Good season, bad features
This is it, the final season...
and they finally explore the
supernatural.....somewhat.
My opinions on what a vampire
show should be may be biased
from having watched Angel 1st.
Still, even after not having loved
the 1st season of Forever Knight,
I kept watching through 3 seasons.
I still feel Angel is the better and
stronger show. But it's somewhat
unfair to compare them, as Angel
had other shows to build upon,
and Forever Knight was the 1st
vampire show.
This season has past life
regression, vampires getting
sick, ubervamps, & even
non human vampires.
They should have started the
series with these cool ideas.
It even delves deeper into a
vampire becoming human again,
which is one of the most important
aspects of the show.
The season starts off feeling
there's a big gap between season
2 and now. This does happen on
TV shows, but it seems chesier
here. Perhaps cause multiple
cast members are gone.
His partner, Don Skanke is
gone, yay, and he has a female
partner named Tracy. Fortunately,
she turns out to be a more
capable cop than Skanke ever
was.
I don't know why they changed
precint captains again, but they
did. At 1st the guy has the feel
of a cheesy cliche cop show,
but grows into the role.
It probably speaks more to the
bad show production and poor
directing than the actor.
It starts with a 2 part episode,
which is a cool thing to do.
The episode could be stronger,
but it was good finally seeing
Nick not save the day by himself.
There are other vampires, which
his new partner meets 1. Then
he pretends he doesn't know
Nick is a vampire also and
pretends to hypnotize Nick
who plays along.
That felt confusing as a vampire
would obviously sense another
vampire, but they didn't explain
all that in the episode.
And while it feels lame in the
moment it sets up great tension
between Nick and his new partner.
She knows about vampires &
doesn't tell him, all the while he
keeps what is virtually the same
secret from her.
But they never talk about it, so
it's a bit lame.
However, it detracts from it being
his show. It often feels split time
between 2 cops.
Episode 3 reverted to a mediocre
cop story, so the season isn't all
cool supernatural stuff. But the
flashbacks were a perfect
representation of it. LaCroix
haunted Nick perfectly, neither
helping nor hindering his
prodigal son.
The Janette is gone. While it feels
weird and lame that she just left,
it's better not to have Nick spending
time with her. (And she does
eventually return to explain.)
The last 2 seasons felt wrong
that he never detached himself
from his vamp sister and former
lover as revealed they spent almost
a century living together.
Her gone allows Nick to focus on
Natalie as his love interest.
However, she seems to reject him
as a human-vampire relationship
has complex issues, then on a
later episode it's revealed they
are together intimately. Which
shows lack of episode cohesion.
Then there's Lacroix now
running the club for Janette, even
still doing his nighttime talkshow
from there; which isn't as haunting
or profound as the last season.
At least Tracy turns off the radio.
20 episodes in, I realized LaCroix
has become the new Skanke, the
character you wish would go away.
The episodes are mostly better,
however I feel it's still sloppy
writing. They usually ignore the
police work for the supernatural
or vice versa.
1 episode was a lame wrestling
investigation. They inserted Nick's
blood as a supernatural aspect.
The flashbacks represented the
current story, but felt dragged out.
At the pinnacle of the season,
episode 19, instead of working on
a great end to the show, they use
a lame racist generic villian.
Episodes 20 & 21 are really strong.
But 22, the finale is much weaker.
It has a lame generic cop show
villian. Too heavily relying on
flashbacks.
However, with that being said,
the final moment does at least
end the show much better than
the producers of Angel gave
their fans.
The question for me becomes
is a great show with a terrible
ending better? Or is a mediocre
show that has closure better?
If from day 1 I had known Angel
would have crappy ending with
no closure, I probably would have
decided not to get involved with it.
So I will honestly say that if you
haven't watched either show, watch
Forever Knight 1st or instead of
Angel.
The ending of Angel leaves people
mad & bummed out. While the
end of Forever Knight will leave
you sad, it is at least...closure
and fitting.
As for the DVD the chapters are
decent, allowing you to skip the
opening credits. There are again
thumbnails for each episode but
they don't have the annoying glow
when highlighted.
I wish they had put all the episodes
on 1 page, but it's still better than
last season.
Unfortunately there are no
special features except some
music videos. Well... at least
it's something.
But the videos are poorly edited,
switching pictures too fast too often.
My low rating reflects the DVD
and lack of features.
Verified purchase: YesCondition: New