Meeting Mick

[redwinter101]

It was like catching the eye of a handsome stranger across a crowded room. A moment of thrill and intrigue, a connection established, a desire to learn more. I hadn't fallen in love, yet - that would take a while longer - but I was definitely hooked.

As I watched the first episode of Moonlight (which was aired a little later than September 28 in the UK but I'm going with the flow here) I didn't expect any of what followed. I'd seen the trailers and thought the lead was cute, the premise moderately interesting - but would it be as good as Angel (which I loved)? Good enough to make me a regular watcher? Who knew?

By the end of the first episode, I was definitely intrigued and my interest was all about Mick, hence the title of this thread. For some, it was Josef. For others, the vampire mythos. Others were intrigued by the potential romance. Some enjoyed the procedural. But for me, right from the get-go, it was all Mick. I loved the interview at the beginning (I know a lot of others didn't) because it was different. Here was a show that was trying to do something interesting; that had put time and effort and energy into producing an hour of television that would be memorable and enjoyable and just plain good. They were prepared to give it a shot and that appealed to me. And it was funny ("Ouch") with a lightness that gave it a wonderful balance and made it different from any other vampire show I'd seen. Sure, there were things in the first episode that didn't quite work, but it was good enough (WAY more than good enough) to make me tune in the following week, and reach the point (the final scene of OoTP) when I did honest-to-God fall in love with Mick St. John.

Like most of my fellow Moonlightaholics I had no clue as to how this show and this character would change my life over the following two years: the friends I would make, the discussions I would enjoy, the silliness that could be guaranteed to make me giggle, the wonderful stories I would read and those I would try to tell, the dark side of fandom and those who use others' enthusiasm to their own advantage and the wonders of seeing a group of people come together to stand up for others.

The pain of losing Moonlight is fresh; the delightful memories of the first time I met Mick are, and always will be, enough to make it all worthwhile.

Red

[allegrita]

Oh dear lord, Red--you've gone and made me cry!!!

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Thank you.

[Phoenix]

Um ... what Allegrita said...

[redwinter101]

Oh dear. Not my intention (it never is ).

Hankies all round.

Red

[moonlight_vixen]

Awww red! That is so bittersweet!

[francis]

This is EXACTLY how I felt when viewing Moonlight episode 1, only that I viewed it at youtube having searched for something totally different (I don't remember what, maybe info about Twilight as my pupils were all crazy about that). It must have been November or December 2007. I was mesmerized by the interview, and thinking "How can he give an interview, he must keep it a secret, what world does this play in where vampires can talk so openly?". Then he woke up from his dream or fantasy about telling the secret, and I was instantly hooked. I was lucky that every episode was instantly published on youtube in 5 clips. I caught up on the show immediately. I got nothing done that winter.
I fell in love with Mick when he was huddled in his apartment and told Beth what he was.
I found my first fanboard MLL in January. Joined in June. Wrote my first fanfic in June.


And I'm still in love.

[redwinter101]

Vixen, bittersweet is such a perfect description of the whole Moonlight experience.

francis,

And I'm still in love.

Oh me too. Forever and ever...

Red

[darkstarrising]

You have stated eloquently what I felt as well. Like yourself, I was hooked....but fell in love when a dying vampire said

"At some point, you're going to have to stop me."

and sobbed like a fool as he pulled away emotionally and physically at the end

'Maybe it was her blood in my veins that let me feel her. The beating of her very living heart. Or maybe, we've always been connected. Either way, being near me, puts her in danger. So, it has to stop.'

May it never stop.

[HotMicks]

Oooh, Red, I'm goin' down memory lane again....
I too was drawn in by the interview and some of his snarky answers (BIG surprise there, eh? ). And, of course, I've always wanted to know BOXERS or BRIEFS?

So glad I can still come here to get this out of my system... one of these days...

[PNWgal]

I wasn't so sure the first time I met Mick. I mean, he was cute and all, but...after the first episode, my man and I looked at each other and went "HUH?" Less than perfect special effects (the driving scenes? Just....wow) and some not-so-snappy dialogue didn't really impress us and I wasn't sure I would give it another chance.

My first and foremost interest in the show were the vampires - and I was expected to accept vampires that did things they weren't supposed to do. Vampires in the sun? Come on. Stakes don't kill them? They sleep in FREEZERS?? OOOKAAAAYYYYY....

BUT - I give all new shows three chances to win me over. So I went into episode two with not-so-high hopes. Then we got a glimpse of Mick back in the day and I sat up a little straighter and took a little bit more notice.

Then I got to the end of OotP.

I watched a strong man tremble before a woman he never wanted to show his secret to and fell - head over heels, no questions, no going back, just absolutely stupid - in love with Mick St John. I watched an actor I had never heard of convey more emotion, more pain, more fear in 10 words than other actors have done in pages of dialogue. Over the course of 16 episodes, I fell more in love with a vampire who wanted to be more than a monster, a man who would do what he thought was right no matter what it almost cost him, a man who felt the loss of a friend deeply - a man who would kill and die for the woman he loved. A passionate man who wasn't perfect, but strove to make up for his sins by helping others. I laughed when he poked at Josef, I sighed when he pulled Beth under the shower, and I cried when he refused to Turn Josh and almost lost Beth because of it.

No matter what Alex does in the future, Mick St. John will always have a special place in my heart.

[darkstarrising]

I watched a strong man tremble before a woman he never wanted to show his secret to and fell - head over heels, no questions, no going back, just absolutely stupid - in love with Mick St John. I watched an actor I had never heard of convey more emotion, more pain, more fear in 10 words than other actors have done in pages of dialogue. Over the course of 16 episodes, I fell more in love with a vampire who wanted to be more than a monster, a man who would do what he thought was right no matter what it almost cost him, a man who felt the loss of a friend deeply - a man who would kill and die for the woman he loved. A passionate man who wasn't perfect, but strove to make up for his sins by helping others. I laughed when he poked at Josef, I sighed when he pulled Beth under the shower, and I cried when he refused to Turn Josh and almost lost Beth because of it.

No matter what Alex does in the future, Mick St. John will always have a special place in my heart.

Couldn't have said it better, P'Gal. It was, and is, something special.

[wpgrace]

Red... so poetic. ANd isn't that just what we expect of you!

So different from my experience tho... I saw Mick first in BC... the Terrance at the Morgue scene. I thought this was a Halloween movie... and that this handsome... HANDSOME... man, was a vamp hunter. They were talking about vamps and the two guys, Mick and Terrance, did not look at ALL like the bag o' yuck that Mick had brought into the morgue. So I thought they were hunters... like Buffy.

I missed several scenes until the Beth/Mick seduction scene. In which I FINALLY got that Mick WAS a vamp... tho he didn't LOOK like a vamp. Did not quite get the show... cause I then missed the end of the Mick/Lola fight... kids got home and little one was ascared.... but I DID finally get this was a weekly series...

And this Mick guy? He was too good to forget. I tivo'd for the next week... so my intro wasn't so poetic. But the poetry came... it most assuredly came, week after week, as I got to know all these guys from BC on...

Like you, tho, honey... I cannot get over it... don't really WANT to get over it... which is lucky for me, coz I cannot get over it... tho if you write another fic... it MIGHT help...

[Jo1027]

I didn't meet Mick until The Ringer as I watch very little TV. I usually read on Fridays but decided to tune in to Ghost Whisperer where I saw an ad for Moonlight so I decided to stick around and check it out.
I loved the opening scene with Mick doing crunches upside down and turning around to look at the fire. When he walked to the fire in his long coat I was intrigued by his walk and the swish of his coat. Mick saying "there is a reason I never expected to see her again, I killed her" I had to stay around and find out why.
After the episode was over, I went online and checked out the previous episodes and I was a goner. I love every episode for something that touched me. The big reveal at the end of OOTP and the pain Alex conveyed there touched me.
I loved the end of Fever where Mick and Beth are separated by the door and they can feel each other.
In my opinion, Alex can convey so much emotion with so few lines. So I became an Alex fan as well as a Mick fan.
I fell in love with Mick St John and he still lives in my heart. Probably always will. Moonlight is my favorite show of all time.
I'm so happy that I decided to watch TV that night as it introduced to me Moonlight and Mick.

[mitzie]

I really loved that fantasy interview scene with Mick!!!! I kept telling myself, no, no I can't let myself fall in love with Mick or this show, I just don't do those kinds of things!!!! I will always be in love with Mick and Josef and all the others in Moonlight. Thank you, Red!!!!


mitzie

[nutmegger911]

How true, Red. How very, very true.