History Series / ForeverKnight

Airing from 1992 through 1996, this series examined the plight of Nicholas Knight, an 800 year old vampire who is determined to reclaim his humanity. In the meantime, [[VampireDetectiveSeries he works as a homicide detective]] in UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}, Canada; he is assisted in both by his [[TheCoroner coroner]] (and [[WillTheyOrWontThey sometimes-love interest]]) Natalie. His efforts are mocked and sometimes thwarted by his former cohort Janette and their [[IHateYouVampireDad maker,]] [=LaCroix=].

** Averted when an astronomer shoots herself after discovering an extinction-level asteroid is hit Earth. Nick insists on digging into the case even though every cop is needed to keep order as society collapses, but his investigation shows she really did commit suicide.

* SpiritualAdaptation: From centering on a morally grey vampire protagonist trying to reclaim and hold on to his humanity, dealing with an antagonistic sire, being set in a major metropolitan city in the mid-90's, and including the phrase "world of darkness" in its intro sequence, this is probably the best television adaptation of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade'' that we ever got, especially in comparison to the short-live ''Series/KindredTheEmbraced'' that was an ''actual'' attempt to adapt ''Vampire'' for television.

* EverybodyDiesEnding: Its DownerEnding. [[spoiler:After a season of killing off or sending away the supporting cast, Vachon is staked by Tracy to stop him turning completely evil after Divia bites him. Then in the following episode Tracy gets killed in the line of duty, with Nick facing an Internal Affairs investigation for killing the guy who shot her. Then, while preparing to make love to his mortal love interest Natalie, Nick drinks so much blood from her that she ends up near death. Instead of turning her into a vampire and a killer (she had previously said she was "not afraid of death, or an eternity in darkness" if it meant they would be together), he chooses to let her die, then asks [=LaCroix=] to kill him, as he can't live without her. [=LaCroix=]'s final line (the final line of the series) as he stands behind Nick with a stake, summed up many fans' reaction to this ending: "Damn you, Nicholas.")]]

* SuperSenses: Nick's super hearing is good for eavesdropping on suspects and hearing the screams of ongoing crimes, though not so good when you're [[PunkInTheTrunk stuck in a metal trunk]] and your partner has turned the radio up too loud.

* TooGoodForThisSinfulEarth: Shcanke's old partner has some of this in the perhaps one minute he appears before being killed.

** In "Feeding the Beast", Nick tells Schanke that he has an addiction as part of a Twelve Step program he tries to cope with his BloodLust. Given that Schanke has seen the bottles of 'wine' Nick keeps in his [[EmptyFridgeEmptyLife otherwise empty fridge]], he naturally assumes that Nick is an alcoholic.

* VampireDetectiveSeries: Possibly the TropeMaker.

** When a PolicePsychic has a vision of Nick sleeping in a coffin he explains that he doesn't, though most her visions are true. He just sleeps in a bed (and even a sunbed), or the trunk of his car when he's caught away from his home in daylight.

** Nick drinks cow blood rather than feed off humans; [=LaCroix=] finds this disgusting. He's also shown trying various green chemicals that Natalie mixes up to ween him off blood; unfortunately Nick finds them disgusting. On one occasion Nick buys a burger to eat, and when Schanke tries it, ''he'' finds it disgusting. [[RealMenEatMeat It's tofu.]]
** Vachon's friend Screed also mainly drinks animal blood, but that’s more due to developing a taste from it because of how he was turned. This cause problems when a [[NoBiochemicalBarriers Cross Species Disease]] from a rat infects the vampire community.

* WakingUpAtTheMorgue: Nick and Natalie meet when Nick wakes up on her autopsy table. This is not shown in the pilot episode but via a flashback in "Only the Lonely".

* PretendToBeBrainwashed: A vampire at the Raven uses the JediMindTrick to make Natalie take him to her house so he can feed on her. Natalie, as the audience knows, is immune to hypnosis so she just plays along until she gets to her house, then tries to lock the vampire outside. Unfortunately he has VillainTeleportation among his powers.

* TheAtoner: Nick has given up drinking from humans, and becomes a police officer to make up for all those he's killed.y

** The series ''was'' set in Toronto (and characters do talk about being in Canada often enough, with a lot of Canadian terminology, e.g. the "Crown" for the prosecutor, thrown in), but so downplayed that you had to have the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes to actually notice it. The police force is simply the "Metropolitan Police," without mention of Toronto. Police uniforms and badges are made to look generically American, with the distinct features of the Metropolitan Toronto Police uniforms (such as the red trim on the hats and red stripes on pants) left out. Interestingly, the Ontario provincial flag is far more visible on the show than the Canadian flag. Presumably because Americans are not so familiar with Canadian provincial flags than with the national flag?
** Honorable exception for "Capital Offense", which focuses on the issue of an escaped American convict facing the death penalty back home. The CN Tower is also used fairly regularly, including a prominent appearance in the credits sequence.

** Formal photographs of Queen UsefulNotes/ElizabethII (Canada's titular sovereign) can be seen on the walls of the station's offices in several episodes. However, the queen's portraits and Canadian flags are usually located so that the viewer would miss them unless they were paying close attention.

* DueToTheDead: In season 3, [[spoiler:Vachon buries Screed after he's killed, and later, Tracy buries Vachon next to Screed, knowing they were friends. [=LaCroix=] also burns Divia's body on a pyre.]]

** In the final episode [[spoiler:after Nick accidentally kills Natalie, [=LaCroix=] is willing to delay their leaving so they can bury her. Nick asks to be staked instad.]]

** Nick acceded to Natalie's request to vamp her brother when he was fatally shot. It didn't go well.

* EnigmaticMinion: Larry Merlin, a forger who provides vampires fake ID's, and Miklos, a bartender at The Raven, are this due to being the only characters in the show aware of the vampire community whose status as vampires or mortals is never confirmed.

* {{Fanservice}}: Albeit of the FamilyFriendlyStripper version--ToplessnessFromTheBack, lingerie and leather--but not much else.

** Formal photographs of [[UsefulNotes/HMTheQueen Queen Elizabeth II]] (Canada's titular sovereign) can be seen on the walls of the station's offices in several episodes. However, the queen's portraits and Canadian flags are usually located so that the viewer would miss them unless they were paying close attention.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: