Tag: Charlaine Harris

Midnight, Texas Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot Recap

~ Metacrone ~ Leave a comment

Happy Halloween! I’m going to rewatch season 1 of Midnight, Texas, so for fun I’ll try to write some quick recaps. Let’s see how far into the season I get. I recapped season 2 as it aired.

Midnight, Texas is a 2 season show that aired from 2017-18, currently streaming on Peacock, which is loosely based on the 3 book series by Charlaine Harris. The books take place in the True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse universe with a couple of minor character crossovers, but the show didn’t acknowledge the connection. It originally ran on the NBC broadcast network, so it’s also much tamer than True Blood, but it’s still an hour long dramedy about supernaturals finding refuge in a small town in the southern US.

The main character of Midnight, Texas is Manfred Bernardo (Francois Arnaud), a medium from a long line of mediums, who was raised by his recently deceased grandmother and is still close to her ghost. Said ghost now dwells in the RV where they lived as they traveled the country, working their trade. Manfred is on the run from a business deal gone wrong, so Grandma Xylda (Joanne Camp) counsels him to hole up in her old haunt of Midnight, a town where supernaturals are safe to be themselves and everyone has a secret.

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Book vs Screen Review: True Blood Season 1 vs Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris

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But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media

Though I have been writing reviews on this blog for more than three years, I have been keeping a dark secret from you, dear readers. I haven’t really been keeping the secret on purpose, but a lie of omission is still a lie, so please, try to forgive me. I don’t think this reveal will come as much of a shock to my regular readers.

The truth is, I have a deep, lifelong love of vampire romance. I’m open minded, and can consider other supernatural romances as well, but werewolves are so packminded that I question their devotion to their beloved. Ghosts seem so thin and superficial. Zombies are interested in brains, but I want more than just a relationship of the mind. Angels and demons both have to leave their beloveds in the lurch when they get called into service by the higher- and lower- powers they serve. A shapeshifter is an inconstant lover in so many ways, how could we ever develop trust?

There are exceptions: Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The medieval ghosts of Lynn Kurland’s paranormal romance novels. The sentient zombies of In the Flesh. The married angel-demon couple from Midnight, Texas, another Charlaine Harris story. And no one is more trustworthy than True Blood’s own shapeshifter, Sam Merlotte.

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Book Review- An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose Book 1) by Charlaine Harris

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

 

book cover of An Easy Death

The first thing Gunnie Rose does when she gets her own book series is get a makeover haircut, to show how her life is about to go through some drastic changes. Gunnie Rose, who is also known as Lizbeth, actually has multiple reasons for her new look. She’s a 19 year old woman who lives in what would be the southwestern US, if she lived in our world, and her work as an almost magical sharpshooter keeps her outdoors most of the time, so her long hair gets hot and sticky. Plus her hair grows in long ringlets, which her boyfriend paid more attention to than he did to the rest of her, so she figured it was time to remind him to pay more attention to the person underneath the hair. But probably most importantly of all, since she’s called Gunnie for a good reason, the ringlets are dragging down her job performance and her reputation. She’s NOT adorable, okay?

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 7: Resting Witch Face Recap

~ Metacrone

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By the time we’re done watching episode 7, “Resting Witch Face”, the sleepy little town of Midnight, Texas has been turned upside down. Its darkest secrets have been exposed, friends and enemies have switched places, and another character has been lost. With only two episodes left following this one, the show is preparing its stage for a huge season finale.

As the episode begins, Joe is still out looking for Chuy, who is out of control and in his demon form. Walker has followed them. Fiji is hiding just how much her new affiliation with dark magic has affected her. Patience and Kai are supposedly dealing with the aftermath of the hotel being used as the epicenter of the town’s troubles in the previous episode.

And Manfred is still standing on his front porch, in tears, after watching Creek’s ghost disappear in flames. After a moment, he snaps into action and goes looking for Kai, who’s more than ready for a fight. They meet out in the street, shouting threats at each other. Kai tries to take Manfred’s powers from him, against his will. Only Patience is surprised. Lem stops Kai, then Patience takes him back to the hotel. Manfred tells everyone else that he saw Creek’s ghost.

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Midnight, Texas: Who Killed Creek? Could It Be Fiji?

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In the shocking ending of  Midnight, Texas, season 2, episode 6, No More Mr Nice Kai, Manfred discovered that his once and possibly future girlfriend, Creek Lovell, was dead. Creek left town at the end of season 2, episode 1, Head Games, in order to go to college and find the peace of mind and personal safety that eluded her in Midnight. She came back to Midnight in episode 6 because she thought Manfred needed her and she missed him. Instead of being allowed to return to her new life, she was murdered.

The last time we saw Creek alive, Kai discovered her in the hotel, searching for Manfred. The next time we saw her, she was a ghost. She was able to speak to Manfred, but she quickly burned up and was forced to move on to the next plane of existence. The fire started in her throat, probably to stop her from speaking.

The normal way that ghosts move on to the next plane is to disappear. They become gray smoke, which then vanishes. This is how Lyric moved on. We saw it frequently in season 1. The only other ghosts who’ve disappeared in fire, the way that Creek did, were Bruce and Carolyn, the married couple who’d owned the hotel in the 50’s, who we met in episode 2. Fiji used an ancient spell to send them on their way, which required the bones of the dead, sage, and a goat’s heart. The flames burned the ghosts in the same order that they burned their bones. In the case of Bruce and Carolyn, that was bottom to top. Carolyn was able to give Manfred a message, “There are secrets behind the woods,” because her head and neck were the last parts to go.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 6: No More Mr. Nice Kai Recap

~ Metacrone

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Midnight, Texas is a weird show. It’s fun. It’s sexy. With all of those shirtless men and relationship plotlines, it’s clearly aimed at women. It’s based on a series of books by Charlaine Harris, who is a famous and successful woman.

