The Series
With so many titles that come through my mailbox it is not unusual to come across a few that strike me as completely unfamiliar. The Canadian series Blood Ties is one such title that falls into that category for me and being that the series originally aired in the United States on the Lifetime Network, it would not be unusual to find most men running, screaming, making the sign of the cross and throwing holy water as they furiously scrambled for their remotes to get away from the series. In fact, that alone might have been quite sufficient to repel this vampire-inspired forensic investigation drama, based on the series of novels by Canadian author Tanya Huff, right into oblivion after only two hard-fought seasons on the air.
The story itself is a mixture of what one might consider a more mature "grrl power" vibe meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As its opening salvo, Blood Ties' protagonist Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox) is working as private detective in Toronto after being forced to retire from the police force due to a degenerative eye disease that has left her with poor (and worsening) night vision. Vicki is drawn into an unusual case by a client, Coreen Fennel (Gina Holden), to investigate the disapperance of Coreen's boyfriend. In an odd twist, it turns out Coreen is being stalked by a man who is possessed by a demon. Vicki is marked by the demon and from that point on all the weird and supernatural phenomena in the area are drawn to her.
During the course of her investigation, Vicki meets the dashing young Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid) who is also investigating the case independently. It turns out that Henry is actually a 480-year-old vampire and the illegitimate son of Henry VIII. The two decide to team up on a more permanent basis on cases, which complicates matters for Vicki, because it draws her into a love triangle with Henry and her former partner Detective Mike Celluci (Dylan Neal).
The series starts off a bit slowly, but things quickly heat up and the supernatural ride and all that that implies is in full swing before you know it. It is far more over-the-top than the similarly themed and short-lived series Moonlight, so anyone into the newly-hot vampire genre should be warned -- there's certainly enough "Twilight" melodrama in Blood Ties to go around, but also a heavy dose of geekiness.
The Picture
Blood Ties' 1.78:1 AVC/MPEG-4 1080p transfer is an average television encoding that sufficiently captures the moody look of the series, but it won't stand out as spectacular. Apart from sporadic color banding that I noticed from time to time, it did the job. Flesh tones were natural and shadow details were nicely extended. There were a few times when background detail could have been a little sharper.
The Sound
This is one of the odd times when I have to say that having a lossless soundtrack did not impress me any more than a lossy one might have. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 soundtrack offered up on this release is just average. It doesn't provide much dynamic range, it sounds a bit dry, and movement is a bit stagnant; at least the dialogue is clean and intelligible throughout.
The Extras
The tossed together extras don't bring much to the table and they have a strictly promotional feel to them. What exactly are they trying to sell to you when you already have the disc in your player?
The extras on this disc are:
Final Thoughts
Maybe Blood Ties just missed the new wave of vampire chic by a year or two so it was unable to garner a sufficient audience to stay on the air, but I have no doubt this release will have its fan base. It's not great drama by any stretch, but fantasy and sci-fi fans who like their tales with a bit of romance thrown in should eat this up.
Product Details
Where to Buy:
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