'Moonlight': Hooray for Hollywood!
Moonlight is back on form with this tale of Hollywood, paparazzi, financial shenanigans and stalkers. Great lines, compelling plot, lots of deft little touches (if you ignore the anvillicious metaphor), a fair helping of gore and some moral ambiguity -- the only thing missing was gratuitous shirtlessness. Why do I always get the fully clad episodes?
You should put that up on your spoiler page.
Mick may be back to his vampy self, but he's decided to give up on brooding in the shadows by taking Tierney Taylor as a client. Tierney is a camera-bait starlet who feels the paparazzi are getting a bit too close. This entails high-speed chases and digital pics splashed all over reputable websites like TMZ and Buzzwire, where Mick is proclaimed Tierney's new boytoy. Is someone tipping off the camera hounds?
That becomes secondary when Tierney dies at a party to celebrate the filming of her new movie, "Lusitania." Most folks assume she got drunk and fell overboard, but Mick's vamp senses catch a whiff of blood on an anchor in her stateroom. It was murder!
There are plenty of suspects -- the boyfriend she argued with (and who has an album to promote), the photographer who was stalking and/or blackmailing her, the business manager who seemed to be skimming money off her... Where to start?
Mick discovers the "boyfriend's only crime is being in an emo band," and while that is grounds for flogging in some areas, it isn't actually a criminal offense. Boyfriend Scott only fought with Tierney because he found out she was paying off paparazzo Dean Foster, and he thought Foster caught a snap of Tierney cheating with her hunky new bodyguard.
Then there's the business manager, who is cagey about why he was writing himself a $20,000 check every month. Turns out Tierney had a hard-knock life -- her mom killed Tierney's abusive father and went to prison. Tierney set mom up in a house and hired people to help her when she got out, and she didn't want her mom exposed to the bloodsucking fiends -- sorry, the metaphorical bloodsucking fiends -- of the paparazzi. That's why the business manager made all the payments through his accounts. But somehow, Foster found out about it, and he turned to blackmail.
That leaves Foster, who is definitely guilty of being creepy as hell. Foster's got a habit of fixating on a star and then stalking them until they move off the continent. With Tierney dead, he's decided to fixate on Mick. (Apparently he caught the flagrantly shirtless scenes last week, so who could blame him?) Unfortunately, this means Foster is taking pictures when Mick gets hit by a speeding car -- and then walks away from the horrific accident without a scratch. Doh!
More financial sleuthing reveals that Jason Abbott, the producer of Lusitania, is flat broke and up to his eyeballs in debt to some scary investors. He needed to collect insurance for shutting down the picture in order to pay the moneymen back, but Tierney wouldn't drop out of the film -- she even started paying for costumes and swimming lessons out of her own pocket. Abbott decided the only way to close the film was to kill Tierney. He tried to kill Mick and Beth with the speeding car, but, well, that just pissed Mick off. Mick catches him and turns him in.
That just leaves Foster and his incriminating pics. He sends them to Beth, and threatens to reveal all if she doesn't use him as her exclusive photographer for Buzzwire. That, combined with the fact that the new boss wants to make Buzzwire a schlock tabloid site that doesn't give a damn about accuracy, convinces Beth to quit. She tells Josef about Foster -- maybe he can pay the pap off? Josef is willing, but he's sure it won't work -- as is Beth, and she knows exactly what she's asking Josef to do. Josef sets a couple of baby paparazzi who just happen to be vampires (Oh! The symbolism!) on Foster, and they chow down. It's surprisingly gory for this show. I like it.
Hollywood highlights:
- Abbott proclaims that "Lusitania" is going to be a "billion-dollar franchise." I'm assuming the second film would be an Esther-Williams-type water ballet flick.
- Mick talks about his experience on a troop ship in 1942, which was hit by a 70-odd-foot tidal wave. "Some guy wrote a book about it. He called it the Poseidon Adventure. Exaggerated things bit, but I like to think the Gene Hackman character was based on me." Hey, at least it wasn't the Shelley Winters character.
