Well, I have now finished watching Ultraviolet. This was a 6-episode British TV series about a secret war between vampires (though, interestingly, they never once used the word), and a shadowy organization which hunts them. I believe this show actually did air in the US at some point or another, but, true to my usual pattern, I managed to miss it. I'd heard good things about it, though, so I went and picked it up on DVD. Yeah, so I've apparently found a really expensive way to watch television. It seems to be working for me...

The show has kind of an X-Files-ish sort of feel to it, what with all the conspiracy and paranoia and such. Personally, I thought it did a much better story arc than X-Files ever managed, but then, I suppose it's a lot easier to do tight plotting over the course of six episodes than over six years (or however long The X-Files was actually on the air). It's very dark in tone, with some very interesting moral ambiguities; it's not always at all clear whether the vampire hunters aren't considerably worse than their prey, which I rather like. It also puts a couple of interesting new twists on the vampire mythos, particuarly with the idea that vampires not only don't show up in mirrors or on cameras, but you can't even hear their voices on the telephone... It also takes a very subtle approach towards characterization and storytelling, in that uniquely British way that always has appealed to me. (American TV writers seem to think that not only does the audience need everything spelled out for them in great, explicit detail, but that unless the characters are willing to gush about their feelings in a show of histrionics, they must not have any. Well, OK, that's an exaggeration, but, really, not all that much of one.)

Anyway, overall, this is a pretty good show. Definitely worth watching if you get the chance.