Blood Ties: The Complete Season One
by James Dunnison, James Head, David Winning, Allan Kroeker, Andy Mikita
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DVD details
Actor: Christina Cox, Dylan Neal, Françoise Yip, Gina Holden, Kyle SchmidDirector: Allan Kroeker, Andy Mikita, David Winning, James Dunnison, James Head
Brand: Universal Studios
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 615 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-06-02
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: EM351109
Studio: Vivendi Entertainment
Product features:
- BLOOD TIES: SEASON 1 (DVD MOVIE)
DVD Reviews of Blood Ties: The Complete Season One
DVD Review: An entertaining vampire TV series that didn't have the wow factor I was hoping for...
Summary: 3 Stars
Throughout the 1980's, Canadian fantasy author Tanya Huff was known for creating the "Quarters" and "Wizard Crystal" series. But in the 1990's, she released books known as "The Blood books" about a detective named Vicki Nelson who teams up with a vampire to take on cases that are often supernatural.
Huff created a total of five books plus a short story collection and in 2007, her books were adapted into a television series by Peter Mohan in Canada and aired on Lifetime Television and Citytv and Space in Canada. The first season is now available on DVD.
The characters of Blood Ties are as follows:
Victoria "Vicki" Nelson (Christina Cox) - A former police officer who is now a private investigator who was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (she is slowly going blind). She was given an opportunity to work a desk job but declined. She has left her job and her former boyfriend (Detective Mike Celluci) behind in order to pursue her career as an investigator. But things change when she starts discovering grizzly murders and after an encounter with a vampire named Henry Fitzroy, who she ends up partnering and even having an interest in.
Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid) - The legitimate heir to Henry VIII's throne but chose to love a woman named Christina and sacrificed his life for her and became a vampire. Several hundred years later, he has made a life as a graphic novelist in Toronto and has taken an interest towards Vicki.
Detective Mike Celluci (Dylan Neal) - Vicki's former partner at the police force but also her former lover. Mike's relationship with Vicki has not been the same since she quit. But with these new murders in the city and her investigating, he finds himself closer to her but at the same time having some sort of suspicion about Henry.
Coreen Fennel (Gina Holden) - A goth like college student with knowledge of the occult who has been trying to find out who killed her boyfriend. During the night of the murder, her boyfriend described what could be vampire and the first person she goes to for help is Investigator Vicki Nelson.
Included on the box set are a total of four DVD's which contain a total of 13 episodes. Included are:
1. Episode 1 - Blood Price - Part One - Vicki is a private investigator hired by Coreen to find out who killed her boyfriend. Through the process, she realizes that the murders in town may not be human, probably supernatural and confirms her suspicion when she encounters the vampire Henry Fitzroy.
2. Episode 2 - Blood Price - Part Two - Coreen has been kidnapped by her boyfriend's killer and now Vicki and her vampire partner Henry must save her.
3. Episode 3 - Bad Juju - Vicki has been hired by a client who practices voodoo who wants to find out what happened to her brother. Meanwhile, she is being hunted by a zombie. Vicki asks Henry for his help.
4. Episode 4 - Gifted - Mike has his suspicions about Henry Fitzroy and Vicki encounters a girl who has telekinetic powers that controls a demon.
5. Episode 5 - Deadly Departed - A witch and a vengeful spirit have targeted Vicki and Mike.
6. Episode 6 - Love Hurts - A man hires Vicki to find out if his wife has been cheating on him but while she investigates, the wife is found dead. Who is the culprit?
7. Episode 7 - Heart of Ice - The homeless have gone missing and Vicki tries to investigate their disappearance. Meanwhile, Mike is investigating a prostitute who has been drained of her blood and suspects Henry.
8. Episode 8 - Heart of Fire - Vicki and Mike must get to Henry who has been held hostage.
9. Episode 9 - Stone Cold - Vicki and Henry confront Medusa.
10. Episode 10 - Necrodome - Diesel Swanson, a professional boxer has gone missing. But something is awry when Diesel is seen on video walking out of the funeral home.