- The business manager on Tierney: "Everyone thought she was one of those vapid little girls who runs around without underwear, gets married to guys they meet in gas station bathrooms. Tierney wasn't like that." Gee, who do you think he could be talking about?
- Josef got to drop a few hints about his adventure in Hollywood during the Golden Age. He went out with Jean Harlow (actually, they mostly "stayed in," he says), and apparently there was a particular night at Garbo's that he wouldn't want publicized. "Don't tell me -- you're the reason she wanted to be alone?" asks Beth. Josef refuses to elaborate.
More thoughts and odds and ends:
- I love the fallout from Josef turning Mick last week. Mick calls him "dad," which Josef hates. He didn't turn Mick, he says: "I returned you. Re-turned." "You're kind of my stepsire, though." Mick cracks. Hee!
- Mick asks Beth out on a date, and admits he's out of practice -- he hasn't been with a human since he was turned the first time. Beth goggles. "It's not like you slept with a vampire!" Mick says. "Maybe once in college, but I was really drunk," says Beth. But didn't we all?
- Mick disses emo, and Beth demands to know what's wrong with the genre: "Nothing, when they were influenced by Hüsker Dü, but now they all just copy Jimmy Eat World, and, well, that explains Dashboard Confessional, doesn't it." And I thought I couldn't love Mick any more...
- The paparazzi/vampire comparison was groan-inducingly obvious, but at least the writers and actors had the grace to be embarrassed about it.
- One major development: Assistant D.A. Talbot (Josh's replacement) seems to be following Beth's career closely, and he doesn't like Mick much. We discover at the end that Talbot has a file open on Mick, and Foster's car-crash photos are in it. Hmmm. I have a hard time getting involved in the Talbot storyline, but that's at least in part because I cover Brothers & Sisters, and I'd love for Eric Winter to come back on that show. The longer he's a lawyer on Moonlight, the longer we're denied the Jason/Kevin hotness.
One of the two baby paparazzi vampires looked really familiar to me and took a little while to figure out who it was. It was Martin Spanjers, who used to play Rory on "Eight Simple Rules."
About this episode in particular - I did enjoy it a lot. And I am quite glad that Beth has quit her job at Buzzwire.
What? An episode where the killer wasn't a vampire. hehe
Liked the episode, but felt the middle was a little slow.
Liked the way they showed Mick being a novice in dating a mortal. Seems fitting to keep the romance fresh.
Was it just me, or did it seem Beth was becoming smitten with Josef. Maybe it was just his vampire pharamones (spelling?), but it seemed there was some chemistry there.
The new D.A.s interest in Mick seems like it will make for some interesting storylines. We'll see how it plays out.
The previews almost make it seem like the show will not be renewed. It sounds like these will be the last 2 episodes of Moonlight ever. I hope not.
Shaggysteve -- Well, if you watched Veronica Mars, you know that Jason Dohring pretty much oozes chemistry. He makes the furniture look smitten with him. So I wouldn't read any more into it than if the bedside table started rubbing up against his leg.
I caught the chemistry between Beth and Josef too. I figured it was just me because I'm new to the show, but there was definately something there.
last 2 episodes?? PLEASE NOOOOOOOOO....
I hope this show gets renewed. For being off for so long, they kept their numbers last week, I think.
This was the type of episode they should've come back with. Granted, not this exact episode, but the type of pacing, the storyline, and so forth. I liked this episode. I respectfully disagree with Shaggysteve, I think the middle was fine and well paced. It actually took me awhile to figure out who the killer was (although I should've remembered the old rule about procedurals, never the first one you meet, but always the 2nd or 3rd one).
There was some good banter in this episode. I almost feel like a high school girl in saying this, but in terms of TV couples, Mick and Beth have to be at the top (and it sure doesn't hurt that Sophia Myles is, shall we say, a very attractive gal). The whole sire stuff was funny.
Was there a little bit of foreshadowing at the end, or was it accidental and unintentional? When Beth says, "To Vampires", Mick responds "To Us". That caught my attention, although it could've been regular toasting.
I wish they gave the Jason Dohring character more to do. They need to let us know about his past, they've shown us snippets here and there. There's this dark knight sense to him.
