Watching the trailer for “First Kill,” it was tempting to assume that Netflix’s new teen show got lost on its way to The CW. After watching the actual episodes, however, it’s necessary to apologize to The CW for the insult to a genre it’s done well for years, and which “First Kill” spends an inordinate amount of energy trying to duplicate without much success.First Kill Season 1 Download.
Based on the short story by V.E. Schwab, who also wrote the first episode and produces the series, “First Kill” dutifully sets up its YA supernatural show bingo board. There are bitchy sisters and ice queen mothers, overbearing fathers and wisecracking best friends. There are vampires, ghouls and werewolves. There are star-crossed lovers — vampire Juliette (Sarah Catherine Hook) and vampire hunter Calliope (Imani Lewis) — caught between their family duties and raging hormones. And yet, for all the work “First Kill” puts into making sure it hits all the right notes, the series feels more like an uncanny valley version of what it’s attempting to be rather than a worthwhile story all its own.
Over the course of eight episodes, all of which drop on Netflix today (June 10) when the review embargo tellingly also lifts, the drama follows Juliette and Calliope (aka “Cal”) as they struggle to balance their birthrights with not just the hell that is high school, but their immediate attraction to each other. As Juliette’s parents Sebastian (Will Swenson) and Margot (Elizabeth Mitchell, somehow) and Cal’s parents Talia (Aubin Wise) and Jack (Jason R. Moore) both emphasize over and over and over again, the two can never be together. The Romeo and Juliet parallels are of course intentional, but too obvious to be particularly clever, Sapphic twist or no. The same goes for the show’s blatant attempts to be a new take on “Twilight,” whose doomed romance gets an explicit shoutout in the (admittedly catchy) opening credits song.