the rambling fanatic

( Pictures of boxset )
The initial menu is...interesting. Okay, it's rather unattractive. I get what they were trying to do. The cross motif from the original release is present in this release but honestly they should have just kept it simple. The eyes are just ugly creepy. Forever Knight as a show had some style to it. I would never use the word ugly to describe it. Instead, it makes me think of the artwork for 28 Days Later. That's right, zombies instead of vampires. By this point, they've already got you're money so the interior aesthetics don't really matter as much as the exterior ones. And of course it's still Forever Knight and Forever Knight is just so good. Hopefully people won't be turned off by Mill Creek dropping the ball in the last couple of yards and give the show a shot.

If you're looking to downsize your DVD collection and want something to take up less shelf space, then this one's for you. When on the shelf, the spine is about 3/4ths the size of the season 1 box set and a smidgen shorter. And it is an attractive box. While I like the way the trilogy of the original releases look next to each there, this box is just really attractive. 

( DVD Menu art )x

Edited to add: Pics comparing the new set to the old Trilogy releases can be found on my Tumblr here

Texas snow, y'all!

So it snowed two Fridays ago, with actual accumulation. When I went to work it was still on the ground. Then, the following day it was so warm that I ran errands in jeans and a T-shirt. Funny thing weather.

It got me thinking about inclement weather fic. It's one of my favorite fic tropes. Heatwave, rain, snow--I love them all. Two stories that quickly came to mind involving snow were from the Forever Knight and Hannibal fandoms. Excessive snow certainly has its uses for any enterprising fic writer.

[Forever Knight] Reckless Pantomime by Eve

Eve is one of my all time favorite FK writers and it was such a pleasure to go back and read through her story collection. Every story is a winner in my book. With Reckless Pantomime, a season 2 fic, a worsening snowstorm strands Natalie after an evening of movie watching.

She admired his red brocade dressing gown. He thanked her, wisely electing not to let on that it had been a gift from Janette. After all, it was a very intimate sort of present, and far more expensive than the socks. Natalie's gift was both idealistic and sweetly practical; she had given him something she hoped he would need in the future. Janette's gift was an unspoken, sensualist claim on his body and affections: when she'd presented it to him, she'd whispered in his ear that she intended for him to model it later. And when she spent the day with him--an increasingly unlikely occurrence these days--she wore it around the apartment, despite the fact that she was never troubled by such petty mortal concerns as temperature or modesty.

[Hannibal] Reindeer Games by Magical_Destiny

Her stuff is absolutely exquisite. This is much more of cracky fic, which she doesn't normally do, but it takes the show to task on its very, very pretty but very unrealistic snowfall. TV!Baltimore/DC certainly gets more snow than its real life counterpart. Of course the show was filled in Toronto so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I adore Magical_Destiny's take on Hannibal. I love it when he's at his creepy best. The man has zero chill when it comes to Will that it's kind of embarrassing. There's even an appearance by Hannibal's hopelessly devoted patient Franklyn at the tail end, so extra yay.


The Will in his imagination was very like the loose, relaxed Will of this present moment of reality. He’d kiss either of those Wills, he thought to himself, even if the experience was tainted by the flavor of charred and preservative-poisoned gelatin.

Hannibal blinked. Now there was an interesting revelation. A desire to kiss Will — he hadn’t been aware of that before.

Will’s face was still painted with firelight when he pushed the books aside and maneuvered himself to lean against an armchair rather than sit in it. His gaze was far too perceptive for the amount of alcohol circulating in his blood.

“Do you want to kiss me?” Will asked bluntly, words slurring. “Sometimes you look like you do.” He regarded the fire, adding quietly, “Not sure how I feel about that.”

Hannibal felt his heart rate increase just a fraction — how curious. He wondered what he ought to say. Wondered what he wanted to say.

So apparently there's an officially licensed Hannibal Lecter Halloween costume. Someone perhaps took their job perhaps a little too seriously, but it's kind of hard to fault them for it. They weren't content with a simple product description for their Hannibal Lecter costume. Oh no, they wrote a gosh darn essay, but I will have you know Mr. Copywriter that not once did Hannibal serve fava beans. And you've got it way wrong about Hannibal's choice meats. That clay roasted thigh looked pretty darn tasty. His "osso bucco" looked absolutely delicious. And his infamous "protein scramble", well he even got a grumpy Will Graham to admit it was good.

"There are many roads you can take in life. Life's many choices are not only about where you live and what you do for a living? It's about the little things. Do you decorate your house with original artwork? Can you feel comfortable taking the time to pause and notice fall colors in the city park? And most importantly, how do you feel about eating your enemies?

Hey, don't get us wrong. We don't think you should eat your enemies. We don't think you should even think about it. There are so many better foods to snack on rather than enemy meat. Have you tried deep fried cheesecake yet? How about blood sausage? We promise both of those foods are leagues better than the clandestine meals Dr. Lector used to whip up with fava beans. All we know is that one of the most prolific and weirdly likable villains of Hollywood history ate his enemies and before he got caught he seemed to be a pretty satisfied guy. He knew what wine to pair with what morsel of mystery meat. He could dissect any conversation to learn the truth about important people. Basically, he's everyone's favorite kind of monster, a monster with taste.

