Do you miss “True Blood”?
NBC sure has a series you can sink your teeth into. (Lame pun intended, but it’s the kind of line that would fit well here.)
Based on another series of novels from “True Blood” author Charlaine Harris, “Midnight, Texas” is the tale of a town inhabited by supernatural beings and the few humans who love them.
You won’t find a telepathic waitress in baby doll clothes, but you will find a group of characters and a set of relationships that bear uncanny resemblance to the HBO series that ended in 2014.
NBC hasn’t helped, even in several instances casting actors who look like the “True Blood” originals.
Manfred (Francois Arnaud, “The Borgias”) is a medium who is too good at his job. A reading for a widow goes awry when the deceased takes over his body and tries to strangle his beloved. Then there’s the guy who keeps threatening Manfred on his cell. Manfred decides to take his granny Xylda’s (Joanne Camp) advice and head to Midnight, Texas, where he will be presumably safe.
Granny couldn’t be more wrong. Also, Granny is quite dead. She’s one of the few ghosts Manfred doesn’t mind spending time with.
Once in the rundown town, which looks more like a faded Western movie studio set, Manfred figures out why Granny recommended it so highly. It’s full of people with strange gifts or curses, depending on your viewpoint.
“Usually I’m the freak in the room,” Manfred remarks.
Lem (Peter Mensah, “Spartacus: Blood and Sand”) is a vampire who can also feed off the energy of others. His lover, Olivia (Arielle Kebbel, “The Vampire Diaries”), is a sarcastic assassin with an arsenal that would be the envy of any third-world nation.
When the moon is full, the Rev. Emilio (Yul Vazquez, “Bloodline”) turns into a weretiger.
Fiji (Parisa Fitz-Henley, “Luke Cage”) is a witch who has a talking cat that sounds a lot like Truman Capote.
Joe (Jason Lewis, “Sex and the City”) is a fallen angel who runs a tattoo shop with his husband and is clued into the evil undercurrent threatening the town. He believes in a prophecy that predicts a great war between good and evil and that Manfred will be needed to lead them in a battle to prevent hell from being unleashed on earth.
Bobo (Dylan Bruce, a favorite from his “Orphan Black” days) is one of the few humans in the town. He runs the pawn shop and is the immediate suspect when his fiancee is found dead.
Creek (Sarah Ramos) is drawn to Manfred, but her father goes to drastic lengths to keep them apart.
There’s a lot happening on “Midnight, Texas.” Things move fast, if predictably, as the Big Bad inches nearer. The pasts of various residents seem to take turns threatening the town.
Harris serves as a consulting producer, and in execution, at least, the series makes the strong case that Harris either has a limited imagination or is a genius for playing to what people want to buy from her.
“Midnight, Texas” could have been called “True Blood: The Next Generation” or even more precisely “True Blood: The Low-Budget Network Reboot.” Either way, it can’t shake a fang at the original.
