Why The TV Show #Moonlight, Starring #AlexOLoughlin, Mattered

 

The vampire cult hit that was ahead of its time is back from the dead for your binge-watching pleasure.

Originally published in Watch!Magazine, 

By Nate Millado

Posted  May 2019

Before he became Lieutenant Commander Steve McGarrett on Hawaii Five-0, star Alex O’Loughlin played brooding bloodsucker Mick St. John in CBS’ Moonlight (2007–2008).

The vampire detective drama won the People’s Choice Award—over the more zeitgeisty Gossip Girl—for Favorite New TV Drama.

Alex O’Loughlin stars as Mick St. John, a captivating, charming, and immortal private investigator.

So it was somewhat surprising that after 16 episodes, it was canceled—driving a stake through the hearts of its 7.5 million viewers. But over the last decade, Moonlight has developed quite the cult following and was recently made available by The CW on its streaming service, CW Seed. We pay respects to the dearly beloved one-season wonder.

Vamps Redefined

The first 90 seconds of the pilot perfectly set up its premise—and in turn debunked some old wives’ tales about vampires. During a dream sequence with an offscreen interviewer, the undead private eye says he sleeps in a freezer (not a coffin); doesn’t hurt women, children, or innocents; and is relatively unfazed by sunlight, holy water, and crucifixes. (“And while we’re on the subject, garlic is tasty on pizza,” he quips.)

Alex O’Loughlin gets vamped up in Moonlight.

A Star Is Born

Alex O’Loughlin was easy on the eyes, cracked wise with a dry sense of humor, and did many of his own stunts. So while Moonlight didn’t work out, CBS knew they had a bona fide leading man in the Aussie actor. The network offered him Hawaii Five-0.

Beth (Sophia Myles) and Mick St. John (Alex O’Loughlin) face the ultimate consequence of a relationship between mortal and immortal when a vampire kills a human in the heat of passion.

Beauty and a Beast

Sure, it was a supernatural series with an occasional case-of-the-week. But at its core, Moonlight was a romance between Mick and investigative reporter Beth Turner (Sophia Myles)—who wasn’t your typical damsel in distress. Their star-crossed storyline highlighted themes of mortality (Mick is 85 years old but forever 30) and commitment issues (could a human and a vamp really be together?).

Mick St. John (Alex O’Loughlin) defies the traditional blood-sucking norms of his vampire tendencies by using his wit and powerful supernatural abilities to help the living in Moonlight.

O’Loughlin delivered swoon-worthy lines like, *“Ever since I met you, I’ve stopped using the word never,”* without the slightest bit of irony, and also exhibited undeniable chemistry with co-stars Jason Dohring (Mick’s mentor and friend Josef) and Shannyn Sossamon (his vampire ex-wife/sire, Coraline). The ensemble was just hitting its stride when film and television writers began a three-month strike in November 2007, forcing the show into hiatus only 12 episodes in. The show returned in April and aired a final four episodes.

Former vampire couple Coraline (Shannyn Sossmon)

and Mick St. John (Alex O’Loughlin).

Fang Girls and Boys

Moonlight diehards were willing to give their own blood to save their show from cancellation. Partnering with the American Red Cross, more than 3,000 fans donated a pint of blood in a nationwide campaign to get the network’s attention.

Gone Too Soon?

Moonlight aired its final episode on May 16, 2008—missing the vampire craze by mere months! True Blood and Twilight blew up in the fall, while The CW’s The Vampire Diaries premiered a year later. “We sort of felt like we were the beginning of this new phase,” O’Loughlin said in a 2010 interview. Had the timing been right—who knows? Fun fact: Moonlight’s working title during pilot season—Twilight.

 

My Thoughts

• Great to see Moonlight still has some life – even 11 years after it got canceled. Just shows you that it was actually a winning show, even if it got mistreated.
• They make it sound so easy – to say that Alex just got offered the role on Hawaii Five-0 after Moonlight got cancelled. When in fact he suffered a lot of heartache and also put his all into the show Three Rivers as well, just to be disappointed again with cancellation, all before he started in Hawaii.
• Great to see that Alex’s hard work over the years, since 2000 when he went back to school to study his craft, got the reward of a successful show. One that is now regarded as the most successful reboot ever. And my hope is that he would be rewarded even more, with even better roles and accolades in the years to come, all for his dedication and leadership during the years on Hawaii Five-0 and the people who work on it.
• And a big Thank You to my partner in crime, Paula, for once again providing us with the best – these brand new Full HD Screencaps from Moonlight

Mick St John – our ‘Beloved Immortal’

 

* Words  “Ever since I met you, I’ve stopped using the word never,” actually delivered by Sophia Myles as Beth towards Mick in Episode 8 of Moonlight and not by Alex.

Advertisement

Fangoria’s Weekend of Horrors – May 2008

iF Magazine Covers Fangoria’s Moonlight Panel

Alex O’Loughlin, Sophia Myles, & Jason Dohring delight the audience and iF MAGAZINE was there
By SEAN ELLIOTT, Senior Editor

Original article is lost, but this was
Published 1 May 2008

on Moonlight Fan Blog

iF MAGAZINE, as usual, covered the Fangoria Weekend of Horrors convention and the last panel of the weekend was for CBS’ vampire detective drama MOONLIGHT. In attendance were stars, Alex O’Loughlin, Sophia Myles, and Jason Dohring. The panel was moderated by iF MAGAZINE’s own Anthony C. Ferrante (and also a longtime FANGO scribe) and members of the audience were given a few interesting tips offs, as to what to expect from the last episodes of the first season.

Alex O’Loughlin talked about the remaining episodes and what kind of stories were going to be told to finish out the season. He did say that no storylines will be left hanging if it can be helped.

“There are three episodes left,” he said. “They are more stand alone, because we’re not completely certain about the second season pick up. We can’t afford to start something that we won’t be able to finish. There is the arc that will always be there between Mick and Beth and that comes to a sort of interesting close.”

Sophia Myles commented on Beth’s love of Mick St. John and how she is personally more attracted to Alex O’Loughlin when he is in vampire makeup, and then went on to talk about changes in Beth’s career.

“Beth has fallen in love with his soul and the fact that he’s a vampire is secondary,” Myles explained. “I actually think he’s sexier when he’s got his contacts in and his fangs. She leaves because Buzz Wire gets very tabloidy and Beth’s not interested in any of that, she’s more interested in the hard hitting journalism.”

O’Loughlin did follow up on Myles’s comments about him in vampire face laughing,

“She always makes passes at me when I’m coming out of makeup.”

Jason Dohring also gave the audience some insight into the final episode of the series which will give viewers more of the vampire mythology that has become more and more popular as the season has continued.

“In the last episode we have a vampire conference and there is a problem that comes up that threatens vampire existence,” he says. “We all deal with it in different ways and in different levels of the vampire social spectrum. You’ll see some interesting stuff with that.”

Of course, the one thing the audience wanted to know the most about was the steamy exchange between Mick and Josef in last week’s episode. While both actors laughed off all of the comments about their chemistry and said that it was more than likely a one time thing. O’Loughlin did comment about the raw sensuality of the scene.

“I don’t know about Jason, but when we were shooting that scene I was thinking more about these creatures and what they are and where they come from; the sensuality of them,” he stated. “There really isn’t anything about homosexuality or heterosexuality to them; they’re just these sensual creatures.”

Pic for the day – Mick, the best vampire

I still think our vampires were the best btw, and I’ll fight to the death on that one

‘Moonlight’ Set Visit: We Take a Stroll with Alex O’Loughlin – Apr 2008

 

On April 25th, 2008, Mick St. John is returning to your living room with a giant bag full of unexpected twists and secrets that will keep your water cooler conversations guessing throughout the summer. CBS plans to air four all new episodes of its hit series Moonlight over the course of the next four weeks, and it will all cumulate in one slam-bang breath-ceasing season finale. We recently headed over to the Warner Bothers lot to get the inside scoop on the second half of Moonlight’s first season. While there, we interviewed all of the key cast members including Jason Dohring and Sophia Myles.

Movieweb

21 April 2008

by B. Alan Orange

This time out, we got a change to speak with both Alex O’Loughlin and series newcomer Eric Winter. When we arrived, they were both busy working on episode fifteen, which sees Alex’s Mick St. John transported back to World War II. It’s a flashback, of course. But some pretty heavy secrets are revealed, and these plot threads will carry the show into one of the craziest season finales of the year.

Episode thirteen, which premiers this Friday at 9pm, picks up exactly where episode twelve left off. Mick is still mortal, and Beth is still angry with him for letting her fiance Josh die. Of course Mick won’t stay human for long. The premise of the show is vampires. But he does get to have some fun in his corporeal skin.

We see him enjoying orange juice for breakfast instead of blood, and there is a prolonged montage of him soaking in the sun. Sadly, all good things come to pass, and before this latest episode is over, Mick will once again be sucking on a donor bag. The big twist comes with how he is turned back into a vamp. It won’t be the way you think. The protective salve he has applied to his skin doesn’t wear off. No. Something much worse happens to the poor chap.

The way in which Mick is turned back into a vampire will have a dire effect on the entire structuring of the show. Certain roles will change, and relationships will become strained. Coraline will be returning, but not before the end of the season. We met up with Alex O’Loughlin behind a quaint family home decked out in forties regalia to get more information on the fate of his character and the entire series too boot.

O’Loughlin showed up in his army uniform, his hair shorter than it has been during the duration of the program. He seemed in a rather cheery mood. Everyone on set seems to believe that Moonlight is definitely coming back for a second season next year.

For those of you who have not ventured over to CBS to check out the show, Alex plays Mick St. John, a captivating, charming and immortal private investigator from Los Angeles who defies the traditional blood-sucking norms of his vampire tendencies by using his wit and powerful supernatural abilities to help the living. It is a role that O’Loughlin loves to live. Here is our conversation:

Alex: About my uniform today, Mick was a medic when he went into the army. He had basic overall training. That is what we will see in episode fifteen. This is where his firearm training is honed. We see him in battle, which is a reality for so many soldiers at war.

A lot of my friends have been to battle in Somalia and the Gulf War. They have been to different parts of the world. They go in trained in one specific area, and they come out knowing a whole lot more. You experience a bunch of other stuff, because of the nature of what is going on. Some of the stuff we are dealing with in this episode is quite exciting.

You were a fan of the vampire genre before this show came along. Can you talk a little bit about how that has affected your performance?

Alex: Absolutely. With the genre itself, I have always been really enamored by its shameless sensuality. It is unlike any other genre. And this genre has had tremendous success, especially with the way these types of characters live. You get to see how deeply these vampires feel about the world sensorial. Their senses are all heightened. If you compared them to an animal, it would have to be a cat, on a lot of levels. The touch, the smell. They are so sensitive, especially when they transform and morph. I’ve always loved that.

As a kid, the head of my bed was underneath a really big window. You could see the stars really clearly. I would lay on my back and look up at the stars. From the moment I sort of learned the concept of infinity, and I could grasp it, I struggled with it. The stars used to keep me awake at night. So much so, I had trouble getting up to go to school the next day.

I would be doing head miles about this thing called infinity. How it never stops. What do you mean it doesn’t have an end? Even if it doesn’t have an ending, what is after that? The immortality became entwined in my brain. This idea that you could go on forever. That everything would be dead except for you. I’ve always been fascinated by that as well.

Do you have a cat that you can look to for inspiration?

Alex: I, myself, do not. But I know cats. There are a few cats around town that I am buddies with. I can chat with them. I borrow cats. I will borrow my buddy’s cat. The best cat is your friend’s cat.

Did you ever get in trouble for not bringing the cat back on time?

Alex O’Loughlin: I can’t answer that.

If Mick was a medic during the war that means he was dealing with blood even before he turned into a vampire. Has that always been a main thing in his life?

Alex: Yeah, absolutely. It still has a profound effect on him today. If you go back to episode eleven, when Josh’s life is finished, and Mick has tried to save him? Part of what makes Mick unique is his ability to turn off his emotions and deal with what he has to deal with.

There was so much blood. The urge to do what comes naturally to him can be subdued. That desire to drink the blood was right at the surface the whole time. So, he is no stranger to blood or body parts. He can control his natural instincts.

How did being a medic effect him as a vampire?

Alex: I personally think that you make your own character decisions. And sometimes that stuff never makes it into the final cut of the show. One of the things I’d done a lot of thinking about was that Mick may have gone off and done a lot of research about hematology before becoming a Private Investigator. I think he studied up on it. He became educated in blood.

This guy has such a strict set of morals. He doesn’t kill for pleasure. Not any more. He gets his blood from a blood bank. He has structured this way of living. As a vampire that sits more comfortably with him. I’m sure it all has to do with his past. When he is consuming blood, he knows all about the cells. He knows the structure of the blood. A lot of vampires may not know about that stuff.

 

Where would you like to see Mick go to in the future. Do you think he and Beth should get together in season two?

Alex: The minute he and Beth actually get together and consummate their love, it becomes a different story. At this moment, we still have the Romeo and Juliet thing going on. When this show was pitched to me, they said it was about a vampire P.I. I said, “Really?” I didn’t think it would be good.

But then I read it, and it is about so much more than that. It deals with epic ideas and themes. I think it has elements of Hamlet, it has elements of Romeo and Juliet. I think it has elements of a lot of big stories that have already been told. When we get together, that element will no longer be there. It won’t be unrequited love anymore. That will push us in a different direction. Sure, we will deal with it. And it will be interesting, no matter what. Is that what I want to happen?

I don’t know. I really like the dramatic tension that is there because these two haven’t had that physical and spiritual connection yet. Its funny. Where do I want this show to go? That depends on how long we’ve got. The limits to the storytelling possibilities are the limits to our imaginations. Because the ideas are so immense. We are dealing with immortality. And we have so much flashback work we can do. There are pieces of jewelry that Mick wears, that he has worn since the beginning of the show, that we haven’t talked about yet. Those all come from different stories.

There is stuff in episode twelve. All of the blood stuff, and that Mick comes from French royalty. Mick is involved with another bloodline. Does that make him more powerful? Does he have any new skills that he doesn’t know about? Is he going to realize himself all over again, on a different level? I have lots of my own ideas. I walk into the writer’s room, and they all go, “Oh, God!” The writers are the same as me. They feel there are so many ways we can go with this. I hope we get to season two, because there are just so many possibilities.

Do we see you engaged in combat in this episode you are shooting right now?

Alex: Yes. Yeah, you see me in heavy combat with my best friend. A lot of this episode is based around that, and based around the fact that Mick may have a child that is alive today. And he would be about the same age as me. So, it is pretty heavy stuff.

 In honour of the next Hawaii Five-0 episode this Friday and its special guest – we will feature something special in some of the posts this week.

 

Peaceful Christmas with Mick

Mele Kalikimaka

Adding some extra lovely Mick, that MyMaximus has so generously shared with the ML fandom ♥♥♥ I will never not sigh, looking at that perfect face in peaceful rest…*sigh*