09.00 Forever Knight
Forever Knight. Episode 12. "Dead Issue" The wife of powerful police official admits to shooting an intruder. Everyone wants it buried fast, but Nick suspects she did not, in fact, shoot the man...
While the case-of-the-week is average this is a simply superb episode for many reasons:
Nick Knight. This is a great episode for the character of Nick. We see that he's a clever detective, and shrewd observer of human behaviour. He's also very much an everyman. An early scene shows Nick asking the uniformed officers to call him Nick, not 'Sir'. While it may be corny, it's also undeniably cool. The contrast with the obnoxious Detective Schanke is hilarious.
The Flashback. Nick's memories take him back in time to a woman he knew in a previous century. A woman who was raped but - fully believing that female sexuality is evil - took the blame for the incident upon herself and eventually committed suicide. Nick does not extract upon the rapist, though he knows who it was, so the story is left to be about the woman and her misplaced guilt and nothing else. Clever storytelling. Natalie Radford is wonderful in the role. She's very sexy and beautiful, but she also comes across as virginal, innocent and pure. The contrast is perfect for the part. And underscores the guilt and tragedy.
In the present day storyline, Lori Hallier gives a great performance as the woman taking full blame for the murder of her lover. As the story unfolds, we learn that her husband actually committed the murder and that she is trapped in a loveless marriage, held captive as a trophy by this powerful man. It becomes obvious that she believes she thinks she deserves little more. Even her chosen lover is a lowlife who uses her for sex. She, like the woman in Nick's flashbacks, has a very low opinion of herself. Nick picks up in that but, as the story unfolds, is powerless to do much about it.
Stonetree. While the woman despises herself Captain Stonetree, in sharp contrast, thinks the world of her. Gary Farmer gives a great performance in this one, and the scenes between him and Nick are perfectly executed. Nick, following his detective instincts, keeps bringing the bothersome details to the attention of his captain. Stonetree, of course, wants the case dropped and keeps ordering Nick to cease his investigations. Nick never speaks. He never argues with his captain. He lets his moral objects come through in his silence and - one assumes - he knows that Stonetree will eventually make the correct choice. Again, this is an example of great storytelling. It makes the episode enjoyable to watch because it skips over the scenes we've all seen before in countless police dramas (scenes where the hero-detective argues with his captain that he must keep working on the case).
This is also a great Schanke episode. John Kapelos is hilarious as Nick's unwilling partner, constantly trying to distance himself from his partner's politically unpopular new case.
Natalie gets very few scenes in this outing, but they are good ones. At the end, Nick is alone in his apartment. He's in a funk and don't want to join his friends at the police baseball game. Nat convinces him to come along. And he does. Even though he's a vampire it's a very human moment. Very easy to relate to. And this is the main strength of Forever Knight and the reason that it is a better show than Angel, Moonlight or Blood Ties. Nick is the most human of the vampires in these shows. His melancholy is the most palpable and the easiest to relate to. Although each in great in it's own way, all three shows are inferior copies of Forever Knight.
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Wed, Mar 11, 09 - Forever Knight
