Everyone Forgot the Vampire: The Masquerade Soap Opera

[@WilliamSRD]

Go to piavpn.com/WilliamSRD to get 83% off Private Internet Access with 4 months free!

[@ReshawnFacey-h1l]

Will glad I caught you early, just wanted to say great video, but Anbennar?

[@Flackon]

Where are the links to the show?

[@WilliamSRD]

@@Flackon They turned out to be age restricted, so according to YT policy I can't link them here. Give the show a search in YT though and you should find it pretty easy!

[@WoobooRidesAgain]

Hi, weird gun nerd, here. If you're curious, the "sci-fi gun" at around 11:20 is a 37mm revolver grenade launcher, I believe specifically an L8. These were low-pressure grenade launchers designed for firing less-lethal rounds like tear gas canisters for dealing with riots and barricaded suspects and were marketed to law enforcement, but routinely ended up in movie armories thanks to their intimidating looks and (comparatively) cheap price and lack of need for any kind of complicated conversion work to fire dud rounds. And it feels very Brujah to bring a grenade launcher to a drive-by.

[@rhyspatterson679]

Thank you! I was like isn’t that just a spray painted grenade or tear gas launcher?

[@rhyspatterson679]

I used to work for a prop company and my co worker would bitch and moan about grenade launchers because not only did he need a permit for the gun but a permit for each round individually. So he had the gun but no live ammo

[@greysnake2903]

🦅🦅🦅

[@sickjoe9174]

You can take a sip from another vampire you just can't take the last sip, apparently that's where the soul is.

[@Jasina85]

Exactly! One sip does not a diablerie make. Plus I could genuinely see the prince of a city wanting to blood-bond his lover for one reason or another.

[@zpacula]

At least according to revised 90's rules: drinking from another vampire works like an energy drink, but you have to go even further than just drinking them dry to commit diablerie. After there's nothing left to drink, you have to suck more, until you literally suck the soul out of a dry husk of your victim, iirc while the soul fights to stay in.

[@jasonblalock4429]

IIRC, the Bloodlines game also heavily implied that blood exchange is part of vampire sex.

[@Lambach-Ruthven]

The heart's blood, technically.

[@joearnold6881]

The soul is in the toes, so you have e to drink all the blood and that blood you get to last. That toe blood.

[@jessamynpratt5068]

Technically, you can learn Protean as an out of clan discipline.

[@LadyLunarSatine]

Yeah, I think the only really sus Disciplines to know out of clan are Quietus, Chimerstry, Thaumaturgy, Necromancy, and Vicisissitude.

[@Scoopsdepoop]

And I think that pokemon learned it as a secret ability.

[@Lambach-Ruthven]

Kind of similar to how any clan can technically learn vicissitude, the discipline is just very uncommon outside of the (extremely nepotistic) Tzimisce.

[@Bluecho4]

@@LadyLunarSatine And then, only in the sense it's a "trade secret" the respective Clans would prefer to keep to themselves. Whereas the Gangrel are much looser with their hold on Protean (to the point one wonders why Protean wasn't just another common Discipline).

[@Lambach-Ruthven]

​@@LadyLunarSatineSerpentis and Obtenebration as well.

[@AndusDominae]

Diablerie is drinking the soul of another vampire. That's just drinking his blood. That's not particularly unusual, though it'd be odd to do it deliberately given you can become bloodbound and essentially supernaturally "in love" with them, loyal in ways you may consciously not be, a weakness they can abuse.

[@chrismeandyou]

You are right it's not diablerie, but keep drinking another vampire's blood and the other vampire will have control over you. BLOOD BOND

[@Jasina85]

Man, Alexandra had Shape of the Beast, and yet she forgot she also had Earth Meld in the most crucial moment... rookie mistake.

[@LegalKimchi]

I want to sit here for 8 hours like it's a Quinton reviews video.

[@WilliamSRD]

I'm ON IT

[@setsunanoroi4971]

Agreed. I’m willing to listen to him review each episode. Let’s make that a thing!

[@Lambach-Ruthven]

I second this.

[@TheWarLizard]

@@WilliamSRDthirded. Whole show, whole show, whole show

[@diamondhamster4320]

Second that.

[@joeshepherd6567]

There are multiple scenes throughout the show where you can see the boom mic hanging in the shot. Top notch work.

[@Atsuraelu]

And here I thought everyone but me forgot about Kindred…

[@WilliamSRD]

THERE ARE DOZENS OF US DOZENS!!!!