Unlike True Blood and the Midnight, Texas books, this TV series kills off its female characters right and left. In episode 6, Creek returns to Midnight, only to be fridged by the end of the episode. Time after time this season, we’ve watched the women be killed or duped, while the men leave town alive, or overcome whoever cons them. After the deaths of Creek, Lyric, Sequoia, and Mary’s mother, Sheila (just to name a few off the top of my head), will the Rev and Mary the baby weretiger’s father be returning Midnight to be murdered in episode 7, and will Olivia’s father die the week after that, to help balance the scales?

This show’s history suggests that a woman from Midnight will sacrifice and be punished in some major way before the end of the season. It will probably be Fiji, with Patience as the dark horse coming up strong from the outside. Trace Lysette’s character Celeste will likely be brought back to die. Fiji has already given up her heart, and the aunt who raised her, to the dark side, but the town will rescue Bobo’s true love. She’ll be contrite for overreaching and daring to think she could handle dark magic as a mere woman (of color).

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 4: I Put a Spell on You

~ Metacrone

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Midnight, Texas was a good show last year, but it’s improved to become a great show, within it’s genre, this year. It’s a fun, sexy, funny, slightly scary, thought-provoking romp through Charlaine Harris’ world. It’s True Blood Lite, and that’s not a bad thing. True Blood was amazing, but it also took itself too seriously at times and went off on some ridiculous tangents. Not to mention the gore.

Midnight Texas can be watched by a general audience, but it’s not just fluff and vampires. The characters have chemistry and have developed a bond that makes the drama they go through compelling. The supernatural elements are often used as metaphor, which gives the show relevance. But Midnight never forgets to have fun, and if all you want from it is a relaxing Friday night, you can ignore the larger implications easily.

Midnight, Texas is my choice for this season’s best show that nobody’s watching.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 4: Sneak Peek (Video)

~ Metacrone

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The Midnighters Find a Baby Weretiger

Minor book and show spoilers.

Calling all Midnight, Texas book readers! Midnight, Texas is doing the baby weretiger plotline from the books, with their own twist. For one thing, the baby is a girl instead of a boy, a welcome change in a show with too few female characters. For another, the Rev isn’t around to help raise the baby. Even if he returns, he’s no longer a weretiger, so he’ll be of little help in controlling the child.

My next question is, will the other character who came to Midnight as part of this plotline join the cast soon? This character was also part of the Sookie Stackhouse books, but was notably left out of True Blood. If they follow the books, this addition would bring a romantic shake up to the town that it could use right about now.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 3: To Witch Hell and Back Recap

~ Metacrone

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As we move toward the darkest time of the year, it’s a dark time in Midnight, Texas, too. Multiple hearts get broken on episode 3, To Witch Hell and Back. Some are demon hearts, so we shouldn’t be too sad, because no one likes a demon, right? But some belong to our favorite Midnighters, who’ve survived many obstacles already to be together.

Fiji and Bobo continue to investigate the supernatural cause of Bobo’s accidents, now with Manfred’s help. Manfred has given up on his dream of reuniting with Creek, and placed all of his hope in keeping his friends happy and together. How much struggle and heartbreak will the three of them have to endure?

With a Hunter’s Moon on the horizon, Chuy spends the night on the couch pacifying his inner demon. Joe, still looking for fulfillment in his life, meets up with that hussy Walker, the demon hunter, to go kill some demons without telling Chuy. Call me crazy, but I just don’t see a relationship that starts with a lying angel ending well. Walker isn’t good for Joe.

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Midnight Texas Season 2 Episode 2: The Monster of the Week Is Patriarchy Recap

~ Metacrone

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In this episode of Midnight, Texas, the #Me Too movement takes a distinctly supernatural turn, as ghosts, vampires, and vampire wives all stand up to the oppression of the patriarchy, with varying results. The moral of the story is, we are stronger when we fight together, but violence isn’t the answer. Or it almost never is. Maybe the moral is to use your powers wisely so the patriarchy daddy/husband vampire won’t find an excuse to try to take them away from you again. Or, put more simply, don’t get caught red-fanged. Channel Olivia or Fiji, not Dawnette.

The discussion as to why it’s fine for all of the men who hurt and exploited Dawnette to run around unpunished, and for Lem and the Rev to run around unpunished, while Dawnette has to quickly be made contrite and powerless again, will have to wait. Suffice it to say, broadcast audiences don’t want to see an angry, scary, powerful woman go unpunished, no matter how righteous her anger or deserving her victims. And a combination of misogyny, racism and classism dictates that a woman like Dawnette couldn’t be trusted to learn to control her power or anger, even though Lem did. They might as well have made her stripper name “Rebel China Doll”.

Episode 2 opens with Healer Kai curing a man’s elbow pain at the Crystal Desert Hotel, using the same basic procedure that he used to cure Manfred of his demon cancer in episode 1. He ends with sucking the negative energy out through the man’s mouth and into himself, but we never see him release it, just like the last episode. Kai’s two, ahem, loyal assistants, Lyric and Sequoia, are there to help.

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