[OSTVR] Kindred:The Embraced

[hyzmarca]

This isn't an OSSR because Kindred isn't a source book. It is a television show. Which would make this an OSTVR.

The year was 1996 and Vampire: The Masquarade was fairly popular among the coveted 18-34 demographic. You know what was also popular among the key young adult demographic? Beverly Hills 90210.

Obviously, combining the two is a great idea, right?

That's the basic idea behind Kindred: The Embraced, a prime time vampire soap for the Melrose Place generation. They even got Spelling Television on board.

The execution was lacking and while the show gradually got its feet the ratings didn't improve and it was canceled after eight episodes.

White Wolf purists complained that the show took massive liberties with the game mechanics and setting. Of course, if the show was as faithful to the game as some people want it to be then it would have been both horrible and stupid, so I don't know what they're smoking. As it was, Kindred heavily houseruled their vamps in the name of plot but stuck to those houserules consistently, which is really all that you can ask.



The Original Saga

Okay, I wasn't completely honest. This show isn't Vampire meets Melrose Place. It's Vampire meets The Godfather meets Melrose Place. But it doesn't quite trust its own premise yet, so it pretends to be a generic cop show starring C. Thomas Howell.

The Original Saga is a pretentious title. And a bad one. And it doesn't really make all that much sense given what happens in the episode. But it's a pilot, so we can forgive that. Usually they just call them "Pilot."

The first thing we see is the Golden Gate Bridge, which tells us that it's set in San Francisco. Every show set in San Fransisco requires an establishing shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's a law of television.

Next we see two men in dark suits are chasing a third across a warehouse rooftop at what is obviously midday with a not nearly dark enough dark filter over the camera lens in an extremely half-assed attempt to make it look like very early morning moments before dawn. This does not bode well for the rest of the show. We can at least expect the cinematography of the very first scene not to suck balls. Sadly, we don't get that.
Okay, I'm being a bit too harsh. The crane shot of the rooftop is pretty good, except for the fact that it's obviously brighter than intended. The actual chase, though, not so much. It looks more like the actors were told to just run around and not catch the guy they're supposed to be chasing.

While the three vampires are playing tag on the rooftop, Frank Kohanek and his partner drive into the building and make their way up the stairs. No one cares about them, but they're there anyway. Because the producers didn't quite trust their premise and so tried to shove in a normal cop as an audience surrogate character.

Frank and his partner talk about Frank's new girlfriend, who is Julian Luna's ex. Julian is rich enough and powerful enough to get Frank fired with a phone call. He's also apparently suspected of a lot of shady dealings and commonly believed to be an organized crime boss.

Frank's partner wisely tells him that he should break up with the super-rich crimelord's ex. Frank informs him that she's special and he'd understand if he had someone like her. He says this is a way that makes it clear she's going to die very soon. He might as well just say that she's three days away from retirement.

Meanwhile, on the roof, the dark-suited vampires have caught their prey, a grungy looking fellow in an expensive brown jacket, because at least their wardrobe is cool. They beat him up and one of them rips a cross-shaped piece of metal off of a television antenna. He namechecks Clan Brujah and declares that they're going to kill every Gangrel before staking scruffy man through the heart with the not-at-all-symbolic cross.

Frank and his partner burst through the door guns drawn and tell everyone to freeze. The Brujah instead walk to the edge of the roof, pause for a second to make sure the air bag is in the right place, and do a standard stuntman jump down. Frank is bewildered by their apparent suicide and the staked Gangrel bursts into flames. Before the Gangrel dies he has some last words, "Tell my Prince I told them nothing. I gave them nothing. Now I am free."

That's one loyal Gangrel there. He's concerned about what the Prince thinks of him even while he's on fire.

Honestly, this scene would have been better if they had spent more money on fight choreography and less on the crane.

Next scene is at the coroner's office. The ME asked Frank and his partner what kind of accelerant was used to burn the victim, but Frank doesn't have any patience for questions. He just wants a dental exam to prove that the victim was Stevie Ray, Julian Luna's bodyguard. The ME gets indignant and rants about how he's the voice of the dead and has to speak for them. Frank confesses that it was spontaneous human combustion. And the ME gets really excited about the case.

