History Series / Moonlight

[[quoteright:192:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Moonlight_1262.jpg]]

A [[ShortRunners short-lived]] VampireDetectiveSeries that ran from 2007 to 2008 on CBS. Some saw it as a shameless ripoff of [[Series/{{Angel}} several]] [[Series/BloodTies other]] [[Series/ForeverKnight vampire]] shows. It started to develop its own mythology, but was cancelled before it could really find its footing. It's notable that while critics panned the acting and dialogue, almost everyone agreed that side character Josef Kostan was a real gem.

The show revolves around Mick St. John, an 85-year-old private investigator (though thanks to vampirism, he looks pretty good for his age). Despite being turned well over 50 years ago, Mick still has some angst about being a vampire, and refuses to kill for food. He has no qualms killing bad guys or other vampires, though. He also has some surprising hang-ups regarding a [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer pretty young blonde...]]

Not to be confused with [[Series/{{Moonlighting}} a different, similarly titled detective show with Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis]] or [[Film/Moonlight2016 the Oscar-winning film about a black gay man]].
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!!This show provides examples of:

* [[ABNegative AO Negative]]: Beth.
* AboveTheInfluence: Mick is able to resist Beth's advances on him while she's high on vampire blood.
* AlliterativeTitle: Beth toys with a couple for her story in the first episode.
* AlwaysNeedWhatYouGaveUp: Mick has to go through all kinds of hell [[spoiler: [[IJustWantToBeNormal to find the cure for vampirism]]]], but ends up nearly getting killed by a vampire using his plastic surgery business to collect rare blood types, to sell at a premium. Since the phony surgeon captures [[ABNegative Beth]], Mick is forced to beg Josef [[spoiler: to turn him back into a vampire]].
* AristocratsAreEvil: The vampires descended from the French royal family. [[spoiler: i.e. Coraline's family.]]
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler: Coraline. No one was surprised by this.]]
* BadassLongcoat: Mick possesses a very nice one.
* BatmanGambit: Lee Jay [[spoiler:kidnaps and threatens to murder Julia]] to get Mick to turn himself in.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Josef claims to have "mostly stayed in with" [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Harlow Jean Harlow]].
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: King Louis XIV of France was a vampire, along with his many descendants in the French aristocracy. Discovering this inspired the French Revolution and its method of execution, the guillotine, since vampires cannot be killed by hanging.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Evil definitely exists in the form of some brutal vampires and even humans. But our protagonists, even cute and innocent Beth, aren't afraid to kill...even humans.
* BlessedWithSuck: Coraline sees turning Mick as freeing him from death so they can be [[EternalLove together forever]]. He's not as thrilled as she is.
* CantStayNormal: [[spoiler:Mick]] becomes human again and gives it up to save [[spoiler:Beth]].
* TheCharmer: Christian's wife describes him as charming. "Like a snake." They aren't on good terms, anymore.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Mick's tough on bad guys, but will go out of his way to save people, even if he hardly knows them or they expressly dislike him.
* CombatPragmatist: Mick has no problem using his vampire powers to [[CurbStompBattle curb-stomp]] human opponents.
* ConcealmentEqualsCover: A rare {{Aversion}} of the usual "car doors are bullet proof" trope. [[spoiler: Josh]] is shot by someone aiming at the back of the trunk he's trapped in from the driver's seat.
* CurseThatCures: Beth asks Mick to do this for her fatally wounded boyfriend. He refuses. [[GenreSavvy He musta seen that ep of]] ''Series/ForeverKnight.''
* DaddyDNATest: Mick finds out that he might have a son with a friend's wife he slept with while they had both thought his friend was dead. It seems likely at first, given that the baby was born seven months after his friend got back. Mick gets a sample of the guy's hair and some DNA of his own from his human days for a test. [[spoiler: It shows that Mick isn't his father, and the son was just premature.]]
* DamnedByFaintPraise: Mick calls Buzzwire "entertaining", and the complements stop there.
* DaywalkingVampire: Vampires don't particularly like being out in the sun and they're very sensitive to it, but it doesn't make them burn up.
* DeadpanSnarker: Josef gets in quite a few zingers.
* DecapitationRequired: One of the only two ways to actually kill a vampire: all other wounds will heal themselves eventually.
* DistressedDamsel:
** Beth is kidnapped twice in the first episode. Once in {{Flashback}}.
** The next target is [[spoiler:Julia]] in the second episode.
* DoubleStandard: This exchange between Mick and Beth.
-->''"So how old are you?"''
-->''"Not polite to ask people their age."''
-->''"That's just women."''
* DramaticIrony: In the first episode, someone explains "the truth" about vampires to Mick. The audience knows that Mick actually ''is'' one, but the humans in the story do not.
