MovieChat Forums > Blood Ties (2007) Discussion > Why can't they bring this show back????

Why can't they bring this show back????

posted 14 years ago by insert-witty-name-here
20 replies | jump to latest

Okay, so, I just finished watching through the whole series, and I have to say, I want to shoot myself!

They have these wonderfully developed characters, a plotline that never flatlines, and sexual tension so thick it palpable. And they make you fall in love with these characters (especially Henry.. *swoon*) and they make you care about what happens to them, and they make you cry for them, and then at the most pivotal point of the overall story, they kill it?!?!

Why would you do that?

I know that the people who have the power to bring this back will probably never read this, but it has to be said:

This is the time of the vampire! Granted, they aren't all real vampires (I'm an Anne Rice fan), but hot guys with fangs are the It right now. Do they realize how hard Blood Ties would kill if it was.. brought back from the dead?

What they need to do is get all the original cast back together (I mean, how busy are they?), and they need to pick up where they left off. Like now.

What, did you think I was gonna say something important? Pssh!

[–] Soni_Rogue 14 years ago

It's been over three years now so the possiblity of it being brought back grows dimmer and dimmer.
And both Kyle and CC are onto other projects now (as they both announced recently on their FaceBook pages)

------
A Fang-Phile Fille, Files on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/VampirePhile

[–] james-collett 14 years ago

I have arrived at this show somewhat late. Both seasons have come and gone and I have watched and enjoyed them both now.

I found this show because I was checking out what Christina Cox has done. I think she is a super presence on screen. I noticed her in the second Riddick film, then First Wave and more recently Defying Gravity, before I discovered this show, which really is *her* show, I think, despite the evident appeal of the ladies' man, Henry.

I think it's fair to say that some programmes take a while to gather momentum. This is probably one of them but I actually liked this show right from the start. The dialogue was fun and the characters had hutzpah. I enjoyed the sarcasm and realism in the dialogue that the writers gave them.

But I think it's also fair to say that the build-up of the characters was something you had to wait for; it was an organic thing - a bit like real life. So, while the premise of the show - namely, a mortal girl ties up unexpectedly with a vampire and all her cases then turn to b@t5h1t crazy supernatural stuff - seems hard to justify, nevertheless the feeling you get from it, in terms of the people and relationships, is quite real. You start, slowly at first perhaps, to care about the characters and then, after a little while, you are well and truly into the show.

I realise that Blood Ties is cancelled or, should I say, that it was not renewed for a third season. But I should still like to voice my objection. I presume that ratings dictated the executive decision not to go for a third season. But if it made it to Season 2, then I am wondering, How close was it really?

Clearly the story was not finished; there was plenty to pick up on after the last episode of Season 2. It's really frustrating not knowing what happened next.

As for producion values, I can see that this is not a big hitter. I sense often that Canadian shows are treated with contempt by US audiences because less money seems to be spent on them. This show was an odd mixture of really cool dialogue juxtaposed with limited sets or sound and lighting quality. I often felt this most in the scenes involving the police department location, and I did not understand why, but the actors made up for any such shortcomings in spades. For example, the mortuary lady, Dr. Rajani Mohadevan, was an example of an interesting character that hinted of a curious back story, but sadly we never got to find out.

I feel there was lots left undone with this seres and lots of places to go. And of course, the whole deal with the major demon geezer and the priest at the end of season 2 is totally up for grabs.

I grow increasingly of the opinion that if you are a mildly smart viewer then your aspirations regarding intelligent televsion viewing wlll not materialise. The ratings, or the interpretation by the tv company of the ratings measurements, are all that count at the end of the day.

[–] angellcakes 13 years ago

the show wasnt picked up for another season because the UK's lifetimenetwork didnt want to pick it up again. i wish another network would have picked it up. ctv should have.

[–] james-collett 13 years ago

I did not know that the UK had a Lifetime Network.

(I live in the UK and I have never seen this network.)

[–] knight_sentinel 13 years ago

They're still kicking themselves for canceling the series, both "True Blood" and the first "Twilight" film were released the same year they canceled this series, and they both ended up being big hits., The CW is doing well with "The Vampire Diaries", Yup, kicking themselves.

Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] knight_sentinel 13 years ago

I think the problem with "Moonlight" which I only saw a handful of episodes was that it was similar to "Angel" the character even drove a classic convertible.

Although it was probably meant to be, the star of the series seems to be doing very well with the re-booted "Hawaii Five-O".

I think if you have the right executive they follow trends or try to get ahead of them, and sometimes an executive who gave the green light to a project gets replaced or moves somewhere else and the new executive decides to pull the plug.

Sometimes it's a change in ownership at the company, and a network will completely change direction.

I don't know what inspired "Moonlight", but all of the other vampire productions "Blood Ties", "True Blood", "Twilight", and "The Vampire Diaries" are all based on a series of books, which is why I was surprised they canceled this series. Even the author liked the television version of the series.

Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] knight_sentinel 13 years ago

"Moonlight" may have won it's slot but I just don't think enough people were going to watch the series, I personally don't care for Alex. I thought he was rather boring.

The similarities went beyond just the two characters being vampire, being private eyes and driving a convertible, the flash back scenes of their past etc. Even some of their past references to who they both knew in the past.

The character of Mick St. John on "Moonlight" was originally named Mick Angel, and then they had originally entitled the re-worked movie script as a television series that was originally entitled "Twilight", and one time David Greenwalt, co-creator of Angel was hired as show runner, but had to leave the series for some reason.

The character on the "Blood Ties" series only became a private detective after she left the police force because of something to do with her eye sight.

Just because series wins it's time slot doesn't mean it can pay for itself the ratings need to high enough for a network to be able to ask for a certain amount of ad dollars to keep a series on the air. I don't know what CBS needed in ad revenue to keep the series on the air, but none of the series that were on Friday nights at that time are still on the air on any of the broadcast networks.

