Blood Ties: The Complete Series

Blood tied
Vampires are very hot right now -- the bestselling "Twilight" series, the hit TV show "True Blood," and the tragically cancelled "Moonlight."

And one of the better vampire stories to emerge from the crypt is "Blood Ties: The Complete Series," a too-brief show based on Tanya Huff's urban fantasy series. The series has a slightly slow start, but it's a solid action/fantasy series with plenty of sensual romance, gritty crime, and supernatural spookery -- and the trio of main actors are simply brilliant.

On her way back from a date, PI Vicki Nelson (Christina Cox) sees a caped figure attack and kill a young man -- leaving the body drained of blood. The victim's girlfriend hires Vicki to find the culprit. But as Vicki starts prodding around goth clubs and alleyways, she encounters the mysterious Henry Fitzroy (Kyle Schmid) who is doing his own murder investigation on the same case.

Turns out Henry is also a sexy 500-year-old vampire, and the bastard son of...

Blu-ray Review
This is a review of the actual product for Blood Ties: The Complete Series [Blu-ray], not the series itself (though I enjoyed it very much). This is NOT a review of the Blood Ties TV movie from 1991.

Blood Ties: The Complete Series on Blu-ray is presented in Widescreen (1.78:1) 1080 High Definition (HD), not 1.33:1 Standard Definition (SD) letterbox like the separate Season One and Season Two DVD releases. (The format info on the back of the Blu-ray box is incorrect.)

Features:

Twenty-two episodes on four discs (HD)

24-minute Behind the Scenes featurette (SD)

Three-minute Series trailer (SD)

32-second Season 1 DVD trailer (SD)

Five-minute photo gallery (HD, about 30 pictures, including production stills, art and Blood Price covers.)

Two-channel DTS (Stereo)...

A fun entry in the vampire / detective genre...
Vampires are all the rage on the small screen. Just look at recent entries Moonlight - The Complete Series, True Blood: The Complete First Season (HBO Series), or the CW's "The Vampire Diaries."

Blood Ties is a Canadian TV production that was filmed as a 22-episode season. In the US, Lifetime TV decided to split was was actually one season into two, with the first eleven episodes ("Blood Price" to "Post Partum") as Season One and the remaining eleven ("Norman" to "Deep Dark") as Season Two. This box set collects all 22 episodes for the first time in North America (the British box set that was released several years ago features all 22 episodes, but no extras). The TV budget doesn't allow top-notch special effects, but the show really works with what it has (the set designs are great, but the CGI is largely lacking), and its strength...

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