* DullSurprise: Also DelayedReaction when Beth smashes a vase over Mick's head and he stares at her for a second and finally gives a very blank "ouch". Also-also BadBadActing, as Mick, being a vampire, wasn't hurt in the least.
* EmergencyTransformation: Mick refuses to do this for [[spoiler:Beth's boyfriend]], saying "It's not life." [[WhatTheHellHero She calls him on this at the end of the episode]], pointing out that, obviously, ''he'' seems to find it preferable to being dead. (Note that we'll never really know for sure whether he does or not, as he was never offered a choice.)
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Josef is introduced arguing with a business partner in his big fancy house, with some beautiful girls hanging out in his pool in the background.
* EternalLove: Coraline makes Mick a vampire so they can be together forever.
* FacingTheBulletsOneLiner: Mick, shot with silver buckshot, writhing in pain, with his shooter leaning over him with a running flamethrower, snarling "The last thing the world needs is an eternal you".
* {{Flashback}}: To Mick's past, all the time.
* FleurDeLis: A plot point in one episode as well as the title of said episode.
* FriendOnTheForce:
** Beth is on a FirstNameBasis with an officer called Carl, who frequently gives her little bits of info on new cases, partly because he wants to shut her up, and partly because, "It's ''me'', Carl!"
** Mick also has one, from way back before he was a vampire. They can even keep in touch, since his friend is blind and can't see that Mick hasn't aged.
* GoryDiscretionShot: We see a masked man pull a knife on [[spoiler:Chloe]]. Next we see an outside shot of the building and hear her scream.
* {{Goth}}: Beth refers to the murder victim as surrounding herself with "goth-o-rama", and many of her funeral-going friends also match the stereotype. However, she calls them "{{Emo}}", and seems to be using the terms interchangeably.
* HerosClassicCar: Mick drives a car that appears to be a mid-60s Mercedes 250. In contrast, Josef a 400-year-old vampire, drives a modern sports car.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Lola]] falls into a basin of the same silver liquid she used to paralyze the vampires she used for their blood. She is therefore unable to escape when Mick [[KillItWithFire sets fire to the building]].
* HoldYourHippogriffs: Coraline experiments on rogue vampires to see if a cure can be made permanent, referring to it as "killing two bats with one stone."
* HotForTeacher: Christian catches his students' interest with the vampire angle and then works to physically seduce them.
* HunterOfTheirOwnKind: A villainous version in "B.C." [[spoiler:Lola]] harvests and sells vampire blood to unsuspecting humans as the hot new party drug, trapping fellow vampires in pools of silver-infused liquid so they are [[AndIMustScream completely immobilized as she drains them dry.]]
* IdenticalGrandson: Mick passes off an old picture of himself as his father.
* [[IHateYouVampireDad I Hate You Vampire Wife]]: Mick hates Coraline for turning him. Partly because [[spoiler: she apparently did it without giving him any real choice in the matter]] and as such he never had a chance to say yes or no to the idea. We have no idea if he might have accepted the change if she'd been upfront about it with him.
* IJustWantToBeNormal: Mick has this attitude towards his vampirism. Though it seems to stem from the fact that he was never given an actual choice about becoming a vampire to begin with, and this has left him bitter about what he now is, despite being more than willing to use the powers he has to get the jobs he takes done.
* InASingleBound: Part of the vampire-powers package.
* IncrediblyLamePun: "Being a vampire sucks: [[LampshadeHanging It's a bad joke, I know,]] but it's the truth."
* InMediasRes: Multiple episodes.
* ImmortalImmaturity: A teenage vampire was featured in one episode.
* IWorkAlone: Mick tells this to Beth. She dismisses him immediately.
* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler: Josh.]]
* KillItWithFire: One of the only ways to properly kill a vampire.
* KissOfTheVampire: Josef's girls enjoy being snacked on.
* TheLostLenore: [[spoiler:Josef's]] long-lost love Sarah, who is in a coma [[spoiler:from a failed vampiric transformation]].
* {{Masquerade}}: Vampires work to keep their existence secret from the rest of the world, although exceptions are made for some humans. Heck, Josef pretty much has a harem of sexy girls he drinks from, who seem quite fond of the arrangement themselves.
* MayflyDecemberRomance: Mick and Beth.
* MoralDissonance:
** Mick murders people throughout the course of the show.
** Beth also let vampires kill a paparazzo because he threatened Mick.
* MrFanservice: For those inclined towards men, both Mick and Josef are seen shirtless. Mick even has an extended scene of him working out.
* MsFanservice: Beth's cameraman attaches a mike to her bra in the first episode. Her shirt hangs open then, and [[spoiler:Christian]] rips it open again later.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: Life as a human. The first thing Mick does as a newly-turned human is eat a lot of takeout, then sleep in a bed, then wake up to orange juice and coffee.
