CDN Television: Blood Ties, Season 2

Season Two, Episode 1:  D.O.A.
Original Air Date:  October 12, 2007
A former colleague of Vicki's from the force, Paul "Dirty" Deeds hires her to find out where his body is and how he became a ghost.  The problem is Vicki is the only one who can see Paul.  Things take a turn for the truly unusual when Paul shows up apparently alive and the investigation leads toward a corrupt police officer.  Paul's body is walking around and his ghost is still working with Vicki and the only clue they have is a fondness for raw meat.

Season Two, Episode 2:  Wild Blood
Original Air Date:  October 19, 2007
The animalistic murder of one of the mayors friends forces Mike to turn to Vicki for help when the woman he arrested as a suspect in the case exhibits supernatural characteristics.  Vicki and Henry turn up the possibility that she is a skinwalker meaning that the woman in custody was the cat-like animal that committed the murder.  The case changes when a jaguar is seen in town while the woman is in police custody.  Investigation of the victim shows he had a secret of his own which led to his murder.

Season Two, Episode 3:  5:55
Original Air Date:  October 26, 2007
At 5:55, Vicki awakens from a dream where she and Henry accompany a client to retrieve an expensive artifact, and a simple recovery case takes a supernatural turn that ends in death.  Once awake, things from her dream start happening.  Again, Vicki awakens after having gotten farther into her dream.  The day keeps replaying and Vicki must prevent those she loves from dying and stop a box, Pandora's Box, from being opened and unleashing a deadly force.

Season Two, Episode 4:  Bugged
Original Air Date:  November 2, 2007
Vicki is hired by the owner of Careen's favorite goth club to investigate the death of one of its patrons in an alley adjacent to the club.  Careen goes with Vicki on her walk into the dark side as her investigative partner.  Her life is in danger when she goes undercover to help the case.  Meanwhile, Henry has his own problems when someone leaves the body of a dead young woman literally at his doorstep.  Surprisingly, he turns to Mike for help with news there is another vampire in the city and things are just getting started.

Season Two, Episode 5:  The Devil You Know
Original Air Date:  November 9, 2007
More deaths at the hands of the vampire put Henry, Mike and Vicki even more on edge than they were before.  Henry knows Christina is in town.  She shows up at his condo wanting his help.  She informs him there is another vampire, Alexander, following her wanting to ruin her life.  The deal:  if he helps her, she must leave.  Is Christina being honest with Henry or is she playing him yet again?

Season Two, Episode 6:  Drawn and Quartered
Original Air Date:  November 16, 2007
While accompanying Vicki to place a bug in a suspects office, Henry asks Vicki to accompany him to an art show he has for the following evening.  She agrees, but before they can go on their first "date", Jude, the owner of the gallery goes missing.  Vicki takes the case of trying to find him.  Vicki and Coreen work the opening for information about Jude while Mike and Dave are called to investigate the murder of a man found posed in an empty parking lot:  Jude.  Autopsy shows he drowned--on paint that appeared to come from within his body.  Everything goes back to a painting in the gallery that changes before someone dies and a young painter who takes a liking to Coreen.

Season Two, Episode 7:  Wrapped
Original Air Date:  November 23, 2007
Two thieves get more than they expect when they try to steal Incan gold from the body of an Incan mummy.  One dies and the other is forced into servitude by the resurrected mummy.  Henry awakens to a nightmare of the Incan mummy flooding his apartment with light, killing him.  Since vampires do not dream, Henry is worried the end of his existence may be close at hand.  The mummy wants Henry's soul to give him ultimate strength and eternal life.  Will the choice Vicki makes to save Henry's life destroy their friendship?

Season Two, Episode 8:  The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
Original Air Date:  November 30, 2007
Vicki is summoned to prison by a confessed murder who now claims he didn't kill the victim he was accused of killing.  He tells her he's psychic and confessed because he was confused.  He saw the girl being killed as a vision.  A voice in his head has told him the real killer has chosen a new victim, although he cannot see who she is.  Looking over the case information causes Vicki to remember her time on the force as Mike's partner and to arguments between she and Mike.  Henry arrives at Vicki's office questioning if she or Careen have had any dreams, hallucinations or bad feelings or of Vicki's marks have flared up.  The tension between Vicki and both Henry and Mike is great but can they all put that aside to work together to find the truth about who is killing the women?

