Entries tagged with rewatch

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random lunchtime FK observation on favorite season

Last week, I rewatched "Black Buddha," both parts, to check some canon. The episodes made me sad. The dialogue was thin. The themes were thin. The plots shed loose threads. The tone was -- albeit unintentionally! but from this end of history -- helpless, hopeless, foredoomed.

Then, on the weekend, I rewatched a handful of first season episodes, and they made me happy. "Dying to Know You." "False Witness." "Cherry Blossoms." "Hunters." The dialogue and themes were rich. The plots built up. The tone was full of energy and hope and possibility. They sparkled, bigger on the inside, in a way few series to this day can even approach.

To each her own, but first season FK is definitely a very good place for me, personally.

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/231668.html

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Rewatch: S1E10 "Dead Air" (September 22, 1992) by Alison Bingeman

"Dead Air" is often remembered more for its guest stars than its content. But the episode showcases certain elements of investigative technology of the day. It has first-season's wry humor. And it is rich in thematic reflections on attachment and betrayal, fidelity and independence, guilt and forgiveness, and the ability to start over.

Recap: This is the episode in which an escapee from a psychiatric hospital twice, while on the air with a radio call-in show, murders women because of unresolved issues with his mother. In flashbacks, Lacroix tortures and murders a man, with dialogue implying unresolved issues with his father. Schanke discovers the perpetrator in the hospital's files; Nick saves the radio host. In the end, the radio host leaves what she sees as degrading entertainment and returns to clinical practice.

( some thoughts on DA )

What do you think?

Next: S1E11 "Hunters" (one of the few episodes with no standard abbreviation on ForKni-L)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/230828.html

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Rewatch: S1E09 "I Will Repay" (September 15, 1992) by Brad Wright

"I Will Repay" overflows with noteworthy content to the point that it's awkward to discuss. Every scene — almost every line — merits examination. We rely on this episode; it pervades fanfic. IWR underpins our collective understanding of Natalie. It marks a boundary of our consensus on physical FK vampirism. It cross-references other episodes! Most of all, IWR exposes the jaggedness of the no-man's-land between vampirism and humanity, vengeance and justice, anger and forgiveness, where Nick endures.

Recap: This is the episode in which Crown Attorney Richard Lambert, Natalie's brother, gets shot. Natalie persuades a reluctant Nick to convert the dying Richard to vampirism. Nick consults Janette, and remembers Elizabeth, a woman he converted to save her life, but whom he later killed when she murdered humans. As a vampire, Richard becomes a vigilante spree killer, including of the vile kingpin whose prosecution failed with Richard's apparent death, and of the witness who'd attempted to deal for protection. Nick and Richard fight. Richard is killed.

( some thoughts on IWR )

What do you think?

Next: S1E10: "Dead Air" (DA)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/229127.html

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Rewatch: S1E08 "Cherry Blossoms" (August 11, 1992) by Roy Sallows

"Cherry Blossoms" is another of early FK's many excellent episodes, and one of overall FK's very few episodes with genuine "ripped from the headlines" elements. It achieves an outstanding balance and mix of police and vampire storytelling components. It keeps a commanding rein on a number of dynamic themes. And it hands out character insights and banter with deceptive ease.

Recap: This is the episode in which one witness escapes a murder attempt by Hong Kong mobsters. Badly wounded, the witness finds refuge in a warehouse under the eye of an elderly acupuncturist. Nick finds the witness and her protector while Schanke escorts a Chinese-speaking immigration agent. Fearing a mole, Nick secretly brings Natalie to help treat the witness. The elderly acupuncturist misremembers Nick as his mother's murderer, and plans to execute Nick once the witness is safe. Janette helps the acupuncturist recover his true memory of Lacroix as the killer; he lets Nick go. In the end, Natalie happens to enter Nick's loft just as Nick and Janette are in each other's arms.

( some thoughts on CB )

What do you think?

Next week: S1E09: "I Will Repay" (IWR)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/228383.html

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Rewatch: S1E07 "False Witness" (August 4, 1992) by Naomi Janzen

"False Witness" (S1E07) (FW) is challenging, uncomfortable at many points, and dearly loved by FK fandom for tidbits ranging from Myra as Skin Pretty saleswoman to Natalie as vintage film aficionado. The episode notoriously differs in every cut. And, airing over a month after its predecessor, it marked the end of the first little hiatus in what would become a series lifetime studded by noteworthy breaks.

