First Kill: Basic Buffy

First Kill is a new Netflix series based on a short story by Victoria Schwab who is also an Executive Producer and wrote the first episode of the show.  Juliette (Sarah Catherine Hook) is a vampire who has just had her sixteenth birthday and so must make her first kill before her urges become too strong and she exposes the safety that her family has built by fitting into regular society.  Calliope (Imani Lewis) is a sixteen-year-old who belongs to a family of “Monster Hunters”.  When the two meet at their high school, sparks fly and they begin a complicated relationship, akin to Romeo and Juliet.  If the plot seems a bit familiar, besides the obvious Shakespearean references (like naming a man character “Juliette”), it is also similar to Buffy the Vampire’s relationship with Angel, where Buffy is a “Slayer” who’s first love is to a vampire.  Even with spicing up the plot a bit with having the main couples both be female; the plot is just a bit cliched for me.  But here is the thing.  I, a fifty-two-year-old gay white male, is not really the intended audience. This is a teen drama, and since Buffy was a couple decades old and I doubt todays teens are picking up classical tragedies for their fun summer reading, the plot may seem fresh and new to who will be watching the series.

I was only able to get through the first episode even though Netflix did their normal full season release, and I doubt I will be binge watching this anytime soon, so this article is only referencing episode one. The production value is pretty good, the settings are of high quality and set the stage adequately. Both families seem to be affluent, with Juliette’s family opting for a traditional looking mansion and furnishings, where Calliope’s family is modern, with a less ornate and more streamlined home. There is some nice editing and the story in the first episode is told twice, once from Juliette’s point of view and once from Calliope’s. This was interesting as a clever look into the motivations and family life of both characters.  The plot is interesting enough, with some intriguing aspects and the characters are written well. The music I personally felt was atrocious.  I like unique, custom music created for the episode that highlights and doesn’t distract from the story, but this series (again because it is targeted to teens) uses existing songs and tries to force them to fit into the episode.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. There were times that it felt like the music was being highlighted far more than the characters or their dialogue, giving the episode the feel of a music video instead of an actual story and distracts from what is happening on screen.  The choice of music was also a bit off and often raunchy, taking away any “class” that the series might have attempted to have.   I do applaud Netflix for doing this series as having a teen drama with it’s main characters being a same-sex couple, is nice to see.

If you take each character separately, the acting is pretty good.  Lost Alumni, Elizabeth Mitchell, is great as the stoic and powerful mother of Juliette.  Gracie Dzienny also shines as the graceful and glamorous sister Elinor.  Calliope’s family also does a great job in their rolls, with Dominic Goodman and Phillip Mullings Jr. as her monster hunter brothers.  Jonas Dylan Allen as Ben Wheeler, Juliette’s gay best friend, is also very convincing.  Separately, the entire cast does a good job, but the problem I have is I did not feel the instant connection between Calliope and Juliette. Sarah plays the somewhat socially awkward teen convincingly, and Imani does the strong silent character well, but there was just no real chemistry between the two.  Maybe that improves as the series progresses.