[@rufusjustrufus8213]

I actually still own it on VHS. I think I watched it all, but I honestly don't remember.

[@Niskirin]

@@WilliamSRD All the ones of you are almost an army of ten!

[@nickwest932]

I got the special edition on DVD!

[@vxicepickxv]

​@WilliamSRD my work here is done.

[@Berks11]

Dude, if you hadn’t told me it was there, I wouldn’t even have known there was a night filter.

[@jakel2837]

Filming day for night is kinda hard even with modern cameras and editing software. I'm not surprised that they struggled to make something like this look good in the 90s

[@ZovcDrafts]

It's an interesting stipulation to need to work around for a lot of reasons. Union/labor laws vs narrative/fiction, practicality vs tech... Neat to see how productions try to navigate these things. I have to imagine we would have better lenses and filters now, but it's still hard to imagine making an outdoor daytime shoot looking like night.

[@WalterBarnes]

@13:18 - Record Scratch... Wait, that's not Diablerie... Reckless Blood Bonding, yes, but not Diablerie.

[@WalterBarnes]

Then I heard Kinfolk instead of Kindred at 14:38, and I wondered if this was a trap for nitpickers like me. XD

[@WalterBarnes]

20:20 A Ventrue could learn Protean, though! I mean... It ain't likely, but...

[@WalterBarnes]

22:40 - No Notes. Total Agreement.

[@Fr.O.G.]

I actually knew people who got into the game BECAUSE of the show.

[@Savyon0]

I actually watched this show back when it was airing, and only NOW do I realize- I've had the Gangrel and Brujah from this show swapped in my head for the past 30 years. I legit thought, all this time. that the slab-faced primogen dude was Gangrel (probably because they show him, also, turning into a wolf at one point), and the biker guy was Brujah (you know, because he was in a biker gang). I also still find it really.. weird? confusing? that there were ZERO *Tremere* in this show. You were already making a vampire soap opera! Throw some sorcerer vampires in there! makes more sense for them to be staging a take over than the freakin' BRUJAH, anyways.

[@tomegadrakon]

I loved this show. The beginning was rough and I remember having trouble believing they'd take VTM and make it about cops and not vampires doing vampire things, but they pivoted quickly. The lead actor was quite charismatic. I really miss 90s TV, when having plots being resolved was not anathema and not everything had to be a mystery box.

[@WilliamSRD]

Absolutely. A shame it didn't get the chance to grow and breathe more than the short run it had!

[@VoivodeMekhet]

This was a lot of fun. I do want to point out also that there are at least 2 versions of this show out there. I have the DVD collection and a friend of mine sent me a copy he found online and there are massive differences to the storylines and the editing.

[@Eyetrauma]

I remember when Maven of the Eventide covered this, before then I never even realized this show existed. Funny enough I mentioned it to my mom and she said she had loved it when it was airing. As a WoD fan I’m impressed that Aaron Spelling would even take a risk on this, and apparently it served as the groundwork for Charmed (which obviously was much more successful). Personally I’ve longed for someone to take the tone and story beats from Millennium and make a Hunter show, that’d be sick af. Anyway, nice review.

[@Lambach-Ruthven]

Kindred the Embraced is most definitely cheesy but in an "endearing 90s cheese" Tommy Wiseau type of way.

[@HonestObserver]

Wonder why San Francisco is the go-to place for such works

[@BenWard29]

I was a fan of Forever Knight back in the day, which is kind of the best vampire TV series I’ve seen so far.

[@peskylisa]

Loved that show.

[@CaffeinatedTome]

As long as you don't watch season 3 anyway, oof...

[@BenWard29]

@@CaffeinatedTome It’s always a good sign for a show when it comes back from being canceled and the original cast starts acting like they are depressed and moody and the sexy new characters are paper-thin. It’s almost always better when a show gets canceled that it doesn’t come back to life.

[@makeeye2867]

that wasn't diablarie, vamps can drink from other vamps fine, but dialbarie is when you fully drain a fellow kindred, and their soul joins your's additionally, off-clan powers can be granted if the storyteller allows it, but it's usually under the stipulation that someone from the clan they're getting the power from has taught them how to use it

[@davedujour1]

I very much did not forget this show. Too much "day for night" shooting but it was a fun show in the mid-90s.