Recap: This is the episode in which Nick arrives on the scene of a murder seconds after the fatal shot. The suspect is a notorious trafficker in underage girls whom the police have been trying to bring down for years. Nick lies that he saw the villain pull the trigger. Remembering a trial that convicted an innocent musician of a murder Janette committed, Nick, on the stand, at length tells the truth, and the villain walks free — until Nick solves the case properly, gets a warrant, and brings in both suspects. Further, this is the episode in which Janette learns what happened to Lacroix, and we get the famous King Kong and popcorn scene.

( some thoughts on FW )

What do you think?

Next week: S1E08 "Cherry Blossoms" (CB)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/227895.html

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Rewatch: S1E06 "Dying to Know You" (June 9, 1992) by Tony Sheer

I'm afraid that I'm not up to par for this rewatch reflection. I've got a vicious cold (maybe an ear infection). Might you help fill in my gaps?

"Dying to Know You" is a strong, rich episode. Some elements look back at whence the series has already come; at least one arguably foreshadows far ahead.

Recap: "Dying to Know You" (DTKY) (S1E06) is the episode in which the wife and daughter of Conrad Hedges, a wealthy philanthropist, are kidnapped, and the wife murdered, crimes later revealed to have been at Hedges's instigation to protect his secret. A psychic named Denise Ford, who has previously worked with Stonetree, assists Nick and Schanke's investigation after a vision about the kidnapping. Denise finds herself psychically aware of Nick's vampirism. She suspects her sanity. Wondering whether he should tell Denise his secret, Nick remembers Matthew, who committed suicide when Nick didn't confide in him (c.1649-1659). Nick tells Denise. As the bad guys are brought to bay, Hedges kills Denise; Nick blames himself.

( some thoughts on DtKY )

What do you think?

Next week: "False Witness" (FW) (S1E07)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/227649.html

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Rewatch: S1E05 "Dance by the Light of the Moon" (May 26, 1992) by Roy Sallows

The least and last of first-season Forever Knight far exceeds the best and brightest of many another television series! That's good for "Dance by the Light of the Moon" (S1E05) (DBLM), which, in my personal opinion, is one of first season's few serious misfires. DBLM has many strong ingredients, but, as I see it, they never quite all click.

Recap: This is the episode in which former corporate lawyer, current stripper, Ann Foley, finds "fascination" (her word) and "thrills" (Nick's word) in seducing men previously renowned for their probity into committing crimes, and then murders the survivors. Before seeing Ann, but after learning of two "good men" gone very bad, Nick begins a flashback journey through his last hours of mortality, progressing from a banquet with his comrades, to Janette's arms, to Janette introducing him to Lacroix. Along the way, Schanke and Natalie become concerned that Nick has fallen for Ann's wiles and lost sight of the case; luckily for everyone, he hasn't. Ann jumps to her death to avoid arrest.

( Some thoughts on DBLM )

What do you think?

Next week: S1E06 "Dying to Know You" (DtKY)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/226887.html

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Rewatch: S1E04 "Last Act" (May 19, 1992) by Brad Wright

"Last Act" (S1E04) (LA) is one of FK's best episodes. Excellent writing, directing, acting. Outstanding themes, parallels, genre-entwining. Movement between the daytime human world and the nighttime vampire world. (Some bloopers with scene-to-scene costuming continuity!) On all its levels, "Last Act" is about motivations, and its tenacious grappling with why epitomizes much of what I so love in FK's first season.

As Natalie says of Erica's final play, "I know it was all about death, but I found it very life-affirming." To me, that line speaks meta not only about this episode, not only about first season, but, archetypally, is the foundation and justification of all that FK should be.

Recap: "Last Act" is the episode in which Nick's old friend and lover Erica ("How old?"/"Oh, two, three-hundred years."), a playwright, commits suicide in the sun, and Nick remembers her (and is, perhaps literally, perhaps metaphorically, haunted by her) as he investigates the suicide of a young doctor, Marilyn Siegal, slowly revealed to have been a murder. The procedural story structure offers three suspects: Doctor Cole, coworker; Dean Simmons, patient; Carl Janns, fiance. In the end, Nick and Schanke expose and capture Janns. And it is all — from Erica through Marilyn and the suspects to Nick — about motivations. Who values life, and how?

( Some thoughts on LA )

What do you think?

Next week: S1E05 "Dance by the Light of the Moon" (DBLM)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/226752.html

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Rewatch: S1E03 "For I Have Sinned" (May 12, 1992) by Philip John Taylor

"For I Have Sinned" (FIHS) is one of the many episodes for which the German title ignores the English context. The English title quotes the traditional opening line of a Catholic confession ("Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned"), which resonates through the episode on different levels for Nick, Schanke, Magda, and Father Rouchfort — and perhaps even for an attentive audience — as well as for the villain, while the German title, "Avenging Angel" ("Der Racheengel") applies to the villain alone. (And of course this choice uses up that title before the actual "Avenging Angel" (S3E17).)