You're sure to feel pretty snazzy when you show up to your next costumed affair in this Hannibal suit. This dark blue ensemble has a wide checkered pattern just like the young psychiatrist from the TV show wears. You'll be ready to listen to people's issues while secretly plotting their demise in your paisley tie and matching pocket square. There are many roads to take this Halloween, take the one most tasteful. "

There's even a listing for Hannibal clear kill suit with an equally enthusiastic write up.

Sorry bro. Mads wore it better. It wasn't even close.
Meanwhile, over at the Northern Stars website, a repository for Canadian actors and projects, had a neat little feature recently about Canadian actors with horror roles on their resumes trick or treating in costume. Naturally Ger got a shout out.

GERAINT WYN DAVIES: Dress him up as a Metro cop with fangs, in tribute to his three seasons as an 800-year-old vampiric Toronto “graveyard shift” police officer on the Canadian TV series Forever Knight. Think nobody remembers the show? The entire series was recently re-released on DVD in Australia.

Guess who found her missing Forever Knight DVDs? :::waves hand in air::

I was talking to my brother about how they'd completely fallen off the face of the earth and he oh so nonchalantly mentioned that he had them.

Um...why and how?

Apparently, many, many years ago he wanted to properly sit down and watch The X-Files. I of course have the DVDs so he borrowed them from me.

He said I kicked up a fuss about letting him borrow the actual boxset of XF seasons 1 & 2 (hey, they're fragile and back when I bought them a "sale" was $50) so I told him that he could borrow one of my DVD sleeves with the discs inside. He took the opportunity to go "shopping" in my DVD collection and loaded up with other shows he wanted to watch. That sleeve had all three seasons of Forever Knight, the first two of The X-Files, season 1 of Millennium, season 1 of Heroes, and season 1 of Batman the Animated Series. That's a whole lot of shows that went AWOL. Now he didn't actually want to watch FK but the discs were already in the sleeve so he left them in rather than remove them.

The reason I had no memory of this was because with my blessing he loaded up while I was at work. Still, they were missing for YEARS and I never noticed.

Nevertheless, my pretties are back in my possession. Series rewatch here I come!

Dare I hope for some fic inspiration like back in the good old days.

YouTube is a gift. Especially when you fall down the rabbit hole and come across some hidden gems. That brings us to this utterly delightful video exploration of Forever Knight, it’s characters, plotlines, etc. You can find it on the YouTube channel Movie Nights. It's jokey and snarky but also a thoughtful look at the series.

A lot of thought was really put into it. The four episodes covering Forever Knight and Nick Knight range in length from 15 minutes to 18 minutes. You can find part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.

The reviewer really enjoyed the series and has plenty of praise to go around. "It's a delightful slice of early 90s cheese and intrigue. A mix of cop drama and vampire shenanigans. Nick is played perfectly by Geraint Wyn Davies, a Welsh actor, who alongside a wonderful supporting cast made this show a cool, dramatic ride."

Blu Mankuma apparently has a Facebook, and he gave a big honkin' Smallville spoiler on it. For some strange reason I find the fact that he has a Facebook so odd. I personally don't have a Facebook account so I can't see the page for myself but if anyone is interested in taking a looksy...it's there.

Blu will be guesting in next Friday's episode (April 23rd) of Smallville as DC character Franklin Stern, a role that was played by James Earl Jones in Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Kryptonsite, a popular Smallville site that broke the news even used a screenshot of Blu as Captain Reese in Forever Knight.

picspam created for halfamoon 

( And here I thought you'd come for the girl talk. )





Images were either capped by me or are from The Knight Watchman. Banner image is from KnightVIsion.

 

All three seasons of Forever Knight can currently be found at Deep Discount for $11.98. Shipping is free.

Now there's no excuse not to own the sets.

Actually, now there's no excuse not to own an extra set (or all of them) to have handy for special fandom emergencies like say  brainwashing influencing potential new fans.

Remember when the sets had a SRP of $80?

snagged from sol_se 

I looks like Forever Knight co-creator and executive producer James D. Parriott is headed back to Toronto (sort of).

According to the Hollywood Reporter, he's joined USA Network's Covert Affairs as an Executive Producer and co-showrunner. The series stars Piper Perabo as a multilingual CIA trainee unexpectedly promoted to field operative while reeling over a mysterious ex-boyfriend who appears to be of particular interest to her agency bosses.

The series will shoot their 11 episode order in Toronto.

The series also stars Christopher Gorham, Peter Gallagher, and Kari Matchett who played Nick's wife Alyssa in season 3's "Dead of Night". (Yay for another FK connection)

Okay, so The Border has apparently not heard my requests to cast Geraint Wyn Davies alongside Catherine Disher AND Nigel Bennett in a single episode (Was I not a good girl this year?), so I will now turn some of my attention to Covert Affairs. Now I know the producers are usually L.A. based, but hopefully Jim Parriott's previous experiences with Toronto will lead him to take an active role in casting. Then, he can bring all of the FK players in for guest appearances. So far the show only has an 11 episode order so he better get cracking.

And if The Border gets a 4th season pick up, I will continue to send positive vibes for Ger to make an appearance. It's only fair. ;-)