Season Two, Episode 9:  We'll Meet Again
Original Air Date:  January 3, 2008
Vicki is hired by a very young man who wants her to find his soul mate.  He tells her they have been reincarnated for centuries and he needs to find a way to contact his love this time around.  When they find her, she is already married.  She later confides in Vicki that she is pregnant with her husbands child and the two women talk about the two men in both of their lives.  When her client wants to "reset" he and his soul mate's lives, Vicki must stop them.  Meanwhile, meets with an old friend, Augustus, to plan a move.  Mike is in trouble with Crowley.  Vicki is saddened when she learns Henry is thinking of leaving town.

Season Two, Episode 10:  Deep Dark
Original Air Date:  January 10, 2008
Careen is possessed by Astaroth when she seeks the services of Madame Andrea searching for advice regarding Vicki's romantic problems.  When they find Careen, an even bigger problem arises:  Astaroth has taken her heart and the exorcism they have planned will certainly kill her.  Meanwhile, a young girl is abducted and Mike is on the task force to find her.  A call from Vicki regarding Careen interferes with his performance on the task force.  Will his involvement in Vicki's mission to save Careen end his career and, quite possibly, his life?  Has time finally come for Vicki to make a choice between Henry and Mike?

For more information:
Official Show Site from myLifetime.com:  http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/blood-ties
The Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808013/
TV Rage:  http://www.tvrage.com/Blood_Ties

CDN Television: Blood Ties, Season 1

Season One, Episode 1 & 2:  Blood Price
Original Air Date:  March 11, 2007
Ex-police detective and current private investigator Vicki Nelson witnesses an attack and murder.  She tries chasing down the suspect but he vanishes.  Her former partner (and close friend) Mike Celluci is the officer called in to investigate.  When the girlfriend of the murder victim hires Vicki to find out what happened to him, Vicki gets more than she bargained for.  A mysterious, handsome, charming and potentially dangerous man comes into her life:  Henry Fitzroy, a 480 year-old vampire.  Henry's knowledge of the supernatural gives Vicki an extra edge to help find who murdered her client's boyfriend.

Season One, Episode 3:  Bad JuJu
Original Air Date:  March 18, 2007
Minutes after Vicki is hired by a young woman from New Orleans to find her missing brother she and the girl are attacked by a voodoo-resurrected zombie that is after her client, Angelique.  Vicki is determined to protect Angelique no matter what the cost and no matter how much Henry warns her of the dangers.  Vicki is surprised to learn that her client isn't as innocent as she thought.

Season One, Episode 4:  Gifted
Original Air Date:  March 25, 2007
Vicki reads some of Henry's graphic novels to learn more about him.  Vicki is hired by a woman to find her missing son-in-law, Steve, as her daughter was recently murdered and Steve needs to care for their young daughter.  She's surprised to learn that Steve wants nothing to do with his daughter but even more surprised to find out why.  Mike learns Henry's secret.

Season One, Episode 5:  Deadly Departed
Original Air Date:  April 1, 2007
Mike is still angry Vicki never told him Henry was a vampire.  A series of murders, all with strange circumstances, lead Vicki and Henry to only one conclusion:  they were committed by a dead man.  They must find out how the murders are being committed and who is truly behind them before anyone else dies.  Wanting to know more about his past, Mike begins an investigation into Henry.

Season One, Episode 6:  Love Hurts
Original Air Date:  April 8, 2007
Vicki is hired by a man to find out whether his wife is having an affair or not.  The woman Vicki is hired to investigate turns up dead and she, Henry and Mike are drawn into a deadly, and supernatural, case of passion and jealousy.  Henry is unable to use his charms on the dead woman's three best friends.  When a second woman is killed, Vicki places herself in danger to stop the killer.

Season One, Episode 7:  Heart of Ice
Original Air Date:  April 15, 2007
The brutal murder of a homeless woman leads her friend, Annie, an old acquaintance of Vicki's from her time as a beat cop to come asking for help in solving her friends death and the deaths of three other homeless people.  Her investigation leads Vicki and Henry to a deadly and horrifying killer that even Henry may be no match for.  Meanwhile, Mike and Dave investigate the murder of a prostitute that has what looks like vampire bite marks on her neck.  A mysterious man is seen in the crowd of onlookers which interests Mike but he's looking at Henry as the killer.  When the mysterious man from the crime scene shows up at the police station, Mike ends up making a deal that could cost Henry his existence.

Season One, Episode 8:  Heart of Fire
Original Air Date:  April 22, 2007
Mike and Vicki must save Henry from the evil clutches of Javier Mendoza before he can kill him.  An old vampire friend of Henry's, Delphine, is also being held prisoner by Mendoza.  Vicki and Mike learn Mendoza was a grand inquisitor during the Spanish Inquisition specializing in encouraging confessions out of witches.  Mendoza's torture has caused Henry to go near-mad.  Can he remember how he felt about Vicki enough to keep from killing her and Mike?

Season One, Episode 9:  Stone Cold
Original Air Date:  April 29, 2007
Mike is still dealing with having been bitten by Henry.  Vicki is hired to find a missing young male model.  She and Henry suspect a beautiful club owner of knowing more than she's admitting.  The case becomes complicated when Mike falls under the club owner's spell.  Vicki must work quickly to save not only Mike but a number of other young missing men as well as Henry.

Season One, Episode 10:  Necrodrome
Original Air Date:  May 6, 2007
Vicki is hired by the owner of a mortuary when a body literally walks out of the mortuary and a mysterious man is caught on videotape entering just moments earlier.  The investigation leads her to the Necrodrome, an arena where two men, two dead men, battle until one "kills" the other.  Vicki and Henry have less than 24 hours before the next battle will be underway at the Necrodrome. 

Season One, Episode 11:  Post Partum
Original Air Date:  May 13, 2007
Vicki, with Mike posing as her husband, goes undercover at a strange fertility clinic when a husband hires her because of concern for his wife who is there for treatments.  She quickly learns there is something supernatural happening at the clinic.  If she doesn't figure out who, or what, is behind all the strange goings on she might not make it out of the clinic alive.  Henry and Careen learn something about the children born to the mothers of the clinic that is troubling.

Season One, Episode 12:  Norman
Original Air Date:  May 20, 2007
A few drops of blood landing on the floor of Norman Bridewell's old apartment brings Norman back into the realm of existence.  A woman goes to Vicki claiming to be a psychic with news that she saw her, her office and something in it that wanted to hurt her.  She tells her of 3 powerful objects (a stone chalice, ancient dagger and a book) that was being used to kill her.  One by one, Norman works to collect the three objects working his way to Vicki. 

For more information:
Official Show Site from myLifetime.com:  http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/blood-ties
The Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808013/
TV Rage:  http://www.tvrage.com/Blood_Ties

CDN Television: Blood Ties, Introduction

Shows like The Vampire Diaries and True Blood are getting a lot of attention right now because vampires are one of the hottest things in Hollywood at the moment.  Twilight cannot take the credit for that because since the very first vampire was put onto film in 1922, Hollywood has had a love affair with the supernatural creatures.  Their popularity has come and gone many times but they've always been around and will return again once they fade from this burst of attention.

There have been many shows on television that have dealt with vampires in some shape, way or form.  Shows such as Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot (originally made in 1979 and re-made in 2004), the UK's Being Human (re-made in Canada for US television in 2011) and Ultraviolet from the UK and Canada's Forever Knight all chose to depict vampires in either the traditional sense or in an updated, more scientific way.  There have even been children's shows based around the vampire legend.  Young Dracula aired for two series in the United Kingdom (and has recently been renewed for a third series) and dealt with issues many children face in a humorous and fantastical, but also realistic way.

Blood Ties was a short-lived Canadian drama of 22 hour-long episodes based on the Blood Books series by Tanya Huff.  Blood Ties was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and aired first in the United States on the Lifetime Network before airing later in Canada in Citytv and Space.  It ran from March 11, 2007 to January 10, 2008 with twelve episodes comprising season one and ten season two.  The show, set in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, starred Christina Cox, Dylan Neal, Kyle Schmid and Gina Holden. 

The series follows Vicki Nelson (Cox), a former Toronto police detective who left the job because of Retinitis Pigmentosa, a progressive vision problem that will eventually lead to blindness.  She opens a private investigation office so she can continue doing the work she loves.  She meets and develops a working relationship with a 480 year-old vampire, Henry Fitzroy (Schmid) who helps her deal with the supernatural aspects of the cases she takes.  Her old partner from the force, Mike Celluci (Neal) provides her with a link to her old life and tension in her new life because of his jealousy and dislike of her new partner, Henry.  Her secretary, Coreen Fennel (Holden), is a former client with an interest in the occult who provides insight and research assistance into some of the strange supernatural aspects of the cases.

