Recovering vampire Nick Knight (Geraint Wyn Davies) has spent the past 800 years, off and on, drinking human blood. Feeling guilty he becomes a cop on the mean streets of Toronto who only works at night (Because...y'know...Days are bad for him). His search to right wrongs and redeem himself, whilst keeping his addiction in check, brings him to track a serial killer of young women who attend mass at a popular Catholic church.
After three such women are dead, a fourth, Magda (Maria Del Mar) is tormented when the religious fanatic killer calls her at work. Magda is a form of call-centre customer service rep who helps lonely men (I'll put it that way). She is then attacked in the hallway of her loft. Knight - using his vampire powers miraculously shows up and saves her. The prospective victim is proactive and has also seen far too many American TV cop shows (Probably Hunter) eagerly offering to set herself up as bait to trap the killer.
A prime suspect in the grisly slayings is the young priest Father Pierre Rochefort (Michael McManus) whose flock it is. How judgmental is he about the lives of those he is preaching to? Why was he in the alleyway outside Magda's apartment after she was attacked?
For audiences a game on this show was not just guessing who the killer was, or the motive of the crime, but rather which one of the guest stars is a vampire. Michael McManus's best characterizations are ones which depict internalized conflict. The character name is also a classic French name in use throughout much of French history. Could he have hundreds of years of memories behind that brooding visage? Or is it the weight of his faith?
Nick renews acquaintances with Toronto's vampire scene including his ex Janette (Deborah Duchene) who owns the Raven - Toronto's most popular vampire club, looking to get a bead on things. Nick's partner Detective Don Schanke (John Kapelos) goes to the club too entirely against Knight's instructions. Schanke meets a particularly predatory vampire in the beguiling form of Alma (Tracey Cook) and escapes her advances. He is warned off by words from Janette which, since he doesn't believe in vampires, he interprets as Alma having a form of infection.
Some of the fun of this program was in how it sent up cop show cliches. The cop fighting alcoholism? How about one fighting an addiction to human blood? We see him popping garlic pills like they're methadone and trying to build up a tolerance for crucifixes. Geraint Wyn Davies goes tour de force in conveying it as do the other actors portraying vampires who are grossed out by his new habits.
Tracey Cook's turn as Alma serves as placeholder for what the character LaCroix (Nigel Bennett) played in the series. LaCroix, Alma and other vampire characters like them interpret the concept of vampire in the way it should be interpreted. They are users who prey upon human weakness in a way that at least one of them - our hero, becomes sickened by. They, themselves began life as humans but had such little regard for others as to choose eternity preying upon them.
The theme of religious zealotry is compared with Nick's days from the Hundred Years war in which he attempted to save Joan of Arc (Christina Cox) by offering to turn her into a vampire. The viewer can see superficial parallels with the Magda character - another woman with more faith than fear. But the real parallels are to be found with Nick. Joan of Arc made a different choice than he did (And was posthumously canonized for it). It entirely revolted him at the time. But he revisits it in his memory and sees it differently.
After three such women are dead, a fourth, Magda (Maria Del Mar) is tormented when the religious fanatic killer calls her at work. Magda is a form of call-centre customer service rep who helps lonely men (I'll put it that way). She is then attacked in the hallway of her loft. Knight - using his vampire powers miraculously shows up and saves her. The prospective victim is proactive and has also seen far too many American TV cop shows (Probably Hunter) eagerly offering to set herself up as bait to trap the killer.
A prime suspect in the grisly slayings is the young priest Father Pierre Rochefort (Michael McManus) whose flock it is. How judgmental is he about the lives of those he is preaching to? Why was he in the alleyway outside Magda's apartment after she was attacked?
For audiences a game on this show was not just guessing who the killer was, or the motive of the crime, but rather which one of the guest stars is a vampire. Michael McManus's best characterizations are ones which depict internalized conflict. The character name is also a classic French name in use throughout much of French history. Could he have hundreds of years of memories behind that brooding visage? Or is it the weight of his faith?
Nick renews acquaintances with Toronto's vampire scene including his ex Janette (Deborah Duchene) who owns the Raven - Toronto's most popular vampire club, looking to get a bead on things. Nick's partner Detective Don Schanke (John Kapelos) goes to the club too entirely against Knight's instructions. Schanke meets a particularly predatory vampire in the beguiling form of Alma (Tracey Cook) and escapes her advances. He is warned off by words from Janette which, since he doesn't believe in vampires, he interprets as Alma having a form of infection.
Some of the fun of this program was in how it sent up cop show cliches. The cop fighting alcoholism? How about one fighting an addiction to human blood? We see him popping garlic pills like they're methadone and trying to build up a tolerance for crucifixes. Geraint Wyn Davies goes tour de force in conveying it as do the other actors portraying vampires who are grossed out by his new habits.
Tracey Cook's turn as Alma serves as placeholder for what the character LaCroix (Nigel Bennett) played in the series. LaCroix, Alma and other vampire characters like them interpret the concept of vampire in the way it should be interpreted. They are users who prey upon human weakness in a way that at least one of them - our hero, becomes sickened by. They, themselves began life as humans but had such little regard for others as to choose eternity preying upon them.
The theme of religious zealotry is compared with Nick's days from the Hundred Years war in which he attempted to save Joan of Arc (Christina Cox) by offering to turn her into a vampire. The viewer can see superficial parallels with the Magda character - another woman with more faith than fear. But the real parallels are to be found with Nick. Joan of Arc made a different choice than he did (And was posthumously canonized for it). It entirely revolted him at the time. But he revisits it in his memory and sees it differently.
