Ultraviolet Review by Michael Lee

I don't watch a lot of the Sci-Fi Channel, but I had heard fantastic things about Ultraviolet for years through my friends and contacts in Doctor Who fandom. Literally described as the best British telefantasy series of the 1990s, I knew that it was a must watch.

It is immediately obvious to compare it with two of the most significant American series of the past decade, The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It is definitely more X-Files than Buffy; but even more so -- it's more like a traditional cop drama than either of those two are (including X-Files). Where Buffy is about the challenges of becoming an adult, UltraViolet is more about fear, and how there are circumstances that you might become just as bad (or worse) than your enemy when you address those fears.

I've got money that the producers of Buffy watched this series when it was originally aired in Britain in 1998 though -- the Initiative of Buffy's fourth season is very similar to the Squad. But there are all sorts of subtle things that make it clear that they've thought this through -- garlic-gas to knock them out, carbon bullets, and the ultraviolet of the series title to reveal bites.

They manage to avoid many of the cliches of making vampires overly romantic figures but still manage to make them sympathetic -- but more by making the so-called "heroes" of the story have a dark, cynical, dangerous edge to them.

By making the "leeches" not the amoral soulless killers of other series -- they rarely kill their prey, the people most likely to kill are other vampire hunters. It's the dilemma of the whole series -- who is undead and lost their souls -- the Vampires or the Vampire Hunters?

The third and fourth episodes -- those that aired on the second night -- were two of the most riveting hours of television I've ever seen. This was a vampire series brave enough to touch -- back to back -- both the abortion issue and child abuse, but also to put some spins on them that made you think about everything involved, throwing constant surprises in the way.

But then the final two episodes throw it all up in the air, bringing religion, faith, and ethical dilemmas all together. Not since Babylon 5 have I seen a series dwell on the spiritual and soul issues like this series

It's also nice to see that they had the vampires consider science as much as humans would -- in fact, one would think that an old vampire would have such a backlog of experience that they could be even more dangerous in what they could learn, where Vampires seem to never know more.

One of the reasons why I'm skeptical about the US remake that is scheduled for FOX is that I'm not sure if one could make a full seasons worth of episodes around the concept without introducing other elements -- just like how Buffy has moved beyond just going after Vampires, and also how the X-Files tells so many stories that have nothing to do with aliens. But I find the limited alteration of our "real world" to be one of the more appealing elements of UltraViolet; adding loads of additional fantasy elements would be distracting.

If you missed this series, you definitely missed out. You might think that after the endless vampire books, movies, and tv series that there wouldn't be anything quite as fresh. This is the best six episodes of televison I've seen this year.

It's also a tribute to the Sci Fi channel that they'd import this fine British series -- American networks should make a point of picking up more unique imports. We've had a good summer of British imports, with both UltraViolet and Comedy Central's wonderfully bizarre League of Gentlemen. I'd also encourage them to consider something like Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), which I haven't seen but aired recently in England and has an appearance by Doctor Who's Tom Baker. But UltraViolet, in particular, is the sort of unique, refereshing, influencial programming that I like from British TV.

Views Home New Video Picks: Films for fans. (08/01/2000) MISFITS at Diversicon: How did all of those pillows get there? 07/31/2000 New Video Picks: New ones at last (07/24/2000) CONvergence 2000: Michael Lee's pictures and thoughts. (07/18/2000) The X-Men: The Children of the Atom get more than one review, bub. (07/16/2000)

Ultraviolet

Five out of Five Beakers

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Michael Lee stepped into the MISFITS Website and vanished .... He woke to find himself trapped on the Internet, facing pages that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change the MISFITS Website for the better. His only guide on this journey is Professor Maxwell Misfittle, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Mike can see and hear. And so Mr. Lee finds himself leaping from site to site, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home. Michael previously shared his CONvergence 2000 pictures.

This is the best six episodes of televison I've seen this year.