Forgotten Favorites: Kindred The Embraced
Kindred The Embraced
By Jessica Dwyer
With approach of Halloween and the recent influx of vampire shows on TV this year, I thought I’d go back to an oldie but goodie bloodsucker series that’s available on DVD. And no, I’m not talking about Dark Shadows. Back in 1996 White Wolf, the role playing company, was running strong with its Vampire The Masquerade game. Its popularity is still pretty strong, but back then it was hitting its stride…becoming for some a way of life.
The stories and mythos were amazing and have led to many of the new popular films and takes on the vampire and werewolf legends. But back then, Fox decided to give it a go and capitalize on the new love of this form of entertainment with an hour long drama based off it called Kindred: The Embraced.
The show didn’t last long, less than ten episodes actually. I think a lot of this had to do with the title. If you weren’t versed in the game you wouldn’t know what the hell a Kindred was and why anyone would want to hug one. But those few episodes were some good stuff, treating the subject matter seriously and giving it a sexy polish and a neat take on vampires that hadn’t been seen before. So let’s do a breakdown on what this was about.
The Clans of the vampire world (or Kindred) live amongst humans. They keep up a façade called The Masquerade which means they fake being human so they don’t get hunted. Each clan has its own sort of characteristics. The Toreador’s love art and beauty, The Gangrel’s are biker/gang types, and The Ventrue are sort of the politicians for example. Each city has a prince, and in this case it’s Julian Luna, a hunky Ventrue who does a mean Tyrone Power impression. Julian has his hands full trying to keep San Francisco in line. If its not people trying to take his place as prince, its trying to keep everything secret.
The show played out as part Falcon Crest and part Dark Shadows. It was a little cheesy at some points, but the acting by cast members like Mark Frankel who played Julian and Jeff Kober who played the honorable Nosferatu henchman Daedalus balanced it out nicely. Even C. Thomas Howell who played cop with a tragic past Frank brought his A game.
The show, even though it had a limited run, wasn’t without its share of controversy. An episode where a mental patient is turned into a vampire in a mental hospital was not shown in the US. The episode was deemed too violent. FYI, the crazy vampire was named Starkweather, the same as a famous serial killer here in the states.
KTE was actually in the process of working with the Showtime cable network after its cancellation to be picked up when tragedy struck. Mark Frankel, the handsome and charismatic actor who played lead vampire Julian Luna was killed in motorcycle crash only days after the series ended. Without the prince, the plans were ended.
But fortunately for us Frankel’s great acting lives on in the land of DVD. Artisan Home Entertainment released a two DVD set of all the episodes (including the ones that didn’t make it on US television. But strangely enough there are some changes to the episodes.
The main difference between what’s on the DVD’s and what was aired is the music…and the change can be quite distracting. On the DVD’s the music is taken from two well known vampire films, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Interview with the Vampire. For vampire fans the music is obvious. I’m still not sure what happened to cause the change, but my guess is it had to do with the rights to the music written specifically for the show.
The other change is the Pilot. The DVD’s pilot is extended and has a nice little add at the end that would have made the show more interesting if it had been allowed to keep going. But be warned, it seems another DVD set was produced that doesn’t have the extra scenes. Be sure to look at the UPC’s, that’s the only way to tell or if you are looking for it on Ebay ask the seller.
So now…on to the little trivia tidbits that I find interesting about the cast:
Jeff Kober, the actor who played Daedalus actually painted the art that his character created. Nice touch there.
Kober, Channon Roe, and Brian Thompson would all wind up starring episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Actor Erik King, Frank’s secretly blood drinking pal is now on Dexter as yet another cop.
Nearly half the main cast has shown up on the Fox TV series 24. (Funnily enough, 24 seems to be a haven for vampires. Not only with star Kiefer Sutherland having played one in Lost Boys and the Kindred/Buffy connections, they also had Geraint Wyn Davies from Forever Knight in a few episodes.)
As I said, Artisan released the entire series on DVD. My suggestion is to look for it on Ebay! It’s worth the pick up.