[@radwolf76]

So, to the best of my knowledge, this is only one of three Tabletop franchises to get a TV Show, and the other two, Dungeons & Dragons and BattleTech were both cartoons, making Kindred the only live action Tabletop show. Also at the time this first aired, there were jokes circulating the WoD Player Community that Aaron Spelling decided to do this project because he heard that some of the vampires were called Toreador and thought that he could try to get his daughter Tori Spelling another prime time role.

[@NefariousKoel]

They don't qualify in direct IP allowances, but both Firefly and The Expanse had inspirational roots in the creators' Traveller games.

[@radwolf76]

@@NefariousKoel neat!

[@ihatevnecks7015]

The numbers definitely go up when you start looking at stuff outside the US. Not going to go into every possible example, but one of the oldest would be the anime Record of Lodoss War, which had an interesting Path. Started as a D&D tabletop game, then new original ruleset Sword World > replays & light novels > OAV series > TV series. That same world produced a few other animated movies and series. Cyberpunk's recent Netflix anime is another obvious example.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

@@NefariousKoel Seeing this, while the 2024 Mongoose Traveller books calling out both of those franchises as inspiration material for various campaign types, amuses me greatly.

[@jlaw131985]

I think that vampires can learn disciplines from other clans, it's just harder and they need someone who will teach them...but I think that varies on edition.

[@vxicepickxv]

It came out before Revised Edition, so it was using 2e rules. I don't recall those off the top of my head.

[@gamerabyss6693]

Dude, i just found your KZbin channel about a week ago and I have already warched your entire Dark series and every D&D video (i started my career back with advance Dungeons and Dragons). You are truly underrated and I hope your channel continues to grow. Fun fact, my dad played Dungeons and Dragons with Gary G. back in the 80s a few times. Keep up the great videos and ill keep watching them.

[@herpderp9774]

It is eye opening to see just how many of the actors in this show were also in Buffy.

[@bearcahcaw]

I adore this show (and world of darkness) so much, thank you for covering it!

[@therealdoomsage]

@5:43 This might seem silly but I really appreciate your not censoring this; in times where people seem unwilling to even say 'killed', deferring instead to 'unalived', I feel it's genuinely important to the future of artistic integrity that a stand is taken somewhere, by someone. William you are not the hero we deserve, but you are the hero we need, and we need you to say 'fuck' a lot.

[@AdriftForWeeks]

This show was so surreal to watch in the 2010s knowing all the history behind it and the popularity of VtM. That opening is só 90s, I love it.

[@brycevo]

I need more of this. Please review them all

[@square721bt]

slander, absolutely remember this. mom was addicted, she loved that Aaron Spelling stuff.

[@CT_Phipps]

12:30 Vampires share blood all the time as a substitute for sex. How did you not know this? YOU FALSE EXPERT YOU! :)

[@VRO_000]

TIL, the Sabbat have monthly orgies...

[@joearnold6881]

I can do cheesy, and flawed but interesting. I can get behind some niche, cult stuff. But this show is _bad_ and not in a fun way except for the setting the tried badly to have it be in. This video is the best way to watch the show. Get the interesting stuff without having to actually watch the show at all.

[@Zuginator]

13:20 that is not Diablorie, Diablorie is when a vampire drains another vampire and drinks their soul. THAT is Blood Bonding another vampire.

[@ADHadh]

A lot of things happening in just a single episode is the *most* unthinkable thing for TV today. Now shows are written with "the viewer is looking at their phone while it's in the background" in mind. Which is why you have shows where nothing is happening for several episodes straight. Also Frank could become a fully fledged Hunter.

[@mementomori771]

Will slowly becoming a tv/movie review channel classic D&D movies next?

[@shuboy05]

Mark Frankel's son Fabien plays Ser Criston Cole on House of the Dragon.

[@stardusst]

at the end of the video i was like "wow, that's a lot going on for 7 episodes" and i was shocked to find out it was only episode 1 lmao

[@Grinnar]

They actually were still airing reruns when I was in high school, when Wolf Lake was actually still producing new episodes.

[@Aramakie98]

It always reminded me as one of those shows like Millennium, on and off the tubes too quickly.

[@HouseLyrander]

On the one hand, I'm a little disappointed that you didn't cover the sequels to the Hunter video game. On the other hand, ir was nice to look back at this show.

[@michaelsilver253]

When you said there was a TV show I audibly said "what the FUCK"

[@KingOfMadCows]

If I remember correctly, the showrunners wanted it to be Godfather with vampires. But the network didn't want the show to be too dark and forced them to make Frank a main character. That's why Frank's role in the show diminished throughout the show. The writers never wanted to do anything with Frank in the first place.

