Fall TV preview: Moonlight, coming to CBS

Somewhere in the dark shadows of the city a vampire is lurking, waiting to attack his prey. Lucky for us this vampire is not waiting for an innocent, young snack, he’s waiting for one of the bad guys.

CBS’s new one hour drama “Moonlight” follows the professional and personal life of Mick St. John, a relatively young vampire at the age of 90 (he doesn’t look a day over 30), who has turned his back on the traditional vampire lifestyle of kill-to-eat. Instead St. John, who was turned into a vampire by his wife on their honeymoon, has become a private investigator who fights the evil that lurks in the shadows at night. He’s one of the good guys, a vampire with a soul, if you will.

If you are having an overwhelming sense of deja vu, don’t worry, you are not alone. This new show bares more than a passing resemblance to 1989’s “Forever Knight” and 1999’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off “Angel”. The general premise of the two shows is practical identical – a vampire turned good who works as a private eye trying to stop other vampires and bad guys. Fans of “Angel” will see other similarities such as the hero having a supplier to get his blood without feeding off humans and his falling in love with a human woman, but “Moonlight” isn’t a direct copy of the older shows and it’s the original aspects that might make it appealing to a wider group of viewers.

The creators of “Moonlight” have chosen to do away with many of the mythological rules that have governed vampire stories since Dracula first stalked the night. Mick cannot be killed by wooden stakes, he doesn’t shy away from crosses or garlic and he won’t burst into flame if he’s hit by sunlight. Even Mick’s best friend, fellow vampire Josef, holds down a steady job as a hedge fund trader during the day even though he is a more traditional blood sucking fiend by night. It is the choice to turn the vampires from demons into deviants that will move the show away from the Sci-Fi / Fantasy fans and towards a more mainstream audience.

There are quite a few hurdles “Moonlight” is going to have to overcome to survive it’s crucial first season. There are no big name actors starring in the new show to draw in viewers and it has been saddled with a tough Friday night time slot. Whether “Moonlight” will be able dig in and claim an audience is debatable. It is not treading on uncharted ground and success may depend on it’s ability to succeed where it’s predecessors, namely “Angel” and “Forever Knight”, have failed by grabbing the attention of viewers who normally breeze past any show dealing with the supernatural.