Frank's partner does the smartest thing anyone has done and obliquely suggests that Stevie Ray was probably a vampire and outright tells Frank that they should drop the case immediately. Obviously, Frank doesn't listen to him.

And at this point we're five minutes in to a 64 minute long episode.

We have, at least, established that there are two vampire clans, Brujah and Gangrel, and they don't like each other very much.


Next we have a scene with Mark Frankel wearing weird contacts talking to Sydney from the Pretender. These are Julian Luna, Prince of San Fransisco, and his mentor Archon Raine, both Ventrue.

It's unclear if Archon is a title or a name, but we later learn that Raine is the Ventrue Primogen, in addition to Julian's sire and mentor. He was also the Prince of San Fransisco before he stepped down in Julian's favor, but that info doesn't come up in this episode.

Julian is understandably pissed that the Brujah murdered his best friend. Archon gives him advice on controlling his emotions. He calms down and his eyes return to normal. This is apparently K:TE's take on the Beast. It's a lot more subtle than degeneration rolls and Frenzy, and this scene makes good use of it. You get a real feeling of a supernatural rage under Julian's calm exterior, just waiting to burst out and kill some Brujah.

The conversation between Archon and Julian continues, and we learn that there are Kindred (as in more than one) in the SFPD. They don't know where Frank is getting his information, so Julian concludes that he must have a traitor in his ranks.


Around this time Frank is on a date with his new girlfriend Alexandra, Julian's ex. This date starts really badly with a conversation about how powerful Julian is and how Frank is going to nail his ass (Frank has still not clued in on the obvious fact that Julian's entire organization is full of vampires for some reason, in spite of how obvious it is). Alexandra wisely and awkwardly shifts the topic of conversation to location of his gun (it's in his pants).
She thinks it's cute the way he blushes after being led into an obvious double entendre and says so, then excuses herself to go to the absurdly opulent lady's room (as an aside, why the fuck do men's rooms not have carpet and chandeliers?).

In the ladies' room Alexandra encounters a lovely young woman who offers her a snort of cocaine. Alexandra declines the drug but comes onto the woman very strongly, in what's obviously the closest thing to a fanservice lesbian scene they could get away with on American Primetime TV in 1996. Alexandra's eyes glow yellow and we get what's probably the show's first example of Dominate.

Yep, Alexandra is a vampire. She takes Frank home and cue sex scene. Followed by another night scene outside of Julian's mansion, that's obviously filmed in daylight with a dark filter.

And Frank is an idiot who would rather investigate Julian Luna than have more sex with his girlfriend who is obviously a vampire. He goes from giddy teenager mode to all business way too fast. And he's completely oblivious to the fact that his girlfriend, who talks about how he makes her feel like a human woman again, is a freaking vampire. He thinks it's some sort of metaphor.

Julian Luna is having a meeting with the Toreador Primogen, (though the term Primogen hasn't been namechecked yet) where she complains that he's taking too long to do whatever it is he promised her he'd do and he asks for more time because Eddie Fiori (the Brujah Primogen) had Stevie Ray killed.

They're confronted by several Gangrel bikers, including their new Primogen, who are obviously pissed off about the death of of their old Primogen and sire. Julian diffuses the situation by offering Cash, the new Gangrel Primogen, a job as his bodyguard (taking Stevie Ray's place) even after Cash threatens to kill him. Julian says that he trusts Clan Gangrel with his life, and Cash takes it at face value.

Then there's a driveby with a 40mm grenade launcher and really underwhelming pyrotechnics (really, the pyrotechnic budget for the episode must have sucked donkey balls, the result looked less like incendiary grenades and more like children's toys) and Frank shows up to threaten Luna in the stupidest manner possible while his partner tells him that he's acting like an idiot and drags him away.

Julian meets with the Nosfratu Primogen, Daedalus. Daedalus wears a fancy bathrobe, smokes, and slashes expensive paintings. And lives in Julian's basement, apparently. Well, an elaborate network of tunnels and warrens under Julian's mansion, anyway.

Julian wants to send a message to Fiori, but Daedalus says that the Brujah only understand violence. Julian also wants him to recover Stevie Ray's body to prevent a possible Masquerade breach.

