Moonlight (TV series)

Fandom
Name:	Moonlight
Abbreviation(s):
Creator:	Ron Koslow, Trevor Munson
Date(s):	September 28, 2007 – May 16, 2008
Medium:	Television
Country of Origin:	USA
External Links:	at IMDb at Wikipedia Official Website Official Forums
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Moonlight was an American paranormal romance television sixteen-episodes one-season drama. The series follows the captivating, charming and immortal private investigator Mick St. John (Alex O'Loughlin), who was turned into a vampire by his bride Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon) on the couple's wedding night fifty-five years earlier. In the present day, he struggles with his attraction to a mortal woman, Beth Turner (Sophia Myles), his friendship with his mentor and fellow vampire Josef Kostan (Jason Dohring), and his dealings with other vampires in Los Angeles.

It was put on hiatus after 12 episodes due to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America Strike, then returned for four more episodes, then was cancelled. There was an unsuccessful Save Our Show fan campaign.

Rumor has it that this was a fruitless attempt by CBS producers to recreate/updated version their 90's series, Forever Knight. Some scenes and dialogue were exactly copied from Forever Knight (1992)'s Last Act script and the main character's name "Nick" became Mick.^{[citation needed]}

Canon Overview

The Vampires

In the Moonlight universe, vampires have a unique mythology, where the one who transforms a human is called a "sire" and has the responsibility/duty to teach how to live as one after transmutation. The change from human to vampire does not occur only with the bite, it is necessary to be close to death and then drink the sire's blood.

Sunlight does not kill them, it only progressively weakens them, but silver and fire are highly toxic, leading to the death of vampires. While the well-known garlic, crucifix and holy water are totally useless.

Furthermore, they can die by decapitation, but the stake in the heart only paralyzes them and is extremely painful. They can glimpse the future, they have psychic powers and highly agitated senses that allow them to hear and smell the past.

Fannish Perspective

Possibly provided with a small but feral and faithful fandom, with the show receiving a lot of support after its cancellation -- fans campaigned against cancellation. Below are some anonymous comments on Fail Fandomanon:

[anon]
It's like 19th century style Varney the Vampire, meets Beauty and the Beast, with extra layers of cheese, and subtext, lots and lots of subtext. It has something for everyone, vampire fans, romance fans, slash fans, fans of deadpan snark (see 'Josef Kostan'). It also stars Jason Dohring, who automatically raises the awesome stakes of any show he appears on ~ YMMV

It is low budget, and it shows, and some of the dialogue is a little corny from time to time, but it's also a very character driven show, and the characters are very easy to fall in love with. The creator/former executive producer of the show, Trevor Munson, is also extra smile worthy. He's a totally nice guy, very open and approachable with the fans, encourages fan fiction and other fan works, including slash (I think I've mentioned on here before that he's an affiliate of my Josef/Mick fan sites, plus a member of the one I run on Facebook, we've actually gotten into some interesting conversations on writing slash, and the history of slash fandom)

[…]

The fandom itself has had a bit of a tumultuous history, there was the whole 'Garlicgate', 'Slashgate', and 'Busgate' debacles, but it has matured and settled down a lot since the early days. It also had a bit of a reputation for being 1) a cult of nice turned up to 11, and 2) completely bug fuck bonkers, again that's not really indicative of the fandom overall today. There is still an element of 'cult of nice' with some areas, but mainly the fandom is just filled with really nice people, who tend to forge friendships beyond just fannish activities. The fandom has also had a bad reputation for over the top anti slash reactions, and homophobia, but that was more back in the earlier days, as long as you avoid certain areas of the fandom you won't really be confronted by any of this these days (including myself there are a number of queer and non cisgender identified fans in the fandom).

Some fans have maintained online collections of Moonlight memorabilia and other content such as promo and commercials.[1] They also came together to promote where to watch the series, in addition to exchanging fannish items.

Connections to other fandoms

David Greenwalt, co-executive producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and co-creator of Angel, was an executive producer of Moonlight before dropping out for health reasons.

• Alex O'Loughlin (later to star as Steve McGarrett in the rebooted Hawaii Five-0 played Mick St. John, angsty vampire with a conscience.
• Shannyn Sossamon (formerly Jocelyn in A Knight's Tale) played Coraline Duvall, Mick's evil but tempting sire.
• Jason Dohring (formerly Logan Echolls on Veronica Mars) played Josef Kostan, Mick's snarky, somewhat amoral mentor.
• Sophia Myles (guest starred as Madame Pompadour on Doctor Who) played Beth Turner, internet journalist and Mick's love interest.

(If you are thinking, hey! AU versions of Angel, Darla, Spike and Buffy, you're not alone.)

Shipping

The popular pairings in the fandom are the slash, Josef Konstantin/Mick St. John and the het, Mick St. John/Beth Turner. Mick/Caroline also was fairly common. One of the semi-rare pairings was Josef/Beth. In AO3 until August 2024, of a total of 545 works in the fandom tag, 170 were Josef/Mick, 152 by Mick/Beth, 15 by Mick/Coraline and 11 by Josef/Beth.

The crossover pairing Josef/Elle from Heroes was popular due both portrayed by the actors behind Logan/Veronica on Veronica Mars. The characters Josef, Mick, and Beth were all popular to crossover with other characters especially with the Smallville, Buffyverse, and Heroes fandoms.

Another popular fandom for crossovers was Hawaii Five-0, with the Mick/Danny ship quite popular across fandom tags/categories.

Fanworks

Fanart

• Mick St. John (wallpaper) by aries85
• MICK ST. JOHN (wallpaper) by bialsilva
• Mick St. John (wallpaper) by jennablaze56
• Mick St. John (portrait) by namsikka
• Mick St. John (portrait) by tudboat
• Love Lasts Forever (Mick/Beth) by zirofax
• Оно лежит на самом дне в сплетении артерий пещер (Mick/Danny) by fandom Hawaii Five-0 2024 (H50 crossover)
• Mickbeth/Mcbeth gif via myreyisbae

Zines

• Freshie! and sister zine Fangtastic (both e-zines)

Meta/Futher Reading

• Moonlight: An Overview by Creepy Mustache at crack_van
• Fandom: Moonlight, a overview by angelus2hot at Newbie Guide
• Mick/Josef, a ship manifesto by emerald1972
• Mick/Coraline, a ship manifesto by ficangel

Archives, Communities & Resources

Archives and Fanfictions

• Moonlight (TV) works on AO3
• Moonlight works on fanfiction.net
• Moonlight works on Kink Bingo
• moonlightfreshies
• In The Moonlight, a defunct fanfiction archive
• Moonlight Fanfic

Communities

DeviantArt:

• mickandbethluvers
• moonlight-world
• moonlight-vampires

LiveJournal:

• moonlight_tv
• moonlight_fics
• moonlight_slash
• Crossing Moonlight (crossovers)
• josefmick_fans (has a link to a more comprehensive guide to Josef/Mick stuff online)
• beth_josef (Beth/Josef)
• josef_elle (Josef/Elle; Heroes crossover)
• ml_btvs (Moonlight/Buffyverse crossovers)

Tumblr:

• Moonlight Fans, a Tumblr comm by brinleyparke[2]
• fuckyeahmoonlight
• fuckyeahmickandjosef

Other:

• Moonlight Wikia
• moonlightfreshies
• jock_fansite
• Josef/Mick Facebook: fansite
• moonlightfanvids
• MLSlashVids
• Moonlight Forum (defunct, Wayback Machine version)
• Official Wallpapers