Forever Knight the Trilogy Pa [Import]

Unlike Angel or Buffy, Nick is a vampire working in a mortal world. Unlike the Buffy vampires, Nick is not a demon, but he does have some cool supernatural abilities; not only are FK vampires extremely strong and very fast, but they have very acute senses of hearing and smell, the power to hypnotise people, and to fly.

Aside from vampires and the occasional ghost, there are no supernatural creatures in this show, and most of the murders Nick investigates are committed by people. Nick doesn't do anything as dramatic as saving the world or killing monsters, a la Buffy. For Angel fans, this is a distinctly different look at the vampire-seeking-redemption story, and one that is just as good in its own way. Nick is more mature and thoughtful than Angel, in my opinion. And if you think Angel is angsty and brooding, then you clearly haven't met Nick Knight!

Let me move respond to the criticisms made about this DVD series.

1. The video quality is poor.
--I have a big-screen digital TV, and I don't have any complaints about the video quality. Perhaps some early DVD sets were below standards? It's the only explanation I can see for the huge discrepancy between what I see at home and the picture some people have complained about.

On the other hand, the audio quality is clearly superior to the audio quality off of broadcast TV. And that has brought a freshness to certain episodes. Kudos to Sony for their attention to this aspect of the DVD.

2. The episodes are the U.S. version, not the (much longer) Canadian version.

For the first season, Canadian episodes were substantially longer (by 5-6 minutes) than American episodes. On the DVDs, the first two episodes (Dark Knight parts 1 & 2) are the American episodes, and so DVD viewers are definitely missing out on some Canadian version goodies. However, all the remaining episodes on the DVD set are the longer Canadian ones.

3. There are no goodies on this set.

Too true! In fact, the DVDs don't even have a scene selection menu to find scenes within an episode, although you are allowed to at least select an episode... Let's hope we see more on the Season 2 discs.

In short, I think this is a thoroughly enjoyable show, with good picture quality and enhanced sound. The DVDs have all of the first season (except for about five minutes of Dark Knight), but nothing else. Is it worth it to buy the series at the listed price? Well, it hurt my pocketbook a bit at first, but now that the pain has gone, I still have the pleasure of being able to watch this great show whenever I like. And I can't wait for Season 2!