Copyright 1996

Kindred: The Embraced

Take a Bite Out of Aaron Spelling’s New Drama
Brooke Smith

Aaron Spelling, creator of such sex romps as Love Boat and Melrose Place, has come up with a new type of lust to portray in a nighttime soap: blood lust. Kindred: The Embraced, based on the roleplaying game Vampire: The Masquerade, is similar to Spelling’s recent collections of beautiful people with problems that no one could ever relate to — but in this show, none of them have that perfect tan. Instead of telling the story of a humdrum collection of Barbie-like twentysomethings, Kindred is about the interactions between members of several clans of vampires in the San Francisco area. Comparisons to Spelling’s other new programs — Malibu Shores and Savannah — notwithstanding, this is a pretty good show.

The two protagonists, Julian Luna (Mark Frankel) and Frank Kohanek (C. Thomas Howell of Soul Man), are set up for confrontation from the start. Julian is the so-called “Prince of the City”, the leader of all vampires and a rediculously wealthy businessman, although we are never quite sure what exactly that business is. And Frank is a cop who is out to bring Julian down.

The pilot episode of Kindred sets up a bizarre relationship between Julian and Frank that comes about as a result of the vampire Alexandra’s death. Alexandra has fallen in love with Frank, a human, and has brought about the wrath of the clans, who call for her final death. And as Julian’s ex-lover, she makes him promise to protect Frank from the other vampires — because humans who know about the vampires are not allowed to survive. The obvious irony is that Frank is trying to destroy the one “man” who can save him from the other vampires.

Other key players include Julian’s rebellious great-great-granddaughter Sasha (Brigid Walsh, fresh from stints on ER and NYPD Blue), who is human and unaware of the existance of the vampires, but is too sexy and wild (she rides a Harley) to be kept in the dark for long. There is also the bad boy character Cash (Channon Roe of My So-Called Life), the leader of a street gang clan called Gangels and obviously Sasha’s love interest — observe the clear Brenda/Dylan thing here. The final beautiful person is Lillie (Stacy Haiduk), Julian’s current passion, owner of a Kindred club called Havem and the sole representative of the Torreador clan. Yes, it is complex, but it all fits together.

The coolest clan is the Nosferatu. In accordance with the fantastic German film(s) of the same name, all members are bald, clawed, “sewer dwellers” who are the keepers of the Kindred laws and take no sides during clan wars. The Nosferatu are led by Daeladeus (Jeff Kober), who is Julian’s best friend/advisor and avenger of wrongs done by Kindred gone bad. One of these vampires is Eddie Fiore, leader of the Brujah clan, who is opposed to Julian and all things good about being a vampire — and is also one of the least attractive major characters in a major television program.

Frankel’s central role as Julian is delightfully dark andsensual. This is one of the best casting decisions that Spelling ever made. Julian is one vampire that no woman would mind being bitten by. Another great step made by the show is the casting of an Asian American as Frank’s chief of police. This is the first time Spelling has cast an Asian in one of his shows (shows that take place in a state with more Asian descent than Hong Kong). Woohoo! to Aaron for finally representing the last real media minority.

Despite the cheesy introductory intrigue, Kindred manages to avoid some of the false moralizing of 90210 and the total shock factor-mentality of Melrose. Considering the severe dearth of quality vampire images in mass media, this is a fairly good representation of the genre. But the concept of not killing off those from whom they take blood does seem a little far-fetched and has only been well carried out by genre author Jewelle Gomez. Unfortunately, the best images of vampires can only be found in the minds of vampire fiction writers, and this cannot be emulated on any screen. Kindred: The Embraced is a good start.