We have what starts out as the second sex scene on the episode but doesn't get that far. Julian Luna is apparently having an affair with the Toreador Primogen, Lillie Langtry. She drinks his blood, but Julian is distracted so instead of sex we get some pillowtalk exposition about the Masquerade and a recap of everything that has happened in the episode. Then when they start getting hot and heavy Archon interrupts them. Julian's grandson has died. Which is news that understandably kills the boner that he just spent a blood point on. Julian and Lillie share an emotional moment together where he talks about losing his wife when he was still human, and his son after he was embraced.

Next scene Julian meets Alexandra outside his Mansion at night. This one was actually filmed at night, too. She asks him to spare Frank's life. She's in love with the annoying cop, apparently. At this point she's the only one, because the audience sure isn't interested in him. She doesn't want to Embrace him, either. She just wants to feel alive again.
Julian thinks she's an idiot.

Meanwhile the ME tells Frank that Stevie Ray was at least a hundred years old. Just in time, too, because Daedalus shows up and Dominates him into committing suicide.

Then Luna visits his wife's grave, obviously during the day, though very overcast. We also learn that he has at least three dots of Protean. Which helps explain why he likes the Gangrel so much. It's possible that his Storyteller let him skip Claws and go straight to Earth Meld, since there are a lot of houserules going on.

Frank remains the least interesting character on the show, but we get some more dialog between him and Alexandra. For the way he talks about his feelings for her it's ambiguous if he's genuinely in love or suffering from a blood bond. Or at least it is if you're familiar with the game. Blood bonds haven't been mentioned in the show yet.

Alexandra sees a Gangrel hanging out across the street watching her. She leaves Frank and beats the fuck out of the guy off screen and partially drains him. When she drives out to Julian's mansion to chew him out and deliver his minion, the Gangrel is still unconscious and bleeding from a fairly large neck wound (okay, it's obviously not a wound at all because they didn't have the makeup budget for that, it's just a long line of fake blood covering most of the side of his neck.

Lillie meets with the Alien Bounty Hunter Eddie Fiori. Eddie likes to exercise and he wants to fuck Lillie. He blames the driveby on the Gangrels ("they're animals", he says), even though everyone knows that he ordered it. Because it isn't about what you know. It's about what you can prove, I guess.

Eddie owns a record company and Lillie owns a bunch of night clubs, so she tries to strike up a deal where his musicians tour her clubs. And all she wants from Eddie is for someone to kill Alexandra. He's totally down with that.

Julian meets with all the Primogens. Eddie is a bit full of himself and wants Julian removed as Prince (presumably in favor of him). Never mind the fact that Julian has the support of all the Primogens except possibly Lillie, who could fall either way (though she is fucking Julian, which Eddie totally doesn't take into account).

Eddie admits that he ordered Stevie Ray killed, but says that the Gangrels started it by muscling in on Brujah territory (which makes murdering a Primogen okay, I guess).

Eddie tries to use the possible Masquarade breach against Julian but Daedalus comes in with Stevie Ray's body.

Lillie insists that Alexandra needs to be killed, though, and Luna reluctantly declares a blood hunt.

Then he makes everyone kiss his ring, which Eddie doesn't like at all.



Frank finally grocks that there's something weird about Alexandra. She feeds her blood to him and tells him that she's a vampire. She tells him that they'll kill her for letting him know. He asks to become a vampire, but she just says that they'll kill both of them if she does that. Finally, while he's suffering from the negative effects of ingesting vampire viate, she explains that contact with her body fluids has been transforming him ever since they started having sex. And the blood is just speeding that up, which is why he feels sick.

She then transforms into a large white wolf and leaves her new ghoul to fend for himself. There's no transformation effect. They just cut away, replace her with a dog, and cut back. But it's 1996 and the cut away replace is far more effective than any morphing effect they might be able to make on a TV budget.

San Francisco Ventrue like to take Protean as an out of clan Discipline, apparently, well she is Julian's childe so it make sense he'd teach her.


And now his partner suddenly doesn't believe in vampires (well he doesn't want to hear about them, anyway) and Frank calls the weapon used in the driveby a shotgun even though it was obviously a Milkor MGL.

And another factoid, Vampires shoot each other with phospherous incendiary shells because lead bullets don't work so good on the undead.


