This is in my opinion the best horror series ever on TV, bar none. In its first season, at least; I hope the second season will keep it up. This is "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in the style of "Prime Suspect". It's like a vampire itself, pale and chilly; it keeps up one of those nerve-wracking, semi-audible electronic musical pulses all the way through; it's heavy with fear and angst and Catholic guilt; and it convinced me that if this were the way it was this was the way it would be. It's as creepy as can be. Unlike other horror films, it treats its premise seriously and proceeds from the assumption that it's true, whether it's pleasant for us to contemplate it or not: unknown to most of us, vampires are out to take over and an undercover state police unit has the license to stop them by any means it can, including murder. The hero doesn't like to believe it, but in the end he has no choice, and we don't either. That, I think, is the series' greatest strength: it persuades us by showing this is how things "are". The actors contribute a lot to this end. The heroes aren't all that likable but are fascinating and increasingly sympathetic, especially after we start meeting the villains, who are a truly despicable lot. The series works us up to real anger over what they're trying to do--and it's all a fantasy! This is first-rate TV.
Review of Ultraviolet
