluted storylines, rather than motivation to continue to string them out until the ratings fade.

Still waiting for news on Supernatural and Jericho, but rumor has both of them in good positions for renewal. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Blood Ties—Heart of Ice/Heart of Fire

Vicky's latest case involves homeless people, who are being stalked by some sort of infrared-seeing growly monster. At the same time, Mike investigates a case where several women have had their throats ripped out. He suspects Henry.

The growly monster proves to be a Wendigo (or Windigo, as it says on Coreen's research book). Anyway, this should be easy--Coreen's already helped Sam and Dean off one of those last season on Supernatural when she was Haley. (Honestly, this coincidence cracks me up. Unless they did it on purpose. In which case it cracks me up more.)

Mike's investigations lead him to one Javier Mendoza, who presents Mike with evidence linking Henry to several deaths, including one in 1944, when he supposedly killed a woman named Delphine. As it turns out, he actually Turned her, and she's gone state's evidence, as it were, and given Henry up to Mendoza. Mendoza is with the church, and he's been hunting Henry.

Vicky and Henry try to take out the Wendigo with a flamethrower, but this doesn't work. In the ensuing Superhuman Being Smackdown, Henry loses. Mike arrives and, thanks to Coreen's research (see? told you), kills the Wendigo with silver bullets. And then turns Henry over to Mendoza, after "neutralizing" him with a sun-shaped artifact that adheres to Henry's chest and drains his vampire powers.

Heart of Fire

Vicky's not a bit happy about Mike's betraying Henry to Mendoza. They form an uncomfortable partnership to find the vampire.

In the meantime, Mendoza tortures Henry in gleefully sadistic fashion while Henry bleeds, bruises and burns quite prettily. We are treated to flashbacks to Henry's past and his first encounter with Mendoza while Vicky and the others try to track Henry down. Apparently Mendoza was a Grand Inquisitor in the Spanish Inquisition. Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Why isn't he subjecting Henry to the Comfy Chair? And, more relevant to the actual plot, how is he still alive after three hundred years? It seems Señor Mendoza has been using a concoction made of vampire blood to make himself immortal so he can hunt vampires indefinitely.

In the meantime, Vicky and Mike find their way to first Delphine, who's incinerated by the sunrise before she can give them much information, then finally to Mendoza and Henry. Unfortunately, Vicky gets herself conked on the head and offered up to Henry as food. Henry tries to resist, but he's really hungry, darn it. He breaks his chains and goes after her, but Mike intervenes. Henry uses Mike like snack food. We all understand that to vampires biting is like sex, right? Okay, just checking. Henry puts an end to Mendoza's immortality offscreen. Vicky retrieves the vampire-taming sun device and keeps it. I wonder if she has plans for it in the future. Or maybe for that bondage rack. Hmm.

In "Heart of Ice," Henry is fairly forthright with Vicky about his true nature as a vampire. He's a bit more feral in some ways than other "good" TV vampires, and I like that. I also like that Vicky does finally seem to realize he's a danger, and that when Henry is hungry, even Vicky is just a Big Mac to him. He apparently has to be extra hungry, though, since it appears our Mr. Fitzroy has made some progress in controlling his baser bloodsucky urges. I wonder if he and Mike will get along a bit better now? They seemed to have reached some kind of uneasy truce by the end, but it's hard to say. That abrupt intimate encounter might just result in another messy break-up.

Blood Ties on iTunes:

Blood Ties—Love Hurts

A man, Gary, comes to Vicki asking for help finding out if his wife, Marcie, is cheating on him. Elsewhere, we discover the wife is indeed cheating. With something that makes her scream, and not in the good way. Vicki arrives on the murder scene. The cuckolded husband is, of course, Suspect One, especially since he made a crack to Vicki about hiring a hit man. Bad move.

Vicki meets with Henry at a bar and they chat about the case. Henry does some kind of vampire mojo on her martini. I didn't know vamps could do martini mojo. Henry goes off in a snit when conversation turns to Mike. Men. They're all alike. In this case, jealous. Remember that because it's important.

Marcie's friends share a hottie-pants gardener, Emmanuel, who may have talents other than gardening. Vicki's conversation with him includes a lot of double entendre involving flowers. Cheryl's husband has a collection of old artwork, much of which is fairly explicit. Sort of anthropological statue-porn. Remember that because it's important.

