Luxe de Luxe wrote:I also like the darker Mick -- gotta love some of that in a vamp series -- but his dispatch of Coraline seemed altogether way too perfunctory for the love of his life. Dumping her in the fireplace?! Tacky. On the other hand, his treatment of the vampguard was just perfect.
BTW -- I had a strange response seeing Mick in the pilot for the first time. I was distracted by the moles on his face. Has he had these removed??
Ah, I was distracted by the moles too! I wonder if he's had them bleached or something because I don't seem to notice them now and had actually forgotten he had them once. It's an interesting question isn't it?
I'm not sure Coraline qualified as 'the love of his life' in this story at all. It's hard to tell from this snippet of plotline, but the overwhelming feeling I got from this was that Beth was the love of his (un)life and that Coraline was less than a blip on his radar. His ruthless dispatch of her in the fireplace seemed to mean no more to him than his killing of the guard outside. Just another problem to be overcome. Of course, there may have been layers added to that as the series unfolded, but from this presentation that was the feeling I got.
As for the pilot presentation itself - I really, really enjoyed it! I was surprised by how much I liked this Beth, and unlike some of you, I really thought she and Alex had some good chemistry happening. I also liked the older vampire as mentor for Mick and would have been interested to see what they did to his character. He definitely seemed to have a fondness for Mick and I didn't feel he was betraying Mick, and yet he was apparently keeping secrets from him. It was also clear he truly loved Coraline. I would liked to have seen that storyline play out. The actress who played her, Amber Valletta, was atrocious though, and not beautiful at all. I find that really odd because she was quite decent looking in Hitch and not a bad actor either. I think she's a natural blonde and perhaps being brunette is what made her so unattractive in this. Don't know what made her act so badly though. She was dreadful. I did love that turning scene though. I had seen that before, and always loved the way it illustrated Mick's human weakness in the beginning, where you hear Coraline slap her hands down on his defenceless body, you see the fear in his eyes as he sees her fangs descend (so different to the scene we got in ML where he shuts his eyes in the throes of passion and doesn't see it coming) and his being powerless to stop her. Then, juxtaposed against that, we see him wake up and fling Coraline right out of the bathroom in a rage at what she's done, positions completely reversed. I really liked that. (I also really, really liked the hand gliding up her leg when they were on the bed, barely touching her skin. Gave me squee-ly shivers it did.
)
One of the things that annoyed me about our ML was the way the behaviour changed uncharacteristically sometimes, presumably because of the revolving door of show runners having different creative visions. During the course of 16 episodes we had Mick wax and wane over Coraline, eventually losing all interest in her in a really disappointing plot dropping exercise, and what I really appreciated in this rendering of the show was the lack of ambivalence Mick had towards Coraline. When he tossed her in that fireplace she was less than zero to him. It was quite startling after knowing Mick's attitude to her during the course of our show. I actually liked this hard edge to Mick, especially when it was so obvious that he was completely vulnerable when it came to Beth. Likewise, I liked that Coraline was still caught up in Mick, despite his treating her so callously all those years ago, and that treatment causing her to still bear scars. Was that little cry at the end when she saw him and Beth hug because she still loved him, or because she didn't want to see him happy? I would liked to have seen that play out.
I liked this Carl Davis too and thought he had really good chemistry with Beth. The always promised steak dinners was cute I thought.
I liked that it was set in NY and I liked the grittier feel and the harsher looking vamps, although I agree it was an ugly look. Really liked seeing the veins begin to show in Coraline's face when she knew it was going to come down to a fight with Mick over baby Beth. I also liked the extra powers, and the idea that Mick couldn't bear to erase Beth's memory was a beautiful idea.
I always adored the hug that Mick and Beth shared at the end of NSTAV - the way he just melts into her. But I actually liked the hug in this as well, although it was stiff and painful and completely different. He really
did act like a man who hadn't touched another living soul for 60 years. It just highlighted the uncharacteristic way Mick had allowed himself to be won over by Beth, who he clearly loved for a long time from afar. In the beginning of the pilot she made him nervous simply making eye contact, and by the end he had virtually told her who and what he was because he so badly wanted to be with her. I thought this version made that more apparent than our ML did.
Finally, Alex was pitch perfect as Mick. I liked that he was less slick and well groomed, and I liked his complete air of indecisiveness around Beth. All in all, there isn't much about this I
didn't like! I loved everything about the ML we got, and seeing this doesn't change that, but I know I would have loved this just as much if this was the show we got instead. Which probably proves that for me it's all about Mick, and everything else is just gravy.
are kinda... dorky. Well, not counting the batcoat, for which we have Joel Silver to thank. I did love the frost inside the freezer, and I'd have loved to see more of that, but I assume it was a bitch to do for a very small amount of airtime... so I'm not surprised that it went away.