* MurderByCremation: In the episode "Doctor Feelgood", a newly-turned vampire goes rabid and kills a lot of random people (including his wife). Being a doctor, he goes back to his hospital, where Mick tracks him down and stakes him (which only paralyses vampires). He then feeds him to the cremation oven at the morgue downstairs.
* MyGrandsonMyself: Mick tells Beth that the Mick St. John who investigated a murder decades ago was his father.
* NeckSnap: Mick knows how it's done.
* NeverFoundTheBody: Coraline. Ironically, one of the main ways to kill a vampire in this series is by fire, which reduces them to dust. Mick last saw her in a building which was turned in a small inferno. As such, he felt pretty justified in thinking she was dead since she'd been staked right before then.
* NeverSuicide: Not in the first episode, at least.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: A doctor jumps out of his car to give aid to a hit-and-run victim, who [[spoiler:is actually a vampire and promptly (albeit accidentally) turns him]].
* NotDistractedByTheSexy: Mick doesn't even glance at Beth's chest when she's unconscious with her shirt unbuttoned, and the next time we see her, he's covered her up.
* NotGrowingUpSucks: {{Discussed}} in the fifth episode, with a teenage vampire whose voice will never drop and whose acne will never get better. [[spoiler:He murders sex workers out of frustration from being a 200-year-old virgin]].
* NotSoDifferent: Lee Jay pulls this on Mick.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: After discovering [[spoiler: Morgan]] is Coraline, Beth rushes to Mick's apartment to tell him. There she finds Coraline walking down the stairs in Mick's shirt. Mick protests that nothing happened, although it's undermined in that they ''were'' about to have sex in the shower before Beth interrupted them with her arrival.
* OddFriendship: Josef is a man who revels in all the pleasures of being a vampire while Mick hates them above everything else. They're best buds with plenty of HoYay.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Most of the vampires appear to be in their 20s and 30s. Their actual ages are occasionally measured in centuries.
* OurVampiresAreDifferent: ''Moonlight'''s vampires are similar to original vampire lore with their own unique twist.
** DecapitationRequired and KillItWithFire: The only ways to kill a vampire for good are by fire or beheading. All other common methods either only hurt but do not kill (sunlight, silver, staking) or don't bother them at all (crosses, garlic, holy water). [[spoiler:And even fire doesn't work, if the vampire is of a certain bloodline.]]
** GameFace: When vampires are about to kill, their eyes turn pale blue or white with tiny pupils and their fangs pop out.
** InASingleBound: Vampires can't fly, but they can jump fifty feet in the air with ease.
** SilverHasMysticPowers: Silver burns vampires, which is actually a neat way of reconciling the whole silver bullet thing with the vampires' lack of reflections in mirrors (which are, or at least used to be, backed with silver) and that you can't take a photograph of them (silver salts in film emulsion). However, modern-day mirrors (which use aluminum) and digital photography are both fine.
** SuperSenses: Vampires have supernaturally good senses of hearing and smell. They can even smell actions (e.g. "someone stepped back in fear"), though how exactly is not explained.
** WeakenedByTheLight: Sunlight hurts vampires, but it does not kill them instantly, and the effects can be mitigated by limiting exposure, wearing protective clothing (like long sleeves and sunglasses), and cooling in an ice bath or freezer.
** WoodenStake: They only paralyze; they do not kill. [[{{Irony}} Ironically ]], the sunlight and the paralyzing stake are actually more "true" to the vampires of the original Dracula story than any other of the modern vampires.
** They can [[spoiler: become human again with a specific drug, though the effects don't last, and the compound itself is extremely rare, made from an extinct plant.]]
* ParentalAbandonment: Well, [[BuffySpeak sire-al]] abandonment. It leads to some extremely dangerous vampires.
* PirateGirl: In "B.C.", Josef mentions that he first met his on-and-off girlfriend Lola in the 17th century when she was trying to put together a pirate army. Apparently, one could do that in those days. Being a vampire helps too.
* PrivateEyeMonologue: As Mick is a private investigator. In one episode, Beth takes over as the narrator, as she's the one investigating while Mick is... [[WorkingWithTheEx occupied.]]
* ProductPlacement: Mick wears Rock and Republic jeans. Beth's purses are made by Kenneth Cole.
* {{Protectorate}}:
** Mick took it upon himself to protect Beth when she was young.
** He also tried to protect a woman named [[PosthumousCharacter Ilene]] from her abusive spouse. That one didn't go so well.
* RealityEnsues: When [[spoiler:Josh]] is shot, Mick and Beth attempt to resuscitate him with CPR as a last resort. CleanPrettyReliable is averted, and he dies anyway - as most people do when administered CPR in real life.
* Really700YearsOld: All vampires are OlderThanTheyLook, but Josef is specified to be "four hundred going on thirty."
* RecycledInSpace: ''Series/ForeverKnight''... in the United States.
* RedRightHand: Lance has an eye that's entirely black. Other than looking really creepy when he has his GameFace on, it telegraphs that he's a bad guy.