A series needs to bring in ad dollars and and rates are based on the number of people watching. A cable series could have 900,000 thousand viewers and stay on the air their ad rates aren't that high and they can pay for their series.

I don't know what it cost to produce "Moonlight" if it was between $800,000.00 to $900,000.00 CBS would need to ask for at least $27,000.00 to $30,000.00 for a 30 second spot to break even and since they;re trying to make a profit they would probably ask rate of 35 to 40,000.00 or more for a 30 second spot, and it could be that advertisers didn't want to pay whatever it was that CBS was asking for the series.

They said "Moonlight" was getting about 7.5 million viewers it could be that the advertiser didn't like the pricing the series was picked before CBS and done their upfront ad rates, and it could be they didn't factor in a high enough rate to keep the show on the air and they can't change their rates once advertisers have committed their ad budgets and given a network money after the fact..

If the series had been on a better night it may have done better, but then again "Ghost Whisperer" did better for awhile on Friday nights. you also have to look at the type of people who usually watch CBS and even Lifetime it's not like either network had a lot of other programs that dealt with the supernatural. I don't know how they promoted either series either.

As I pointed out earlier "Blood Ties" had a following from the book and then you have to figure some additional viewers that might like vampires.

They even shopped the "Moonlight" series around to other networks and no one wanted to buy it. So there was something else going on that made the other networks pass on the series.

The thing is CBS did moved the series to the CW and in the spring/summer of 2010 pairing it with "The Vampire Diaries" and it still didn't pick up enough of an audience to bring back the series.

FYI, the character of Mick St. John on "Moonlight" was originally named Mick Angel, and then they had originally entitled the re-worked movie script as a television series that was originally entitled "Twilight", and one time David Greenwalt, co-creator of Angel was hired as show runner, but had to leave the series for some reason.

They were working on a new series that will be a sequel to "Blood Ties" last year I don't know if they were able to get the funding to do it, and i don't know where it was going to air..

Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] knight_sentinel 13 years ago

When CBS first canceled the series it was suggested they move it to the CW, and the CW passed on it just like all the other networks. Why?

Actually Alex O'Laughlin was under some CBS development contract so he would have been paid whether he got a new series or not. I had seen O'Laughlin on "The Shield" before this series and I just wasn't impressed with him, but they must not have been either because he didn't come back the following season.

They did try to shop "Blood Ties" around as well, and no one wanted to pick it up. It could just be that is was the series themselves because some other vampire series have come in recent years after the "Twilight" series and "The Vampire Diaries" an gone as well, and that was after the boon in vampire series and films.

I don't know about CBS' reasons, but Lifetime had picked up "Blood Ties" a second time, but you can tell that they were changing the branding of the Lifetime network, and I seem to recall Lifetime's reason for not renewing "Blood Ties" for a third season had to do with the new direction the Lifetime network was going.

Science-fiction and fantasy series have a hard time staying on the air, "The Gates" which i didn't watch was canceled after their 13 episodes had aired, and i believe that was an attempt to capture the "True Blood", "Twilight" and "The Vampire Dairies" audience.

Network executives come and go and what one likes, another might not. Some of these programs are picked up with the full blessing of the person in charge, but then they leave and the program gets axed.

I think both series lack of strong leads most likely lead to both series not being picked up by a network, I liked Christina Cox, but if the series were shopped around and the networks passed then the executives didn't like something in the series to want to take a chance, even with the vampire hoopla.

I had mentioned they were probably kicking themselves because a program has a better chance of survival on it's original network, than it does when they move to another network where people have to try and find it.

Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] ajhdettmer 13 years ago

Imho Blood Ties had a likeable cast and decent acting but
was kinda low budget and often sloppy written and directed.
No match for True Blood,Vampire Diaries or Supernatural.
Well see how the new witch show compares to that.
To be honest id rather like to see a second season of Wonderfalls
than a third season of Blood Ties.

[–] silvervintage82 13 years ago

Besides the very well cast characters, it was the dialogue, despite the low budget, that set this show apart. There were some very clever moments in this series. What they could have improved on is the story of the week. But what they did with their budget? Impressive.

On a side note, I think Blood Ties is better written than The Vampire Diaries, even though the latter is flashier.

That all said, I could give up every vampire show, or every other show in general, for a second season of Moonlight!

[–] ajhdettmer 13 years ago

Yeah,Moonlight was entertaining.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] red_rackham_77 12 years ago

I loved it at first but there were a lot of things on the show that I found annoying and down-right dumb moves.

1) Vikkie seemed to like teasing both Mike and Henry, it isn't so funny anymore to me.

2) How many episode did it take for Vikkie to see that vamps, witches and all that stuff is real?

That is about all I can list for now, I love that she is a vamp love interest who wears glasses, she is tough and kicks real ass. I wished it wasn't aired on lifetime.

Makes me wonder why was it taken down?

[–] julia_kardanets 10 years ago

Ok I watched this show a little bit ago and got into it right away. I like that this vampire show is different then twilight& vampier diaries (even though I love those too:)) this is more adult then teens which is sooooo freaking nice to see. This show is over the top. I cannot believe that those dumb people didn't finish all the seasons. We need more shows like this(adult like) I'm kind of getting sick n tiered of teen shows all the time . Adult versions are a lil bit more fun for us older crowd ;). So sad there will be no 3rd season. I really wanted to know what happens with Vicki,Henry,and that demon thing.

[–] WishfulDreamer 9 years ago

I was always bummed they didn't at least make a TV movie finale or something to resolve the cliffhanger. It's just left up to our imagination that the group probably teamed back up again to defeat Astoroth.

Or we can look at the way the books progressed...except the show is very different.