Lifetime debuted a new series this last Sunday called Blood Ties, based on a series of books by Tanya Huff. Tanya’s a well known scifi/fantasy writer, who lives with her partner Fiona Patton in Canada. The main character of the story, Vicki Nelson, is a former police detective, turned private investigator after deteriorating eyesight sidelines her from the force. She’s also in a bit of a love triangle with her former partner and a guy she meets on the premiere episode case, who turns out to be a vampire, Henry Fitzroy, 500 year old bastard son of Henry the 8th. She teams up with him to stop a series of demon killings. Episode 2, next Sunday, involves zombies.
Tanya Huff’s books are great, and the premiere episode was reasonably well done. Henry is freakin beautiful, a decent actor, and has several shirtless scenes which were deeply appreciated by this reviewer. Amusingly, in the novels, Henry is a romance writer by profession, obviously a bit of a joke for the reader. In the series, they’ve made him a comic book artist! :-) I’m guessing the series will follow the pattern of the book, with a different kind of monster every week (demons, zombies, frankensteins, religious fundamentalists, etc.).
If they really follow the books, they’ll bring in a gay street kid, Tony, who becomes Henry’s other part-time blood donor / love interest—and who eventually stars in Tanya’s spin off series, Smoke and Shadows. I’m guessing though that if they bring Tony in, it will just be as a blood donor and occasional accomplice. The ladies on Lifetime won’t want anyone getting between Henry and Vicki.
As I say, the first episode was decent; I recommend giving it a try. It’s Sunday’s at around 10pm EDT.