* SacrificialLion: [[spoiler:Josh, who's killed off in the eleventh episode]].
* SerialKiller:
** One kills two college students and tries to kill [[spoiler:Beth]] in a Mission-Based example.
** There's another in the second episode. He's either a Visionary-type (it's stated he can't help himself) or a Power/Control-motivated killer (he's an abusive spouse that threatened to kill his wife if she left him), and likely a combination of the two.
** And in the ''third'' episode, there's a vampiric one who's driven to kill by his intense hunger.
** And in the 'fifth'' episode, a vampiric serial killer who targets escorts and prostitutes is mistaken for a human one. Humorously, the FBI profiles him as a man in his late thirties to early fifties, when in reality he's [[spoiler:a two-hundred-something-year-old vampire eternally in the body of a sixteen-year-old, making them doubly wrong]].
* SeriousBusiness: Beth is very quick to defend Buzzwire when Mick dismisses it as "entertaining".
* ShootTheShaggyDog: After having his girlfriend threatened and stalked by a gang, being kidnapped, and finally rescued, [[spoiler:Josh]] is shot through a car door and dies despite medical attention.
* SilverHasMysticPowers: Film and mirrors made with it can't picture vampires. Anything made with silver burns a vampire; a lot will paralyze one.
* ShoutOut:
** [[LeeroyJenkins Leeeeeerooooooy Jeeeeeenkiiiiiins!]]
** One cult leader/serial killer is described as having the grunge appeal of Creator/KurtCobain and the media savvy of Creator/DonaldTrump.
* StayInTheKitchen: Mick tries to keep Beth away from actually fighting, which she finds somewhat irritating.
-->''"Why does the girl always have to stay in the car?"''
* StealthHiBye: Mick disappears on Beth within the first five minutes of the show. It also doubles as an OffScreenTeleportation.
* SuperSpeed: Responsible for the aforementioned StealthHiBye. Vampires are fast little guys.
* SuspiciouslySpecificSermon: The pastor at [[spoiler:Josh's]] funeral gives one about the nature of mortality, and it is only with the looming possibility of death that we can truly enjoy and make the most of life. Interesting that a vampire [[spoiler:who just became human]] is in attendance.
* ToBecomeHuman: Mick [[spoiler: and Coraline]] take the steps towards this.
* TranquillizerDart: Beth is stabbed with some sort of syringe to put her under. InstantSedation is actually [[AvertedTrope averted]], though. She gets groggy almost immediately and looks like she's out, but she's still just-barely-conscious for the next several minutes.
* TorchesAndPitchforks: Or at least torches, according to Josef.
* TragicMonster: [[spoiler: Coraline turns out to be one as she comes from a horrifically abusive family and her actions are all motivated by a desire to be loved.]]
* VampireBitesSuck: It's not a pleasant experience in this universe.
* VampireDetectiveSeries: Obviously.
* VampiresAreRich: Mick casually refers to Josef losing a million dollars betting on a sports game.
* VampiresAreSexGods: At least Josef is...
* VegetarianVampire: Mick drinks blood taken from corpses or blood banks. It apparently doesn't taste as good as fresh blood. [[spoiler:{{Averted}} in "Love Lasts Forever," where Mick feeds from the leader of a local gang as revenge.]]
* VeinOVision: Shown a couple of times when a vampire is hungry and so is more aware of all the fresh blood juuust out of reach.
* VitriolicBestBuds: [[HeterosexualLifePartners Josef and Mick]] [[HoYay rag on each other]] quite a bit.
* WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere: Mick tries this, and Josef doesn't think he can keep it up.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Josef and Mick's two vampire pals, Tim and Dan, who are introduced and killed in the same opening scene.
* WeirdnessMagnet: Josh accuses Mick of this.
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Averted, as humans are killed too.
* WhatTheHellHero: Josef snaps at Mick for not killing Lee Jay when he had the chance, because Josef thinks he only let the guy go so Beth wouldn't think badly of him.
* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Not Mick! A lot of other vampires have no problem at all with their eternal lives however.
* WorkingWithTheEx: The episode "Fleur de Lis" features Mick working with Morgan, a human woman who is in every way exactly like his ex-wife Coraline. [[spoiler:Because she ''is'' Coraline.]]
* WoundedGazelleGambit: Lee Jay smashes his own head into a mirror and blames Mick. Then later, he shoots himself.
* YourMakeupIsRunning: Julia in the second episode.
* YourVampiresSuck:
** One of the first things mentioned in the first episode is that many of the stereotypical ways of killing vampires don't work. Crosses don't kill them and, in Mick's own words, if you were to spray Holy Water on him, the only thing that would happen is that he'd get wet.
** Christian also sneers at "dime store" representations of vampires and lectures Mick on what a ''[[DramaticIrony real]]'' vampire is.
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* MayflyDecemberFriendship: PlayedWith by Mick and his dog. Every time his dog dies, he gets a new dog of the same breed and gives them the same name and a number. He's up to the 30s by the time of the series.

