Hex/Witchblade

[N4H]

Anyone ever seen Witchblade? Am I being bad, if I say Hex reminds me of it? I hope not, because I really liked the first season of Witchblade. It's a compliment.

I'm still on episode 4 of Hex, so I'm not sure my opinion matters, but I have to be honest if someone came up to me and he couldn't afford both the Hex and the Witchblade Season 1 DVDs. If he could only buy 1 of them...at this point I'd tell him to buy Witchblade. Not saying there's anything wrong with Hex. I'm just saying Witchblade did a similar thing, and did it even better.

[prydain]

I liked Witchblade but I don't see any similarities...

[Vilandra]

I could never get into Witchblade :(

[N4H]

Here's why Witchblade reminds me of Hex.

First of all there's the general tone. Both have this kind of somber, spooky, Goth-chic tone.

Second there's the theme of bloodline history and supernatural power connected, and passed on through an occult object.

There's the general feeling of this supernatural mystery just beyond your awareness, but at any moment you're about to figure it all out.

With both you're kind of standing on a line balancing between what makes sense in the natural, and what doesn't in the supernatural. Witchblade made the mistake of thinking it didn't have to make sense any more in it's second season. I'm anxious to find out if that's what happened to Hex too.

[prydain]

Well...it sounds to me like you may be a little upset with the second season if you ask me.

But I don't think those are the only two shows that have that tone and general idea...you also could have been describing Point Pleasant, basically. :)

[N4H]

Well yeah. For me the last season of Witch blade stunk. Was that the second? Why did you like it?

Point Pleasant? Goth-chic...Huh? You're joking right?

I didn't see a lot of PP. Was there a lot of that objects of occult power empowered by the bloodline stuff?

I know I didn't get the same feel from Point Pleasant at all. For me it was more kind of a Melrose Place dark thing.

Also with Witchblade and Hex there seemed to be a desire to be hip thing going on.

Wait. I think I can describe the difference. It's more a feel thing. For me what I saw of Point Pleasant felt daytime. Hex and Witchblade felt night - dusk actually. :)

[prydain]

Well I don't know where you get "goth chick", because none of the characters from Hex or Witchblade are "goth" at all.

And when I watched the first season of Hex it kept reminding me of Point Pleasant (Point Pleasant is better, though). But Point Pleasant is about a girl who discovers she has powers, a destiny...which could be for evil or good, she has her ememies, etc. And the show never delved deep into it's mythology as I think it would have liked to.

And I don't see how you can compare Point Pleasant and Witchblade and call Point Pleasant "daytime" and Witchblade "dusk"...I'd describe it the opposite way.

And BTW, Point Pleasant lost that soap opera feel after three episodes or so, the only reason it had that in the first place was to please FOX.

[Black Eye Guy]

And I don't see how you can compare Point Pleasant and Witchblade and call Point Pleasant "daytime" and Witchblade "dusk"...I'd describe it the opposite way.

Yeah and I think thats how it actually aired, Witchblade was on during the day, and Point Pleasant had a evening slot! (Well over here anyway)

[prydain]

Also, Point Pleasant is more like Hex than Witchblade in the way it is, too. Season one of Hex isn't action-oriented (season 2 *kinda* is more action-y like Buffy or something), and neither is Point Pleasant. Also, both combine horror and soap opera elements. Both feature mainly people under 20. (Well...characters, not actors.)

Witchblade, on the other hand, does not try to be scary or even really suspenseful, it's just an action-oriented fantasy to me. I did like it though.

[N4H]

Well I don't know where you get "goth chick", because none of the characters from Hex or Witchblade are "goth" at all.

No, not "chick" - CHIC. "elegance by virtue of being fashionable" I'm saying it's the kind of thing a goth might find chic.

And it's interesting. Hex reminds me of Witchblade. It reminds Prydain of Point Pleasant. I'm sure it reminds other people of other stuff. The one that Hex is usually compared to is the one that baffles me. I just don't get the Hex comparison to Buffy. I mean both character-leads are blond, I get that, and there are supernatural themes in both, but after that it's just not the same feel at all. Well maybe a couple of Buffy eps, but overall, not at all.

[Black Eye Guy]

prydain17 agrees: I think Witchblade aired in mid-afternoon over here too.
N4H agrees: It's pretty old, you know? Originally it was Prime Time.