11. Episode 11 - Post Partum - Vicki investigates a man's wife who has isolated herself inside a clinic.
12. Episode 12 - Norman - Norman has returned from hell and attempts to revive his demon master.
13. Episode 13 - D.O.A. - Vicki is visited by a co-worker from the police force who is dead and needs her help but perhaps this person is not what he claims to be.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
"BLOOD TIES" is a series that is primarily shot indoors or the outdoors during the middle of the night. The good news is that the series is clean even during low light conditions. Most television series tend to exhibit low-light noise and can look quite terrible at times on DVD.
For "BLOOD TIES", for the most part, the picture quality is featured in Standard Definition (4:3) and looks good. I saw no major DVD compression artifacting. But the series showcases dark colors and rarely do you see vibrant colors (well, reds and blues come out clear during the police sirens or the city lights utilizing stock video of the city of Toronto). But for a television series, the picture quality is very good for a series shot mainly during the night and low-light conditions.
Audio is featured in Dolby Digital Stereo and dialogue is heard clearly. The series does have action scenes but for the most part, the film is dialogue driven.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
"BLOOD TIES - SEASON ONE" comes with the following special features:
* SPACE Behind the Scenes - Blood Ties - (24:02) A featurette featuring the cast talking about the series and their characters.
* Trailer - (2:43) The original trailer for "BLOOD TIES".
JUDGMENT CALL:
Overall, "BLOOD TIES" was an entertaining series. I've never read the original books but with my enjoyment of vampire/supernatural shows, I figured that this series would be quite exciting to watch.
With the romance factor being explored between vampires and humans with a film like "Twilight" and a TV series like "True Blood", I have been wanting something along the lines of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" or "Angel".
I enjoyed the darkness of the series and its characters and how each case was significantly different (ie. like Angel) but I suppose where "Angel" worked was within its characters and how entertaining those characters were in a humorous type of way.
"BLOOD TIES" showcases former police officers who are focused on doing their jobs, whereas in "Angel", the characters had their fault, their quirks but most importantly a charm of how they would react towards various situations.
The formula for the first season of "BLOOD TIES" was too safe. You have Vicki as the Gung-ho investigator who takes on any case. And if that case is too much for her, her vampire friend Henry must help and protect her. Meanwhile, her former lover at the PD must also help her but is concerned about the new man that Vicki has been spending time with. Thus the beginning of a love triangle and they all must put away their differences and work together.
I felt that this good girl/bad boy routine between Vicki and Henry was played too safely. Even the season finale, I was expecting that maybe there would be some wild twist. Expecting some sort of cliffhanger and perhaps maybe I was spoiled by the two Joss Whedon series that a vampire and human can never be together.
Something explored on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and also on "Twilight" but was hoping would happen on "BLOOD TIES" are the repercussions of a human and vampire working together. Perhaps something would happen to Henry and maybe he would attack Vicki or Mike and lose control. I just wanted some type of consequence and although the cases remained the same, it seemed as if each week, the same usual things were being played out with reptition.
As far as the episodes go, they are entertaining and some episodes are nice, dark and are filled with action. I definitely want to know more about what the marks are on Vicki's wrists and what is going to happen with her character with her eye sight problem and her love triangle that she currently is in. And of course, I'm sure we will have more of crazy character Norman in future episodes.
With a good number of vampire based shows on television and with the series being shown on Lifetime, I think that "BLOOD TIES" somehow was lost in the shuffle and unfortunately, the series was canceled after the first season in the US, while our Canadian and UK counterparts have enjoyed the second season.
I often wonder after watching this first season, that perhaps the series evolves to something different with season 2. Perhaps more additional characters and more dramatic situations and even a grave threat, especially whatever ties into the mysteries that were left with the viewer after this first season.
I feel that there is so much story (and potential) from these books the series is based on, that have yet to be told, and that the first season is just more about character development for now. Perhaps that there are some more intense situations that would be addressed. And if so, I can only hope that season 2 gets an American release on DVD.
Overall, I felt that the series was entertaining but for this first season alone, it was a good start but it was average at best.
Description of Blood Ties: The Complete Season One
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