* InMediasRes: Multiple episodes

* DistressedDamsel: Beth is kidnapped twice in the first episode. Once in {{Flashback}}.

* {{Fanservice}}: Beth's cameraman attaches a mike to her bra in the first episode. Her shirt hangs open then, and [[spoiler:Christian]] rips it open again later.
** For those more inclined towards men, both Mick and Josef are seen shirtless. Mick even has an extended scene of him working out.

* FriendOnTheForce: Beth is on a FirstNameBasis with an officer called Carl, who frequently gives her little bits of info on new cases, partly because he wants to shut her up, and partly because, "It's ''me'', Carl!"

* GoryDiscretionShot: We see a masked man pull a knife on [[spoiler:Chloe]]. Next we an outside shot of the building and hear her scream.

* [[IHateYouVampireDad I Hate You Vampire Wife]]: Mick hates Coraline for turning him. Partly because [[spoiler: She apparently did it without giving him any real choice in the matter]] and as such he never had a chance to say yes or no to the idea. We have no idea if he might have accepted the change if she'd been upfront about it with him.

* MoralDissonance: Mick murders people throughout the course of the show.

* {{Protectorate}}: Mick took it upon himself to protect Beth when she was young.

* SerialKiller: One kills two college students and tries to kill [[spoiler:Beth]] in a Mission-Based example.

* ShoutOut: [[LeeroyJenkins Leeeeeerooooooy Jeeeeeenkiiiiiins!]]

* YourVampiresSuck: One of the first things mentioned in the first episode is that many of the stereotypical ways of killing vampires don't work. Crosses don't kill them and, in Mick's own words, if you were to spray Holy Water on him, the only thing that would happen is that he'd get wet.
** Christian also sneers at "dime store" representations of vampires and lectures Mick on what a ''[[DramaticIrony real vampire]]" is.

* WomanInWhite: Coraline in Mick's [[{{Flashback}} flashbacks]] in the first episode.

* TheCharmer: Christian's wife describes him as charming. "Like a snake." [[CaptainObvious They aren't on good terms, anymore.]]

Not to be confused with [[Series/{{Moonlighting}} a different detective show with Bruce Willis]] or [[Film/Moonlight2016 the Oscar-winning film about a black gay man]].

* HotScoop: Beth, of course, and most of her reporter buddies.

* NotGrowingUpSucks: {{Discussed}} in the fifth episode, with a teenage vampire whose voice will never drop and whose acne will never get better. [[spoiler:He murders sex workers out of frustration from being a 200-year-old virgin]]].