I think they did some good character development at the end, showing Beth willing to do what it takes, showing Josef needing Beth to understand what it takes. I sort of wish Josef had done the dirty work himself, but then again, there had to be a utility why they introduced those two vamps earlier.
Overall, considering all this show has been through, from the futon critic roundly panning it, to the showrunner changes that seem to happen every night, and to the cast turnover before it even began, Moonlight has done a fairly solid job and produced good episodes and good storylines. It's a serial procedural, which is nice, as I like to see some semblance of storylines continued.
I am very curious where the Eric Winter DA character goes. To be honest, I like him here better than I liked him in Brothers and Sisters, although that may be just my overall disappointment with B&S, which I think is going through a sop****re slump in tone, akin to Desperate Housewives sop****re slump. I don't forsee a good endgame for the character. I tend to think he'll probably be forced to make a decision at some point, and that he'll be good enough to keep Mick's history a secret.
Although there is another, more intriguing alternative. I half wonder if Mick would turn the new ADA. That would be very interesting to me.
Wow, so many things cropping to my head, I could type a lot more. Better cut myself off.
Oh ... couple other points.
1) How can the cancel an episode that has done such a good thing for society, particularly when the numbers are solid? It's not as if this was "nuts" (nothing against Jericho, a show I liked, but c'mon giving blood vs. nuts? Giving blood wins each time as a "save the show" method, at least, for me).
2) Endgames, midgames, and so forth - I think I can definitely see a little Josef and Beth action. If they have the 2nd season, I could see a situation where they start working closely together to protect Mick, as Mick expands into the world. Mick gets su****ious and so forth, and after a falling out, Beth starts spending a lot of time with Josef, one thing leads to another, and her knickers are on the floor (always wanted to write that world out somewhere, knickers).
In terms of endgame, I'm not necessarily sure Mick and Beth really should end up together if they have the time. There's something a little eerie about it. Going through a romance, fine. But keep in mind, this was the little girl Shannyn Sossamon (name is slipping me) chose to be their daughter. This was the girl that he's known since he was 4 (which he noted tonight as well, which was a nice touch for the show ... I like the small touches the show does).
Part of me thinks that Mick may be better off as
A) The brooding character that "walks off into the sunset" (or, in Luke Perry's case, bikes away)
or
B) The heroic figure that puts it all on the line to save his friends, only to die himself (makes me think of Jack and Lost as I type this, although Darlton certainly hasn't given me that hope that the story will go that route)
Then again, there's a part of me that thinks that, maybe a good ending is nice after all, and that we should be more accepting of vampires and that Beth and Mick end up together. Albeit, that would only happen if she gets turned, and part of me thinks Mick couldn't do that to her (although hmm ... pondering it, Josef could do it for her, but then again, weirdness ... considering Josef is Mick's stepsire, that would make them stepvamps)
Okay, going overboard. Cutting myself off.
Oh, one more thing ... the whole facebook page was funny as crap. I don't check facebook anymore, does anyone know if there's a real page? That'd be awesome, sort of like what Nip/Tuck did a couple years back.
We for me all the comments above sum it up but I was shocked at Beth asking Josef to take care of the photographer.
SHE is more of a vampire than Mick. I think the chemistry was Josef's appreciation of Beth's willingness to do what it takes to protect them. I know Josef I thought of Mick as a bit of a bleeding heart at times. Josef was looking at Beth like he would a new potential valuable vampire. He knows that Mick can't leave her mortal and have a relationship with her.
She definately knows it and has always shown and told Mick in so many ways she thinks being a vampire is cool. Her ties to humanity are definately slimmer than his ever were before he was turned.
Mick knew this photographer was a problem but didn't go to Josef (I missed a bit in the middle so sorry if Im wrong about Mick knowing)
In finishing Beth had the photographer killed to protect Micks idenity. She also gave up her job at Buzzwire.
Beth Josef action??? I don't know. I think the two of them could forge a very strong vampire relationship which Mick would have a hard time with since he doesn't embrace his. Imagine Beth insisting on fresh blood not bottled.