Vicki has a very naughty dream, which she thinks might not have been a dream. Is anybody else thinking Incubus here? While Mike likes Gary for the murder, Vicki is more suspicious of Emmanuel, the gardener. She enlists Henry to question Marcie's friends, thinking they'll respond to his vampire charms. But they all ditch him. Corrine lands on the Incubus idea (she heard me typing). They hear screaming and interrupt a hooded figure attacking Isabel, one of Marcie's friends, in bed. It's in robes and sucks the life force out of her. It looks like the Striga from "Something Wicked" (Supernatural). Later they find Henry golfing and mock him. Then they mock him some more about the women ditching him. I like Henry, but I still find the mockage funny.

As it turns out, Emmanuel is indeed an Incubus, accidentally summoned via one of the idols. But the Incubus isn't the killer--it's a Fury that responds to jealousy, summoned by Cheryl's husband with another of the idols. The last-minute twist isn't badly executed, although the overall jealousy theme is hammered home rather non-subtly. I found it interesting that the Fury gravitated to Henry rather than Mike--they seemed to be equally jealous of the other. One might think that Henry would be less jealous because he's had a longer lifespan to learn to deal with it, but maybe instead he's just gotten better at it over the centuries.

Mike finally seems to be starting to accept the paranormal part of Vicki's new life, but he's using it mostly to snark at Henry. At least he's starting to accept the truth of what she's telling him instead of summarily dismissing her, which makes him less annoying. I'm glad they didn't drag that out any longer than they did, and I hope he doesn't revert. I also really enjoyed the bit at the end between Henry and Emmanuel, as they traded seduction tips.

Blood Ties on iTunes:

Blood Ties—Deadly Departed

A man is plagued by a strange figure appearing on all the computers in the office, saying, "You failed me, you're dead," and additional creepy dead guy stuff. So of course with all the electronics running amock, he gets on the elevator, where strange electronic vision man kills him by shoving his hands through his chest. The dead guy is a defense attorney. Official cause of death is a heart attack, but his wife thinks he was killed by a criminal he unsuccessfully defended. But the criminal committed suicide a week ago. Mike thinks that makes him not a possible suspect. Obviously he hasn't been watching this show.

Creepy Dead Guy was Magnus O'Connor, a criminal who was put in jail in spite of some inadvertent evidence tampering that technically invalidated the case. Now he seems to be taking posthumous revenge on the people who finagled him into a jail sentence. Or is he? As my son would say... Dum dum DUMMMM!

In the meantime, Mike continues to fuss at Vicki about her sudden interest in the paranormal and vampires, especially the hot one who helps her with her cases. Henry continues to assist in her investigation, managing to get tangled up with an old girlfriend, Sinead (I mention her name because I'm betting she'll be back), who's been a dabbler in the dark arts. Vicki's mystical tattoos, from the tangle with the demon in the pilot, seem to be manifesting some strange powers. But are they for good or for evil? Dum dum DUMMMMM!

Still enjoying this show a lot. It seems to be hitting a bit of a stride, and the twist at the end of this episode was a nice one. Vicki and Henry don't seem that couply, though. She and Mike do, although, dude, that boy is just annoying lately. Which is too bad, because I like the character. He just seems to fall into the unfortunate position of being the Big Skeptic, without anything additional to define him in the storylines. I'd like to see him take a different role that would highlight him a bit better.

Blood Ties on iTunes:

Blood Ties—Gifted

Vicki runs into Henry at the comic book store while she's checking out his graphic novels, which, interestingly enough, have the same titles as the Tanya Huff books this show is based on. In the books I think he writes romance novels. Anyway.

Cut to a bratty little girl, Sarah, who appears to have some kind of poletergeisty powers, which is a bad combo with bratty child parent hatred.

In the meantime, Colleen has placed an ad in the paper for Vicki's agency, saying they specialize in paranormal cases, which of course Vicki isn't too thrilled about. And I think Vicki is wearing different glasses. They seem less obtrusive than the other ones. In any case, the case for the evening is the death of poltergeisty-kid's mom. Suspicion has fallen on the missing father, so the focus becomes finding him. Also, Mike is digging up info on Henry. Jealous much?

Since this is Blood Ties and not Law and Order, the estranged father is far too simple an explanation. The next likely suspect appears to be Sarah's stuffed Elmo. (Okay, it wasn't Elmo--his name was Buttercup, but he looked kind of like Elmo on steroids.) Before her death, the mother had been planning to move away, and Sarah had been drawing pictures of Buttercup wreaking bloody mayhem, as well as other violent pictures. Apparently Cobb, the headmaster of Sarah's private school, has been encouraging Sarah in her murderous paranormal talents, and Vicki must find a way to free her from his influence.

I like that this show can put together a solid paranormal story without a lot of flashy effects. Tonight's episode did have some fun CGI stuff going on, but only enough to tell the story. Of course, being on Lifetime they probably have a limited budget, but they've proven they don't need the effects to tell a good story. A lot of bigscreen producers could learn something here. I also like the way the show is developing overall. I'm liking the characters more and more each week, with the possible exception of Mike, who's still kind of annoying, and it's growing into a nicely entertaining hour of TV. The ending of this episode seemed a bit too abrupt, with Sarah's sudden epiphany exhibiting thinking that seemed too mature for a girl her age, but overall a good story.


Blood Ties on iTunes:

Blood Ties—Bad JuJu

Vicki takes a case searching for a woman's missing brother. She's just accepted Angelique's case when they are attacked by a very large, very strong, not entirely human-looking man. Vicki's convinced the guy was some sort of undead. Mike's not crazy about that thought and encourages Vicki to not be a whack-job, so Vicki goes to Henry for help. Henry says it was a zombie. So of course the case leads them into some serious voodoo magic--and into even worse danger when Vicki's client proves to not be what she seems.

I still like the overall dynamic of this show. The interaction between Vicki and Henry is as fun as it was between Vicki and Mike last week, and Henry and Mike all in each other's faces is just as good, though Mike's skepticism is a bit tiresome, as skepticism usually is in a show like this. The plot this time proved a bit of a departure from the usual treatment of voodoo/zombie lore, though it didn't really present us with anything new. And I have to say snarky and/or pissed Henry is much more entertaining than broody, retrospective, feeling guilty Henry.

Blood Ties—Blood Price

Apparently House wasn't on tonight, so that made tonight's review a no-brainer.

Vicki Nelson, ex-cop turned PI, witnesses a freaky murder on the streets and finds herself drawn into an underground world of demons and vampires, one of whom, Fitzroy, is fairly hot, and helps her out with her investigation. He also draws graphic novels. He's seen the murdering demon, Astaroth, before, in London in the 1800's, when it was drawn by members of the Hellfire Club. This time it's being drawn by Norman, a geek-gamer who's using dark magic to try to get a hot chick, Coreen, for himself. If the ritual isn't stopped, all hell will break loose--literally.

Vicky is a strong and well-drawn character, not to mention a badass. She quit the police force because of her deteriorating vision--she has retinitis pigmentosa--and I have to wonder where that might lead. It's a bit ironic that she's losing her night vision under the circumstances. All the main characters were strongly written, but some of the guest stars' dialogue was torturously cheesy. The interplay between Vicki and Mike, her ex-boyfriend, and between Vicki and Fitzroy (who, by the way, is an illegitimate son of Henry VIII), is quite good. The villains in this installment, however, were more stereotypical and annoying than truly menacing. Seriously, didn't the whole Dungeons and Dragons (or in this case Everquest) leads to demon worship storyline go out of vogue with legwarmers and big hair? In any case, the show overall was very enjoyable. I think I'll be tuning in to this one on a regular basis.

Casting Note: Gina Holden, who plays Coreen Fennel, also played Haley Collins in Wendigo, from Supernatural season 1. It looks like she's going to be a series regular.

Blood Ties is available at for download.

And don't forget to check out the books by Tanya Huff.

Blood Ties and Andy Barker at iTunes

The new Lifetime show Blood Ties, which I mentioned yesterday, has already found its way onto iTunes. The first episode is available for download here: (NOTE: I just ran over and downloaded it and it looks like it's actually the first half of tonight's two-hour premiere, so be aware of that if you download.)



Also new to iTunes is Andy Barker, P.I. The entire first season is available for purchase--and it hasn't even started airing on NBC yet. That strikes me as an interesting move by the network, especially since this show is dropping into an incredibly competitive timeslot on Thursday nights. I wonder how they'll count these downloads towards the show's overall performance. Check it out here: