[.ca] Ultraviolet [2 Discs] (Widescreen)

From Amazon.com:
In a new twist on an old theme, the coolly stylish British miniseries Ultraviolet brings vampires into the 21st century, though the word vampire is never uttered in this mix of The X-Files and somber British TV mysteries like Touching Evil. Jack Davenport is a police detective who stumbles into an elite government agency when his partner and best friend suddenly becomes a nocturnal thug and bites him on the neck. Davenport reluctantly cuts off his old friends and lovers to join the team, which includes Idris Elba as a merciless ex-soldier and Susannah Harker as a medical researcher, and investigate a web of counterfeiting operations, banking scams, and experimental labs featuring human guinea pigs. "What they're researching is pollution: contamination of their blood supply," offers team leader and former priest Philip Quast, but the question remains: are they soulless monsters out to conquer mankind, or a persecuted minority who just want to live in peace with the humans? Writer-director-creator Joe Ahearne brings all the traditional vampire tropes up to date; not only do they lack reflections in a mirror, but they don't show up on video and their voices don't carry over phone lines or record on audio tapes ("which makes surveillance a bitch"). Sunlight burns like an acid, and when they die they go up like a flare, leaving a pile of ash in their wake. But it's the sharp character writing, moral quandaries, and ingenious twists of this smart, stylish conspiracy thriller that make this series gripping down to the final episode. The two-disc DVD set features an audio interview with Ahearne along with episode synopses and character notes. --Sean Axmaker

Nobody Does it Better:
Let's face it -- the Brits know how to do a few things better than us Yanks: drink tea, print tabloids and produce compelling TV shows come to mind. "Ultraviolet" falls into the last category, and for those of you who don't mind blending genres, this show is well worth the price of admission. "Ultraviolet" is part mystery, part sci-fi thriller and part horror show mixed into one story spread over six episodes. The main character, Michael (played by Jack Davenport, also of "Coupling" fame), is a London police detective leading a fairly normal life in the beginning of the Episode One. When his partner Jack disappears on the night before Jack's wedding, however, Michael investigates and quickly becomes possessed of a knowledge that few others have: the world is infested by a small but active vampire colony. Interestingly, the word "vampire" is never used in the series; "leech" is apparently the preferred term. However, these leeches suck blood from their victims' necks, have superhuman strength, cannot be recorded by any modern technology, can be killed by exposure to sunlight, and will live forever if not destroyed. In other words, if it quacks like a duck... While continuing his investigation into Jack's disappearance, Michael is reluctantly recruited into a special police/paramilitary unit whose sole function is to neutralize the leeches and keep humanity safe from enslavement and/or extermination. I'm not going to provide an episode guide; other reviewers below have done that. Instead, I'm going to tell you why you should watch this show. First, Writer/Director Joe Ahearne does a masterful job of buliding suspense. The action is seen through Michael's eyes for the most part, and Ahearne uses the classic "less is more" style to make this show really creepy. For example, you hardly ever see the leeches; instead, you see the effects on the people with whom the leeches have had contact. It creates a very tense atmosphere of "they're out there somewhere, we just don't know where." (See the movie "Alien" if you don't know what I'm talking about.) Further, Michael's new colleagues are almost as threatening as the leeches. It is several episodes before Michael learns much about them and even then they are so maniacal about doing their job, you never quite get to a spot where you completely trust them. The viewer knows, as does Michael, that Michael would be shot down immediately if he ever ever becomes a leech, bonds of loyalty or friendship (such as they are) notwithstanding. Second, the cinematography is excellent. Much like early seasons of the "X-Files", most of the scenes in "Ultraviolet" are shot either in very low light or at night, setting a dark mood for the whole series. I won't ruin it for you, but there is a scene in Episode Five (Terra Incognita) involving one of Michael's colleagues being trapped inside a warehouse with several leech coffins that are time-coded to open right at sundown. Michael and the cavalry are ten minutes away; the coffins are set to open in four minutes. The sun sets in the blood red sky as this seconds tick off and.... well, as another reviewer says, this might be the best scene in the whole series. Third, and although there is plenty of action, the characters develop more through good dialogue than through good marksmanship. It's really hard to find a show that is as well written as this one, where what the characters say has real meaning to the story, as opposed to just being filler material until the next chase scene. It is so well done, in fact, that you will be sorely disappointed when the end of Episode Six rolls around because you really want to know what happens next to all of these people. You feel cheated, like there should be more. And that, my friends, is the mark of a good TV show. So go ahead and hit that 1-click ordering button; you'll be glad you did.

Slick, stylish, dark:
A British masterpiece, modern, stylish and dark.

Simply the Best Vampire Fiction on TV:
This British show does what nothing else seems to have accomplished: it built a supernatural thriller/melodrama that honors both its horror and intrigue elements and origins. The writing is top-notch, the performances first-rate and the cinematography is very, very solid. Though only six episodes, this show left me breathless the first time I saw it, and I've yet to get a bad review when screening it for horror-loving friends. This is highly, HIGHLY recommended for fans of horror, intrigue, melodrama and anyone who thinks that horror shows are unavoidably lame.

Scary, Clever, Excellent:
One of the most fun viewing experiences I've had in recent days is watching one episode of this series each night over the period of a week. The idea of likening vampires to multiple minorities is brilliant - the gay, the HIV+, the ill, the deaf, the disabled - because it keeps the protagonists morally ambiguous. Is what they're doing right? That's for you to decide. The whole thing is terribly scary, more so because it's rationalised by science. My biggest complaint is that the bloody thing ends just as it's getting more interesting than ever before! The characters are mostly well-drawn, headed by Jack Davenport ("Coupling," "Pirates of the Caribbean") although I found the female characters rather lacking. Susannah Harker's character is every bitchy, cold scientist with a past that I've ever seen (and I've seen a fair few). I think it's quite a mistake to have put her on the front cover as a sort of Scully to Jack Davenport's Mulder; they're barely seen together in the show! My personal favorite character was Philip Quast's fallen, tortured priest, the leader of the team. I ultimately wanted to know a lot more about him than the others. Of course, "Ultraviolet" isn't perfect - a few plot revelations are completely telegraphed, and the show changes its stance on some of the finer details of the vampire legend more than once - but it's still very good. In fact, I don't understand at all why they could only make six episodes out of it. Unlike most miniseries, there's easily enough unanswered questions to make a full British season of 13 episodes, or maybe even two. The DVD's quite good quality - the video looks quite crisp to me and the occasional bright colors (especially the blue of the labs) are very clear. I was also quite pleased by the 5.1 mix (which I believe the R2 release does not have?) - not usually the sort of thing I notice, but for a British series, the music is astonishingly full and pleasant. In fact, it sometimes overpowers the dialogue, especially in episodes one and two - and made me distinctly wish for a subtitle track. The text extras are a bit lacking (and hard to find - they're accessed via the "V" chapter selection of each episode, and then the "Code V Area" button), but the two-part audio interview with writer/director Joe Ahearne is very good. Quite a nice little set of an astonishingly good show.

Nobody does it better:
This is the BBC being very, very cool. And nobody does cool like they do. The whole series is deliciously ambiguous. There's no answer about weather vampires here are good or bad, weather they change and see people as nothing but food or remain mostly human, with human intrests. Is everything they do deliberate and designed to decieve, or do they feel? Everything they do can have two meanings; one human and one completely alien. This lack of answer creates a tension and an alienness in this series that drives it, makes it amazing. I loved it. Plus I liked the whole nifty toys and ideas. But I won't spoil it, you'll have to be surprised adn delighted for yourself.