Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

Kindred The Embraced could almost be called a gothic soap opera. This is a dramatic, suspenseful show that focuses on something normally associated with more horrific movies: vampires. Based on books by Mark Rein-Hagen (which either inspired or were inspired by a role playing game), it’s a look at what a society of vampires might be like if their collective intent were to conceal themselves.

This was an enjoyable show to watch, and, as a fan when it was on the air, I have greatly appreciated having all the episodes at hand on DVD after years of not seeing them at all. Of course, some of you are wondering why it was cancelled after 8 episodes if it's really all that great. The show never found a huge following, but was, nevertheless, in negotiations for another season when the actor in the leading role was killed. The show's popularity wasn't enough to justify trying to recover from the blow, and the whole idea fell by the wayside. The series is terribly underrated because people have just never heard of it.

I enjoy the concept, the characters, the stories, the mood - virtually everything. The dark world of the Kindred is far more interesting than the standard real-life dramas. The conflicts are more unusual, and the society with its unique laws is detailed. They reinvent the cinematic vampire to a certain extent (no fangs, can venture into the sun under certain circumstances, etc.) which may bug those who expect Dracula.

The mood is predictably dark. It’s mostly character driven with only a few action sequences but with plenty of suspense and tension. Part of what makes the show great is that there is a real sense of danger for the characters: with very few exceptions, any character is vulnerable to death or change. While you can be guaranteed that the people in the opening credits will be in every episode, not all of them will remain the characters you come to know initially.

I love J. Peter Robinson’s music even to the point of trying to find CD’s of it. If any exist I couldn’t find one so I looked for downloads. When I couldn’t find a download I just copied what I could off the DVD (not for distribution, mind you, just so I could listen to it in the car). Not all series have music worthy of hearing outside the context of the show. It has a smooth gothic sound that is contemporary but with a touch of the classical.

Now that I’ve given you an idea of why I like the show I will give you an overview of the storyline and a description of the episodes with a little more detailed information. My plot summaries will be vague because I don’t want to give away what happens to which character in later episodes.

The Kindred world is made up of various clans. Each clan has particular attributes that set it apart from the others. Some clans get along easily while others naturally hate each other. Each major city has a prince that governs it. In this city a voting council is made up of a chosen representative from each clan plus the prince to oversee it (it may be the same in all cities, but since we don’t see how others operate I won’t make assumptions, though for the scope of the series it’s irrelevant).

Julian is the vampire prince of the city. He keeps the various vampire clans in line. There are laws laid down for the Kindred, most of which deal with not breaking the masquerade (that is keeping their true nature secret from humans so that they may coexist) such as not embracing (turning to a vampire) people against their will. The prince enforces these laws and oversees clan meetings. Julian is a good and strong prince, but he’s obsessed with the innocence of humanity. This instills in him a great deal of compassion for mortals but causes him to leave himself unnecessarily vulnerable to his enemies.

Caitlin is a human reporter interested in finding out who the powerful yet mysterious Julian is. She’s curious but good-hearted, and Julian falls for her. She has to decide if Julian is someone who can be trusted before she can love him back.

Eddie is a ruthless gangster. He’s Julian’s biggest threat and may be the only clan leader with the drive and power to overthrow the prince. Despite his drive he is not cunning or honest enough to rule as prince without inciting wars between clans thus he has trouble gaining support from anyone other than his own people.

Cash is the newest clan leader and Julian’s personal bodyguard. He’s street-smart, loyal, and tough. He may not always agree with Julian but he will respect the wishes of his prince nonetheless, except, maybe, when it comes to Sasha.

Sasha is Julian’s relative. Granddaughter of Julian’s recently deceased grandchild Julian takes her in because she’s the only real family he has left. She’s a wild one, though, and ignorant of the masquerade. She wants Cash but Julian wants to protect her humanity. She can’t understand his objections and thinks he’s just a control freak. Well, maybe he IS a control freak, but he has good reason to keep them apart, he just can’t tell her the reasons.

Frank is a human police officer knowledgeable about the masquerade. He has come to realize that he can’t bring down Julian, who he thinks is a crime boss, by normal means and is continually searching for a way to get to him. Julian has agreed to a bargain for his life and wants them to coexist, but Frank has a hard time accepting the Kindred world.

Daedalus is Julian’s closest friend and fiercest ally. The most physically powerful but most deformed of all clans, his kind keep out of sight even of other vampires.

Lilly has been Julian’s lover until Caitlin. She is jealous and dangerous yet forever in love.

Episodes:
The Original Saga:
A Kindred woman has rebelled against her society and the others are afraid she will bring about their exposure. She must be stopped, but Julian harbors a deep affection for her.

This first show isn’t all that good. Don’t judge the series by it, the rest of them are great. I actually questioned my purchase at first as I was watching this thinking that my fond memories of the show were due more to the friends with whom I watched it than any other merits. Thankfully I stuck with it and now encourage you to do the same. Once I got to the second episode, I was enthralled once again. It is necessary to see it to fully understand the following plots, but it may not be one you go back to often.

Part of the problem with it is the acting. The woman in the role of the rebellious female (can’t remember her name) is annoying, Sasha sounds like she’s reading her lines off a prompter, and the first scene has some poorly scripted lines. There are also some extremely cheesy moments “We were down with Stevie!”

Prince of the City:
I guess the actors or maybe the director settled into what they were doing a little more after the pilot. The later lines are better and are delivered more believably. There is also a new character named Caitlin who is interesting and beautiful. Frank tries to tell the world about the vampires, but everyone thinks he is nuts even to the point of blaming him for staking an informant through the heart. Eddie has his hands in all that’s going on as well as getting a member of Julian’s own clan to betray him.