I remember watching it when it first started and it was on during the day, This was like years ago.

Also I agree I don't think there is a comparison between Buffy and Hex, other then a female lead who has powers. I think Sky just used that to get the Buffy viewers to watch Hex, cuz it was Sky that actually said it was the "British version of Buffy" They used it in the first adds for the show, cuz Buffy was one of the most watched shows on Sky, and they wanted that audience.

I think I remember the pilot did very well, it probably got most of the Buffy audience and then it started to break down bit by bit. The second season is more like Buffy then the first cuz they kinda get a monster week by week

[prydain]

Hex is definitely not comparable to Buffy, lol.

[N4H]

I remember watching it when it first started and it was on during the day, This was like years ago.

I'll bet you did, but wasn't that in Ireland. It was originally made for evening broadcast Sundays at 8pm for TNT.

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/screen/sfw8558.html

Interesting...as I was searching for that info, I came across this -

What impresses me the most is the visual style (cinematography and production design) -- often gorgeous and moody, creating interiors that hint at a world that's not quite ours but close enough for us to feel at home in.

He just put his finger on why Witchblade reminds me of Hex, and it isn't just the visual style, it's the general feel.

http://onthebox.netfirms.com/Articles/witchblade/witchblade.html

[Black Eye Guy]

All this talk about Witchblade got me interested in it again and I found this on Wikipedia:

Anime series

In 2004 Japanese animation studio GONZO announced an anime version of Witchblade, with a subsequent manga adaptation to be published by Kodansha. The anime version is considered controversial by some due to the fact that GONZO has announced that the main character of the anime is of Japanese ethnicity but is not Itagaki, one of the previous bearers of the Witchblade. Instead it is a new character named Masane. This has caused some fans to cry out against what they see as a Nipponisation of the franchise.

The anime series will begin broadcast during April 2006 and will run for 26 episodes (a standard series run). The lead character (and new blade wielder) is the kind-hearted Masane who, despite her good intentions, is fairly clumsy and not good around the house. After the events of an earthquake that struck her home 6 years before the series "year zero", Masane has no recollection of her past previous to this date. When she comes into contact with the Witchblade, Masane also finds herself under the watchful eye of an organisation called the NSWF (National Scientific Welfare Foundation).


Source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchblade)

Heres the site for the animated series (http://www.witchblade.jp/index.html)
It's in Japanese, and the English section is not up yet.

Also according to Wikipedia the reason the show ended was because the main character went into rehab for Alcohol abuse, anyone know if thats true? I thought it just lost ratings, but apparently it was fairly popular?

[N4H]

That's interesting about the manga remake. God though, to go from that sexy, whiskey voice of Yancy Butler's to one those high-pitched minnie mouse dubbings, I don't know...

And on Yancy in rehab, yeah that's the way I heard it too. As it turned out the reason Yancy had such a sexy whiskey voice, was because she drank a lot of sexy whiskey. :popcorn: A little too much as it turned out.

Here ya go

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/yancy%20butler%20ordered%20to%20rehab

I went to smoking gun to look for her mugshot, but damn, they didn't have it.

[prydain]

OK, so I'm bringing this thread up again even though it's been dead for two years now.

Witchblade is on DVD now, and I'm getting to rewatch it for the first time in a long, long time. I also have Hex and Point Pleasant on DVD and have watched both of them somewhat recently. Now I understand where you're coming from, N4H. So far Witchblade is a lot darker and gothic than I remembered it being. I'm enjoying it so far - however, the comics are far superior, really makes me wish that they'd do another series adaptation of it, with a bigger budget and one actually filmed in NYC.

Anyways, I think both of us were right - both Witchblade and Point Pleasant are in ways similar to "Hex" (PP may not be visually goth, unfortunately, but in tone and elements, it counts). The anime series is alright, nowhere near as interesting as the live-action show and comic series, unfortunately.

N4H, can you tell me your opinion of the second season of Witchblade? I've read lots of reviews from people who felt cheated by the season one ending, and the standalone nature of the second. I'm halfway through season one (which looks amazing in widescreen) and am worried about what season two will bring.

[N4H]

It's been a long time. My impression as I recall was, they tried a little too hard to be different in the second season, and it got chaotic. I lost interest.

Yancy was still hot though. I should do a hottest celebrity alcoholic poll. I'd vote Yancy. :)