Alexandra goes to see Julian and does a lot of angsting. She's been going through a mid-unlife crisis of sorts. She makes Julian promise not to kill Frank, and will go quietly when the other vampires catch up to her. The last thing she does is give Julian her locket, which contains a painting of a rose.

Julian cries over Alexandra, but goes to bed with Lillie. They do some more pillow talk about Alexandra. She's surprised that he accepted her request. She also makes it sort of obvious that she's mostly dating him because she's the Prince and she likes the political power that gives her. He makes it clear that he knows but sort of likes that about her.

Alexandria, on the run for her life, get into a taxi driven by Daedelus, thinking it was safe. He slits her throat with a long fingernail (Claws = Aggravated damage?) and drops her off by the Golden Gate Bridge while the near dawn filter is on the camera. He whispers something into her ear before leaving.

Alexandra doesn't have many blood points left and can't Fortitude her way through the sunlight for very long, but she doesn't have to because her boyfriend shows up just in time to watch her burst into flames.

Frank screams her name like an idiot, repeatedly, and she jumps into the water.

It's left ambiguous whether she actually died. On one hand, she was taking a lot of sunlight damage. On the other hand, she jumped into the bay. That's a classic "she couldn't have possibly survived that" ploy. And given that Daedelus whispered to her, and he's Julian's friend/troubleshooter, and Julian loved her, it's likely that it was a setup to fake her death. After all, if Daedelus wanted to kill her he could have done it in the cab.

Frank, understandably distraught, receives a call from his inside source, who claims to be a "lich" (ghoul, by any other name) which is pronounced "lick" for some reason. Is that the way it's supposed to be pronounced? I always a pronounced it with a ch sound.

He isn't a lich, though. He's Franks partner. He's also a Ventrue sired by Julian who is now conspiring with Eddie Fiori to kill Julian. Eddie who basically set the whole thing up to get Alexandra killed and make Julian look bad. He's an ambitious idiot with his eye on the throne and Frank is his Oswald, not that Frank knows this. There is speculation that Frank didn't drink enough of her blood to get the the full benefits of lichdom, but it's clear that Frank has been changed. An independent ghoul cop with a vendetta against the Prince is a Masquerade breach waiting to happen. While Frank isn't an immediate danger he's a black mark against Julian as long as he's alive. And he has reason to want Julian dead, if it comes to that. He's easy to use as a weapon, or to frame as an assassin.

Julian visits Alexandra's apartment. So does Frank. They have a short talk about the roses, and in a fit of abject stupidity Frank decides that being a ghoul with a single blood point and no Disciplines is enough to let him beat the Prince of the City in a one on one fight.

Julian tells Frank that she traded her life for his, willingly. Frank shoots Julian. Julian says that he isn't Frank's enemy, and Frank shoots him again.

When it becomes clear that the whole shooting the vampire prince thing isn't going to work, Frank starts making threats and promises to kill him no matter how long it takes, like an idiot. He doesn't really seem to grock that Julian could kill him at any instant.

Julian drops Alexandra's locket when he's shot the second time, but doesn't notice. Frank finds it and picks it up. Inside he sees a moving image of Alexandra inside. He finally grocks that things might not be the way he thinks they are.

And then he see Alexandra at the bottom of the bay, alive and awake.



To be continued.



Overall, it was decent.

It was very much a soap opera instead of an action series and it showed. The fight scenes were short and few, and laughable. Most combat took place off screen or was over in one hit.

On the other hand, the drama was okay and the characters were interesting for the most part.

Frank Kohanek was the weak link. He wasn't enough of an everyman for the audience to invest in him as a surrogate, and he switched between lovesick goofball and very stupid obsessed cop all too easily. He's also responsible for a couple of early scenes that made it feel like a police procedural and that hurt the show overall, I think.

Even as a distraught ghoul trying to avenge his lover, his stupidity was so great that I really couldn't identify with him. He knew that he was completely helpless and outmatched, but he kept pushing his luck. The only reason he lived is that Julian was merciful for Alexandra's sake, and he seemed to be completely oblivious to that.

Kohanek simply detracts from the more interesting characters, though it is nice to see that he was being played by Fiori the entire time.