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with FIHS. Some elements, like St. Joan and Magda, I adore! I can happily watch their scenes over and over. Other bits, like Nick egging on Schanke's confession, I struggle with. I still can't sit through that scene without chastising Nick, although I do begin to see its humor as I couldn't when I was younger.

( some thoughts on FIHS )

What do you think?

Next week: "Last Act" (S1E04)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/225656.html

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Rewatch: S1E02 "Dark Knight, the Second Chapter" (May 6, 1992)

I rewatched both the Region 2 and Region 1 versions of "Dark Knight, the Second Chapter" (S102).

While the Region 2 DVDs stitch the two halves of "Dark Knight" (S101 & S102) together seamlessly, where the Region 1 DVDs separate them as aired, there is otherwise essentially no difference between the two regions for DK2 (S102)! Where the Region 1 DVDs present a version of DK1 (S101) that's distressingly full of holes, lacking many scenes that originally did air in Canada, those same DVDs present an uncut version of DK2 (S102). Even scenes that didn't always air in North America (like the "I shall repay you" flashback, and Fenner cutting the brake line with Nick hearing his keys) are right where they should be on the Region 1 DVD.

I don't know why the two regions treat the two halves of the one premiere so differently. You know FK. :-)

( some thoughts on DK2 )

What do you think? :-)

Next week: "For I Have Sinned" (S103)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/224450.html

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Rewatch: S1E01 "Dark Knight" (May 5, 1992)

Premiere time! Forever Knight launched in spring instead of the traditional fall, the first of its many airing oddities. Part of CBS's idiosyncratic "Crimetime after Primetime" line-up, FK showed its first two episodes on sequential nights, cut many minutes from the US airings compared to the Canadian (never mind the German), and took almost an entire calendar year to get through its first season.

Tonight, I rewatched both the Region 2 (German) and Region 1 (US/Canada) DVDs of S1E01 "Dark Knight." I won't do that every week of this rewatch project! But I may repeat for S1E02 "Dark Knight, the Second Chapter" next week. I find the missing footage extra irritating in DK. I've seen all the cut "Dark Knight" scenes in English on the taped-from-TV VHS tapes slowly degrading in my closet; there's no justification for leaving those scenes off the Region 1 DVDs! (Granted, "anything is better than nothing.") Other episodes, later in first season, have snippets that I've only seen on the German DVDs; the lack of those true "Eurominutes" doesn't bother me the same way.

( a few thoughts on scenes cut and kept )

What do you think? :-)

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/223205.html

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Rewatch: "Nick Knight" (1989)

So as we all know, what would become our beloved Forever Knight (1992-1996) actually first appeared as the TV movie Nick Knight (1989). It starred Rick Springfield (Nick), John Kapelos (Schanke), Robert Harper (Jack (Natalie)), Michael Nader (Lacroix), Laura Johnson (Alyce), Cec Verrell (Janette), and Richard Fancy (Brunetti (Stonetree)).

I think that I last watched it for its 20th anniversary in 2009, which would mean I'd never before seen it on as large a TV as I did tonight. :-)

( a few thoughts on rewatching the original Nick Knight movie )

What do you think? :-)

Next week: FK S1E01 "Dark Knight"

Crossposts: http://brightknightie.livejournal.com/222961.html

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Fandom Snowflake Challenge 2016 #6

#6. Issue a challenge.

This #6 stymied me for a while. I've given it much thought. Really,

fkficfest/

fkficfest is in and of itself all the challenge I can handle issuing each year! (The annual pre-game planning poll will come in February.) But I do want to fulfill the spirit of the Snowflake event.

( Musing on fanwork challenges )

In the end, I decided to launch an Out-of-production Rewatch Project, and to challenge you to join me! Once a week, I'll re-watch one episode from an out-of-production TV fandom and post a few thoughts about it. I'll go in order through a season, so that you can easily join in the re-watching if you like! (I won't necessarily go through a whole series, though; I'll probably switch series between seasons. So many beloved out-of-production fandoms!)

You can play along by re-watching, and/or commenting on my posts, and/or posting yourself! You can join in my re-watch choices, or you can choose an entirely difference season or series.

I'll start with first-season Forever Knight, my favorite! And because it came up in conversation recently, I'll back up all the way into the original pilot Nick Knight for kick-off. I'll plan to watch and post this weekend; I'll promise no later than next Friday night.