Kindred the Embraced is one of those curious things like Dungeons and
Dragons the movie which takes a great deal of heat from it's fans yet there's a darn short amount of fans who either don't own a copy of it. These things become topics of discussion for years on their merits and flaws, partially on the fact they are in the mainstream. RPG culture has never been particularly something flatteringly portrayed in film or other media and routinely those who are members of it get the moniker or 'geek' or 'nerd'. Kindred: The Embraced was an extremely short series, only seven hour long episodes with a two hour pilot in fact, that was one of the few times an RPG got serious public attention.
Kindred the Embraced was a series neither embraced (no pun intended) entirely by the mainstream (due to it's Vampire elements and obtuse history) or by the RPG industry (due to it's deviation from it's source material) but managed to due surprisingly well in the ratings. Unfortunately Fox made the decision that it wished to move away from hour long prime time programming and the tragic motorcycle death of it's star Marcus Frankel cut off any chance of this decision being reversed. Kindred the Embraced has finally been released on VHS and DVD which allows gamers to continue to enjoy it's benefits.
Premise
Aaron Spelling gives his own peculiar take on the Vampire: The Masquerade mythos by populating the already previously detailed city of San Francisco with an entirely new Prince, Primogen, and vampire citizenry. The Vampires of Aaron Spelling's mythos are predominantly beautiful, well dressed, and sexual creatures which is a remarkable departure from Vampire: The Masquerade as is. A credit does go to the prolific producer however for attempting to create an environment were all aspects of the many conflicts of Vampire society (which is very rarely a word mentioned in the series-Kindred is to Vampire what African American is to a racial slur) can be examined.
The conflicts of the Harpies in Vampire's Elysiums are represented by the political players in San Francisco who I found surprisingly engaging.
Julian Luna who is the all too human Prince of San Francisco who attempts to balance ruling a city of the undead with his trying to be a relatively good man. Marcus Frankel makes a surprisingly engaging Ventrue but suffers from many player's preconceptions that all Prince's on some level must be evil. The depravity and villainy that would have been clear in a more "dirty" series is only lightly hinted at by Aaron Spellings direction but still prevalent in Marcus's performance so I don't deride it. It should be noted like many Storytellers Aaron Spelling pays no attention to the Ventrue
feeding weakness and we can only surmise it is the popular choice of
"Beautiful Women".
Stacy Haiduk plays the part of the Lilly Langtree who for those of you who know your British Scandals was a lover of the Prince of Wales in the 19th century. As the representation of the Toreador Clan I was actually surprised at how good they managed to capture the essential predatory nature of the Clan. Lilly as the "jealous lover" of the Prince desires beauty and art but through the series she desires it like blood. The muse that kills the spirit of a painter or the painter for the spirit is something I rather enjoyed seeing portrayed.
Eddie Fiori is portrayed by the B-movie and science fiction show favorite of Brian Thompson. Set up to be the Prince's rival during the series he takes some flack because he is also the main Brujah represented in the series and their leader. The Brujah being Vampire's most popular clan, many fans were rather astounded to find them regulated to the status of the villains in the piece. Eddie is a likable villain however with a tough talking exterior that surrounds a greedy and cowardly heart. Kudos to Aaron Spelling for also bringing out the rebel nature of organized crime and unions in the past before the Brujah became leather wearing bikers.
Daedelus is the Nosferatu Primogen as played by the wonderful actor Jeff Kober. The first thing to notice about the Nosferatu is that Daedelus isn't even Beauty and the Beast Television show ugly but simply bald with long ears and claws. If this was meant to be an homage to Nosferatu the movie (which it most certainly was) it failed to convey the horror Daedelus clearly brings out at his isolation and non-existent horrific appearance. Daedelus also serves as the Sheriff of San Francisco in a occasionaly brutal capacity but brings home what the Vampire Books mean by the "humanity" of the Nosferatu.
Archon Raine aside from having a name that jokes on Justicar's servants (if joke it is) serves as Julian's Obi-Wan-Kenobi figure and the Ventrue Primogen. The former Prince of San Francisco he seems very wise but doesn't really do much in the series other than imply that at one point Julian was a much more brutal and ruthless individual along with the fact Archon made him that way.
There's enough conflicts in the above description to give a series oomph but Aaron doesn't solely stick with the politics of standard Vampirism but also gives two supporting characters based on Romeo and Juliet to round off a younger Kindred's feelings on Vampire society.
Sasha Luna as Julian Luna's great great grand-daughter is played by Briged Walsh in the manner that rebels are routinely portrayed on television; people actually seeking a home but whose hard exterior covers a brutal childhood experience. Doted on by Julian the entire series she soon is involved with a Kindred lover in Cash and I think well represents the Brujah mindset people have complained was missing.
Cash as played by Channon Roe gives a "James Dean but rattier dressed" performance throughout the series that is occasionally hampered by stupid plot decisions for his character. The atypical Gangrel he takes up the slack as the loyal opposition and "boss" of the city's nomad clan. A few things don't jell such as why he's on the Primogen when he's obviously been only a Kindred for a few years and the ridiculous idea the man is somehow of Gypsy blood. Still he manages to do quite well for himself. He is never less than believable when he is with Sasha's character on screen or Marcus Frankel himself.
Finally to touch on humans in the World of Twilight (since Aaron Spelling's world is not quite a World of Darkness) there are two characters that have their ups and downs in the series.
Frank Kohanek as played by C. Thomas Howell is a character that adds the Cop Element of Forever Knight to the series. While Frank has some occasionally interesting moments there is precocious little to like about his character who is an obsessive revenge crazed jerk. I suppose Frank adds some sense of why humans knowing about Kindred even the slightest bit is highly dangerous.
Caitlin Byrne comes across as a much more appealing character as Kelly Rutherford. A reporter working for the newspaper Julian Luna owns she is in the unenviable position of being in the seductive eye of the man while trying to maintain her journalistic integrity. The Masquerade is of paramount importance in Kindred the Embraced so she manages to become a useful tool for pressing Julian's need for humanity while also weakening his position.
A great deal of Kindred the Embraced's potential was only lightly touched upon in it's seven episode run. Complaints that it didn't contain any Malkavians and Tremere (let alone Sabbat, Inconnu, or Werewolves) would have been rectified in later episodes but one can only comment on what actually managed to be present rather than what might have been. The seven episodes, including one never before seen in the USA episode about a Vampire serial Killer, plus the pilot are for the most part enjoyable treats with strong RPG roots if not completely faithful ones. Only one episode was bad (the Pilot) which suffered from a dragging plotline and over-abundance of explanation but even it showed the potential of the series realized in the next in the series.
8/10
P.S. There is a rule for why the Vampires can go out in Sunlight but they break it in the series so just try and pretend it is at night.
P.P.S. Also ignore the Nosferatu conceit they once ruled all Vampires, they live in sewers and are bitter about it.
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