But the scenes that didn't involve Kohanek, they were all gold. They painted a fairly rich tapestry and gives the characters depth that you normally don't get out of the pilot. Even Fiori, who has the least development, comes out as unique. We see a prideful person who is uncomfortable supplicating and believes that he deserves to rule. But he's also far more intelligent than anyone knows about and plays up his naked ambition to hide his real plots.

Julian, of course, gets the most development and the most screen time. He's the most interesting, human character in the show (ironic, that the only human character is the most inhuman).

We see Julian as someone who hasn't lost his sense of morality and who is very in touch with his emotions. He's capable of very intense long lasting love, but he also understands his duty to the Kindred as a whole. He's tempted to put his desires above his duties as Prince, but chooses not to. At the same time, he still has strong emotional connections to his human family, as well.

The pilot wasn't perfect, but it sets up the world pretty well. It gives us preexisting conflict and room for more.

As much as purists might complain, the pilot wisely left out the Anarchs and the Sabbat, and didn't namedrop the Camarilla. As for as we know from the show, such organizations don't exist per se. It focuses entirely on local politics. Though we suspect that other cities also have Princes, there is no evidence of a higher authority. And there certainly aren't roving gangs of Always Chaotic Evil vampires.

At least there's no evidence of that.

Malkavan and Termere vampires also fail to make an appearance. Which is okay in my book. Five clans is plenty for a good story, and there's no need to add Always Crazy all the Time, and Overpowered Blood Magic to the list of shit going on at this stage.

The politics are complicated enough with five clans. And the missing two are the ones most likely to detract from the story.

Of course, there aren't any Sabbat clans, either. Thankfully.

Some people also complain that its too easy for vamps to soak indirect sunlight. I really don't care so much about calculating characters' dice pools and average successes so I give no fucks about that.


Overall, I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in a good vampire show.

[Dogbert]

I remember there was this time when two channels here in México broadcasted one K:tE and the other Melrose Place. Both series' production values were so much carbon-copy of one another that I remember that there was this day when Kindred's episode ended, I switched channels to Melrose place, and Dr. Mancini was walking in his house with a baseball bat, and I though "Hey, is Dr. Mancini looking for Brujah's primogen?"

If you ask me, the series are a lot more enjoyable if you actually don't know Vampire. Otherwise, all you see is the most self-serving piece of Ventrue fanwank.

[Username17]

Weirdly, I think they added the Assamites before adding the Tremere, Malkavians, or Lasambra. Just seems like a really weird choice.


If I found myself limited to six clans, the Assamites would not be on that list. They wouldn't even be on the short list to be on that list.

The persistently terrible day for night stuff really hurt my enjoyment of the show, as did the basic unlikeability of the protagonist. I wouldn't say Kindred: the Embraced was bad exactly, but on the "vampire TV show" scale, I'd put it below Forever Knight, Being Human, and even Blade: the Series (note: I've lived in Eastern Europe without a TV for nearly seven years and have no opinions one way or the other on Tru Blood and such).

Oddly, I think the series is best when it's basically ignoring White Wolf canon altogether. If they had straight up ditched the "vampires burn in sunlight" thing and gone for a more Draculaish "vampires can't use their disciplines in sunlight" deal, the show would have been much improved. Especially considering how fundamentally incapable of doing a night-time exterior shot their actual equipment seemed to be.

-Username17

[Ancient History]

Kindred: the Embraced also had to compete with the final, turgid season of Forever Knight. I think both proved to take themselves too seriously, leading to the rubber forehead vampires of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in '97.

[hyzmarca]

Weirdly, I think they added the Assamites before adding the Tremere, Malkavians, or Lasambra. Just seems like a really weird choice.


If I found myself limited to six clans, the Assamites would not be on that list. They wouldn't even be on the short list to be on that list.

There's a Malkavian in the third episode, though he isn't called that. He ends up being executed because, you know, insanity and superpowers as a combination don't mesh very well with secrecy.

Kindred pretty much goes with the idea that fishmalks would have blown the Masquarade a long time ago and so the universally insane vampires don't get a seat at the table.


The Assimite, like the Malkavian, is a one off thing. They brought her in because they needed a shapeshifting super-assassin. While the clan is namechecked, the character is loyal to and working for the Brujah Prince of LA.

