Premiere Watch '07: Moonlight

I didn't really know what to expect from the Moonlight pilot since it sounds like they've been reworking it until very recently. I've never been a big vampire show fan. I did like the very few episodes of Angel I've seen, but I think that was primarily because David Boreanaz is cute. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by Moonlight. I guess it's not the best show ever, but I was entertained and I think it could turn into something pretty cool. It's definitely better than NBC's Friday night offering of Las Vegas.

First things first, it was nice to have Jason Dohring back. It seemed like his Moonlight character was basically Logan Echolls as a 400-year-old vampire, and that's fine with me. So now we know that there are apparently at least two ways to become the "obligatory psychotic jackass":

• a) being the abused son of a famous movie star, or
• b) being a 400-year-old rich vampire.

Interesting how that works out. I thought it was impressive that although Logan was only in about 10 minutes of the episode, he got about 85% of all the good one-liners. That's Logan for you. My favorites were:

• "You're only 90; you haven't been chased through the streets with torches."
• "What is this, like nonfat soy vegan blood?"
• "Now we got the food mouthing off about the farmer."

And, I loved that in addition to giving Jason Dohring another job, the Moonlight people gave Veronica Mars fans a shout-out by having the murdered girl be a student at Hearst College, which is none other than the college of choice for Veronica, Logan, Mac, Wallace, and Piz. But, seriously, how messed up is this poor fictional college? First there were the rapes, than the murder of the dean, and now the vampire-esque murders of two students? Geez. Stay the heck away from this school, people! And especially its teaching assistants, who as it turned out were behind the dean's murder and the murder of the two girls! (Seriously, how great would it have been if Mick had run across a certain tiny blond P.I. also investigating the murders?)

Another thing I loved about Moonlight, as the hardcore Alias fan that I am, was the appearance of Marshall Flinkman as Beth's camera guy! Yea for Marshall! I had just wondering when and where he'd show up again. Now Moonlight just has to increase his role a bit. Heck, let's recenter the show around Marshall and Logan. That would be hilarious.

Otherwise, Mick (Alex O'Loughlin) was easy on the eyes and did a pretty good job as the broody hero. I was left a bit confused though about whether Beth is Mick's love interest or like a surrogate daughter. Because if she's both, that's pretty gross. And I don't see how she could have witnessed that epic vampire-on-vampire battle and doesn't really seem to remember it. Seriously, she of all people should know vampires exist.

And I could live without the Celine Dion and Evanescence...although I guess I should just be thankful that they didn't use "Young Folks" too.

Premiere Rating: 6.5 / 10