Nightstalker:
This was the only episode I didn’t see on the air because it was never broadcast in the U.S. I was doubly excited to get the DVD’s for this unseen episode. It was worth the excitement and is one of my favorites. Starkweather was embraced in a mental institution. Now he’s a psychotic serial killer with the super-human powers of the Kindred. It will take Julian and Frank both to catch him.

Romeo & Juliet:
Cash and Sasha badly want to be together despite Julian’s wishes. Eddie wants a clan war so that he can gain power. Julian has managed to keep peace throughout his reign, but Eddie may be able to break him. This is one of the most dramatic episodes.

Live Hard Die Young & Leave a Good Looking Corpse:
Zane has been embraced by Lilly and is the newest rising singing sensation. Ever the rock star he quickly gets out of control leaving a trail of broken girls behind him. My biggest complaint here is that Sasha’s character seems inconsistent with the person we saw at the end of the last episode with too little explanation as to how she came to this point.

The Rise & Fall of Eddie Fiori:
Eddie is so ready for leadership of the city that he hires an assassin to kill Julian. Lilly hires a P.I. to get blackmail photos of Julian and Caitlin together, but he gets more than he bargained for. Quite possibly the most dramatic episode except maybe for the last one. My one complaint is the lack of follow up on the P.I.

Bad Moon Rising:
A baby is kidnapped by a Nosferatu, but the story the mother tells is so outlandish that only Frank believes her implicitly. He is determined to find the child, but success means his death. Only Julian stands a chance of success and survival both. A good bit of Caitlin’s past is revealed.

Cabin in the Woods:
Caitlin takes Julian on a trip that is intended to explore his past. They are unaware of the demons that await them at their destination. In Julian’s absence the city begins to fall apart showing how vital his leadership truly is. He has a dark past and his predecessor has one that is darker still. Their sins may mean the death of all that they know.

Possibly the most dramatic and without question the most exciting episode of the series it holds out such promise of what the series could have been, yet it shows why the story could not continue without Mark Frankel as Julian. To emphasize his importance then take a completely different route would have destroyed the show’s credibility beyond repair even though it was a choice not theirs to make. The introduction of Cameron makes me long for additional episodes that explore his character, and the cliffhanger with Caitlin begs for further exposition. Though it leaves me wanting more it does not make me feel like I’m left hanging in the middle of the story with no conclusion whatsoever. It’s no more incomplete than the standard series finale and doesn’t make me regret that I spent the time watching the series.

I thought a lot of people would like the show, but I have been surprised at the level of interest such a variety of people have shown. My wife, whose likes primarily include Friends and ER and who only occasionally watches anything somewhat dark and never anything scary with me likes Kindred almost as much as I do. My 15 year old friend (who likes Vincent Price movies and ghost stories) watched every Kindred episode in a single day. That further supports my claim that its lack of popularity is due to a lack of exposure rather than lack of quality. I would recommend it to anyone that likes dramas and/or vampire related stories. I’m sure you will want to rent it before paying purchase price since you’re going into it blind, but at least give it a chance.

Content:
Content-wise the show has a few moments of sexuality that seem overly extreme though still PG13 at worst. It has some occasional violence including some beheadings and drinking of blood. There is surprisingly little bad language with many episodes having none at all. If not for some of the sexuality, the whole series would be suitable for even younger teens.

DVD:
The DVD package is decent but small. You’re getting all 8 episodes including the extended pilot and one that was never aired in the U.S. Each episode is presented in its entirety with opening and closing credits and even the bumper graphics in the middle.

The case is plastic that opens front and back (rather than the smaller tray in the middle). The insert includes a list of all the episodes and their chapters, and the cover art is not bad. I don’t care about flashy packaging as much as practicality, and this set has that.

The picture looks great on a traditional TV’s, but lacks on higher definition screens. As far as sound goes, I would say that this is about average for TV shows of the mid 90's. With it being primarily a dialogue-driven show the 2.0 sound is adequate being clean and clear. Where the commercials would be is a little bit of black that is a little too long at times particularly with the bumper graphics added to them.

The chapters are spaced appropriately making use of the commercial breaks but not relying solely on them. My only complaint is that on 2 episodes the opening title sequence is at the beginning of chapter 2 (with part of the story following) rather than the end of chapter 1 (for clarification on what I mean by that see my short essay called Prelude to
a DVD - My Pet Peeve). That can be a tad confusing if you’re not paying attention and have gotten used to skipping the theme by jumping to chapter 2 on the other episodes.

The primary menu is very impressive. The sound, animation, and graphics are better than many I’ve seen on higher-budget releases. The collection does, however, fall flat on its face when it comes to extras. I would be shocked to ever see this get re-released (I was pretty surprised to see it at all since many shows with bigger followings hadn’t had the DVD treatment at that time) so it's a bit disappointing to know that there is little possibility for anything supplemental to the show. If it were a space consideration I could understand, but if nothing else they could have used the opposite side of one or both discs for some extras; just the old TV promos and maybe a memorial for the late Mark Frankel would have been good.

The other negative I want to mention is episode selection, it isn't as simple as activating the episode. No, there are several steps to get to each episode: select the episode, and the disc moves to a page that lists the pages of chapters, from there you choose the first page with chapters 1-4, then choose chapter 1 and the episode will finally play.

Final thoughts:
Considering I see this 8 episode set offered for the price of a most 2 hour-long movies I think it’s a good deal. I feel confident in recommending taking a chance on buying it even if you haven’t seen it before. It would definitely get a 5* rating if not for 3 things: the lack of any extras whatsoever, the poor first episode, and the annoying chapter divisions before the opening theme on 2 episodes.  That comes to an overall 4* rating.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older