The persistently terrible day for night stuff really hurt my enjoyment of the show, as did the basic unlikeability of the protagonist. I wouldn't say Kindred: the Embraced was bad exactly, but on the "vampire TV show" scale, I'd put it below Forever Knight, Being Human, and even Blade: the Series (note: I've lived in Eastern Europe without a TV for nearly seven years and have no opinions one way or the other on Tru Blood and such).

I haven't seen being human. Honestly, I wouldn't compare it to the others because it's a different style. Kindred is very much a soap opera, where as Forever Knight is an episodic cop show.

True Blood is weakest when they're doing supernatural politics, while it's Kindred's strength, I think.

Oddly, they can film at exterior scenes at night. There are a couple in this episode. I think it was more a matter of expedience than equipment.

Oddly, I think the series is best when it's basically ignoring White Wolf canon altogether. If they had straight up ditched the "vampires burn in sunlight" thing and gone for a more Draculaish "vampires can't use their disciplines in sunlight" deal, the show would have been much improved. Especially considering how fundamentally incapable of doing a night-time exterior shot their actual equipment seemed to be.

-Username17

Yeah. They're at least consistent about that. We're told that they can spend blood points to soak sunlight and the only ones who burn to death are ones that have been staked and bled first.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Ferretbrain also has a review of this series. Worth checking out.

[codeGlaze]

I had no idea this show ever existed.

[sake]

Yes, "lick" is the correct pronunciation. But everyone save the hard core gramar Nazis decided that titles like 'wrath of the lick king' sounded really freaking silly, so the 'ch' won out.

[erik]

Yes, "lick" is the correct pronunciation.

Correct by what standard? I didn't realize we knew for certain how languages sounded 1000+ years ago, let alone for a word that has cognates in multiple different languages.

[angelfromanotherpin]

The OED says it's pronounced L as in 'lie,' I as in 'bid,' and CH as in 'China.' So does Miriam-Webster. Given that one of its alternate spellings is 'litch,' I think that's very reasonable. It may have originally had an I as in 'life' sound. A bunch of the German variants use that sound, and the other alternate spelling is 'lych.'

There are other languages where the cognate word ends in a k or a g or something, but in old, middle, and modern English, the common pronunciation is the correct one, as far as can be determined.

[Koumei]

I originally assumed it was pronounced "like", as the word lichen. But it didn't take long to go with "litch" like everyone else.

All I actually knew of this show hitherto this review was "HIDEOUSLY BALD NOSFERATU. HIDEOUSLY BALD." That was the one thing my friends felt was worth mentioning.

without a TV for nearly seven years

You lucky bastard. I wish my house could be without a TV for seven years.

[TheFlatline]

If memory serves the show didn't get canceled because it sucked. It was canceled because the actor who played Julian was killed in a car accident and it was decided to be in poor taste to continue the show recasting the character, and frankly the show had little going for it without that character.

So given a full season or maybe 2 seasons, the show might have gotten it's feet under it.

[erik]

If memory serves the show didn't get canceled because it sucked. It was canceled because the actor who played Julian was killed in a car accident and it was decided to be in poor taste to continue the show recasting the character, and frankly the show had little going for it without that character.

So given a full season or maybe 2 seasons, the show might have gotten it's feet under it.

Well...

After the show's cancellation, Showtime negotiated to revive this series, but the untimely death of the show's star, Mark Frankel, halted the effort.[citation needed]

His death was 4 months after the last episode. So maybe yer memory is on, or just close. Certainly his unfortunate death prevented the show being picked up but someone else on the internet thinks it was not the reason for Fox's cancellation.

Anyway, Fox didn't cancel shows because they sucked. They cancelled tons of good shows because their executives sucked.

[TheFlatline]

Ah I stand corrected. It's been ages since the show came out.

[hyzmarca]

I originally assumed it was pronounced "like", as the word lichen. But it didn't take long to go with "litch" like everyone else.

All I actually knew of this show hitherto this review was "HIDEOUSLY BALD NOSFERATU. HIDEOUSLY BALD." That was the one thing my friends felt was worth mentioning.

Absolutely hideous.



This is prime time TV, so even the Nosferatu have to be fairly handsome while moaning about how hideous they are.