Forever Knight

This show was filmed in Canada, originally airing in 1992. There were four seasons. Forever Knight is a law enforcement drama that focuses on a vampire's attempt to regain his humanity and repay the mortal world for centuries of evil.

Characters

The title character is Nick Knight, a vampire who was "turned" in 1282 AD. He is a homocide detective, working with Donald Schanke (pronounced skanky). They work closely with Natalie Lambert, a forensic examiner. Natalie has discovered Nick's vampiric secret, and works on "cures" for his dark curse. Along with these human companions, Lacroix recurrs as Nick's estranged sire, and Janette stars as his gothic sibling.

Location

Toronto, Canada. Most of the action takes place in the police headquarters, nick's styling studio apartment, a gothic club called "Raven", and sundry contemporary crime scenes.

Critique

This show has a lot of ugly actors in it, and the attractive characters -- Janette and Nick -- often have something uncool going on. Most notably, Nick often has some scraggly looking facial hair that makes him look more homeless (although he is always meticulously dressed). In general, this show has a very high -- and unnecessary -- ugliness factor.

Special effects are pretty scrawny, and the vampire effects are badly over-acted. I have the distinct impression that a director was worried that the fangs would be too subtle, and grossly over-compensated.

The plots are slow and dramatic. Every episode contains extensive flashbacks to Nick's vampire past. In many ways, it is sweeping and epic. In other ways, it is plodding and predictable. The focus seems to be on "social issues", and there is a lot of (verly liberal) social commentary. Naturally, this prevents the show from aging very well, although it makes for easy writing.

Overall, I like the show, in spite of my criticisms. It is clearly a low-budget show, but it is easy to sympathize with the characters, and participate in their world. I wouldn't recommend "sitting down and watching this". It's more like "background" material.