‘First Kill’ Review: Fun To Watch Easy To Criticise
‘First Kill‘ looked like a slam dunk when it popped up on my Coming Soon Netflix list. A same-sex couple facing tests to their relationship both supernatural and more mundane. How could that go wrong?
The answer seems to be by trying to do too much at once. It nearly brought down the show but there is a lot there that makes it so very watchable.
Falling in love is tricky for teens Juliette and Calliope: One’s a vampire, the other’s a vampire hunter and both are ready to make their first kill.
This review contains spoilers.
First thing, do you like vampires? Because the lore, or the way they reveal them, feels unplanned. If you like a heavy fantasy read you’ll know the best sort of lore (rules of the world) blends into the narrative in a way that doesn’t jar the reader. While watching ‘First Kill’ it feels like you need to take notes on all things supernatural as they come up.
Small things seem to get a great deal of explanation but the larger stuff, things that should represent character moments, are just skirted over or unexplained. A lot of the time I was watching as family members explained one thing to Juliette or Calliope but not that thing that we want to know more about.
Still, not everyone gets as nerdy as me when watching a new show. The core of what we have here, a same-sex lead, is a step in the right direction and not the first time Netflix has put LGBT couples in the lead. The ‘Fear Street’ trilogy is another recent example featuring a queer couple in the lead roles in supernatural peril, of a different kind though.
It is refreshing in ‘First Kill’ that we have both Juliette and Calliope out and accepted by their families (arguable in Juliette’s case, but complicated). Too many of these stories pit the queer person against the family and friends, but this show takes a different approach. Falling in love with a supernatural being is hardly new, indeed ‘Buffy’ tells us that this was always going to get messy.
For the most part, the two fighting their feelings for each other feels real, though heightened. The whole “Romeo & Juliet” scene added with the “Biblical” origins of Juliette’s family was wild. The show is light fun for the most part and I think that works. Unfortunately, there are a lot of plots going on which leaves a feeling of things being rushed.
We’ve got the central love story and it’s “Romeo & Juliet” family vs family. Then there is the monster panic/mob mentality which is, at times, a poorly executed allegory for racism. As proud as ‘First Kill’ seems of its Savannah setting that plotline could and should have been handled better. Elinor’s drive to be taken seriously and her ruthless ambition was interesting. However, the show keeps oscillating between her being evil incarnate or just misunderstood without really giving us enough of her decisions so we can decide for ourselves.
JULIETTE
Having finished the first season I can now state that I’m not a fan of Juliette. I have tried to feel sympathy for her belief that all life is sacred, but it was always an impossible future she was aiming for. She may be a teenager but even they have some sense of reality. Then the change that takes place after her first kill is quite abrupt and is never really examined. They never really explain why there needs to be a first kill, and that’s a problem. We know the symptoms as such but not the real issue. Why can’t they take blood fresh from a willing donor or from a blood bag?
There just doesn’t seem enough there in the character. For someone who starts out being empathetic and caring of humans, you’d think she would have more friends, even if we accept she’s the shy type. She just seems an almost invisible hanger-on, like a “Bella” type, which made more sense in that character’s arc. I know 8 episodes perhaps aren’t enough to give us a deep understanding of her character, but I’m arguing we definitely needed more than we got.
CALLIOPE
Calliope feels more rounded to me; it would be interesting to get others’ takes on this. She may be a bit one-note initially but coming from that family and its baggage that makes perfect sense. We follow her journey as she questions the assumptions she has made, and then clings to them as her world collapses around her. One part of her story was the vague hints at the corruption of the Guild, but nothing really came of that. If this gets a new season (one can never be too sure with Netflix atm) then maybe we would get more evidence either way?
MVP
Elinor is an enigma wrapped up in a mystery. I spent most of the show trying to sort fact from fiction. According to her brother she’s a monster, her father seemed to view her as an ambitious nuisance, while Juliette and Margot think of her as the ideal Legacy vampire. Difficult to fathom but interesting to watch, as a character she feels the most developed.
MVM (Most Valuable Mom)
Talia (and Aubin Wise, the actress who plays her), were definitely putting in the work. She might not be my favourite character, but she makes a big impression on things. While it may be the Fairmonts that are the matriarchy, it is clear that Talia is the head and heart of her family. Margot on the other hand is nearly as difficult to parse as her youngest. Hopefully, we get to see more of her and get a better understanding of her motivations.
If you made it this far you probably want to see more, so get your friends to watch within the next week, as apparently, that is what Netflix counts when considering renewals. I just want to see how crazy a second season can get in all honestly!
‘First Kill‘ Season 1 is available on Netflix right now.