The first episode starts off a tad slow but once you are introduced to all the characters and the action picks up and takes off, it really takes off.  I, personally, would say this show is a bit like Supernatural meets the Rockford Files.  You've got a great private investigator story working but it's not the normal kind of cases you'd expect a P.I. to work on.  Every single one of Vicki's cases have a supernatural aspect to them.  Everything from demons to Medusa to voodoo to mummies to Wendigo's.  Jim Rockford never encountered anything like that in a days work!

Vicki Nelson is super tough.  She takes nothing from no one and does things on her own terms despite objections from those close to her and her physical limitations.  She is reluctant to believe in vampires and the supernatural at first.  She becomes quite comfortable with everything very quickly once she sees those 'unbelievable' things with her own eyes (as well as she can see them, anyway) and experiences them firsthand.  Christina Cox does a brilliant job making this character very believable and she most certainly makes Nelson a strong female lead.  Something that is often much-needed on television.

Henry Fitzroy is an interesting vampire.  He doesn't kill but he's not the kind of vampire that has weened himself off human blood.  You won't see him raiding any blood banks or preying on Bambi and Thumper in the woods.  He feeds from willing subjects and never to the point of killing unless the subject wants to turn and he feels turning them would be appropriate.  (One of Vicki's cases involves an old love of Henry's that he turned.)  He's a charming, handsome, soft-spoken guy with a dry sense of humor who just happens to be the illegitimate son of Henry VIII (Fitzroy is Henry, Duke of Richmond) and works in the modern day as a graphic artist.  In his 480 years he's known every aspect of life from poverty to extreme privilege.  Henry has a severe dislike for magic because, having been around for almost five centuries, he knows the dangers and costs that go along with it.  Henry's vampirism is traditional (he sleeps during the day, must have blood to survive, cannot be out in daylight and has many supernatural vampiric powers) but there are also a few nontraditional aspects to him.  Crosses and holy water do not harm him, he doesn't sleep in a coffin filled with the soil of his birthplace and he isn't a savage killing machine that exists only to claim as many lives as possible and get as much blood as he can.

All of the characters are very likable in this series.  Even when Mike and Henry are at odds over their relationships with Vicki and fighting like two little boys, you still like them both.  Mike and Henry can actually work together for the greater good without letting their dislike for one another get in the way so their antagonism for one another isn't always being thrown in the viewers faces.  No one is whiny or lingers on the "this stuff can't be real!" lines for too long.  They might complain a bit, then see something that changes their mind and they move on.  The shows are sprinkled with just enough humor to lighten the mood where necessary but not to make the show an outright comedy.  The atmosphere is dark and mysterious which adds to the theme and look of the show and there aren't any silly aspects like sparkling vampires thrown in.

I think it is important to say you needn't be a vampire fan to enjoy Blood Ties.  Yes, one of the main characters is a vampire but the show isn't exclusively based around Henry and his lifestyle.  There's a wide variety of supernatural aspects to this short-lived series.  If you're someone who enjoys a good mystery that delves into the more unusual side of things, I'm positive you can find at least one episode of Blood Ties that is right up your alley.  It would have been wonderful had this series lasted longer than 22 episodes.  The writing was strong, the acting excellent and the stories engaging.  Had it aired a few years later when the vampire craze had fully taken hold it might still be on the air as it had, and still has, a loyal fan base.

There have been rumors that there is a sequel of sorts to Blood Ties being planned.  In April of 2010, it was announced that Fremantle Corporation and Kaleidoscope Entertainment were developing a new series titled Smoke & Mirrors based on Tanya Huff's Smoke series.  (Kaleidoscope made Blood Ties).  It's rumored that Fremantle and Kaleidoscope are shopping around for support of the series which will be about Henry Fitzroy and the supernatural adventures he experiences on a fictional TV series shoot.  As this is all still very new and nothing is set in stone, there is no news as to who might play Henry.  Personally, if this does come to fruition (and being a huge fan of Blood Ties I most certainly hope it does), I wouldn't mind seeing Kyle Schmid on the small screen again.  If the writing and acting quality, and the same dark atmosphere that made Blood Ties so great are all in place for Smoke & Mirrors, I can only imagine that will be one series I'll definitely have to check out!

The entire series of Blood Ties is available on DVD and Blu-Ray in either the complete first season and complete second season or as the entire series.
Complete Series, DVD
Complete Series, Blu-Ray
Complete Series One, DVD
Complete Series Two, DVD

For more information:
Official Show Site from myLifetime.com:  http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/blood-ties
The Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0808013/
TV Rage:  http://www.tvrage.com/Blood_Ties