[@Awakeandalive1]

She was not committing Diablerie! You seem to forget the whole matter of Blood Binding -- it was kind of a core feature of the Tremere hierarchy. Or that a mutual Blood Bond was often a way in which vampire lovers (or close allies) ensured that they'd be unfailingly loyal to one another.

[@Jason_Bryant]

I loved this series. When "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" came on TV, I was very reluctant to watch it because I hadn't really liked the movie. Then I saw who the evil vampire was and I said, "Hey! It's Eddie Fiori! He's a vampire again!" That got me to watch the first episode enough to give the show a chance. I guess that guy just looked like a vampire.

[@AndusDominae]

I'm a super geek purist. I wrote for Vampire: the Masquerade 20th Anniversary edition. This show should offend me deeply... but I quite enjoyed it. 🤷 It's like watching the Highlander TV show but superficially related to V:tM.

[@rustyyamate5888]

What parts did you write for, if I may ask? Thank you for your contribution, 20th Anniversity is an amazing book.

[@markusnavergard2387]

" Hey, Frank, you are now a Necrophile, congratulations"

[@Uthardar]

Yeah, I’m surprised they didn’t try to reboot this.

[@sinner6]

Me and friends had been playing a mixed campaign of mages/vampires for a while so I was all in when it first came out. I was so excited for it and I caught every episode live. I was so hyped. I was hoping for some of the other of the White Wolf stuff in a later seasons but that ... never happened. For a few years I thought it would have made a fantastic addition to the WB/UPN/CW lineup. They had Charmed and eventually a ton of genre shows, including super hero stuff, and I thought that a White Wolf would make a great setting for one of those.

[@Fastwinstondoom]

Absolutely agree, Vampire is a setting that should be a big budget show. Maybe whenever the zeitgeist decides that vampires are "cool" again?

[@DarkwyndPT]

Are grenade launchers sci-fi guns now? I mean, it might have been exaggerated for this series but it looks like any other movie grenade launcher.

[@WolfHreda]

I'm binge watching this shit TONIGHT! 19:04 I love that guy! Always a fun villain.

[@ps238principal]

The footage of what looked to be a mannequin with fused joints wrapped in gasoline-soaked rags, set on fire, and dropped from a helicopter about a mile from the shore the character "jumped" from was when I knew this show was doomed. It's just about the only thing I remember about this show. Well, that and mixing up of the clan powers when convenient.

[@madcourier6217]

I have never laughed harder when I saw that dummy shot. That and the wolf jumping off the bed and running away we're the two funniest moments in it for me.

[@blshouse]

I'd never even heard of this show. Now I'm intrigued!

[@Zeit142]

I'm so glad others know about this. I could have swore this was some fever dream I'd had!

[@foxyfoxington2651]

I never played Vampire back in the day, but I did come into a bunch of books for Mage and it always stuck me as a game that was more fun to read about than it would be to actually play.

[@SonySteals]

I was 13yo when they aired it and I can recall watching few episodes as my mom didn't let me watch it for some reason ://

[@planescaped]

I watched this show after first completing Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines back in the day. I remember that Doakes from Dexter was in it, the Nosferatu guy was pretty good, and that the villian from X-Files was also in it. Not much else, lol.

[@MarcAMARIAS]

That was my first introduction to WoD and it will be many years later I put 2 and 2 together particulary with Bloodlines...I Love this show !

[@ShadowRune]

It's a shame that this series didn't continue it would have been campy fun

[@grenadier1972]

Ahh Kindred the Embraced. I had this on VHS but lost it long ago. I remember watching all 8 episodes with an old girlfriend & explaining all the Vampire the Masquerade lore, clans & show mistakes to her. Don't remember why we broke up.

[@CaffeinatedTome]

Based on what I remember from articles at the time the show was cancelled at Fox and they were trying to get another network to pick it up. When one of the actors in the show with the most important role passed away in the car accident that's what made them give up completely.

[@animeator]

I will say though... I did have a serious crush on Julian when I was a young gothling.

[@alanbalan3539]

2:23 Typo of description

[@WilliamSRD]

Fixed it! Good catch!

[@Fenrisson]

9:26 - I laughed A LOT here! Re-watched this some six times to laugh again with that joke.

[@VorkKnightOfGood]

Watched it around 2010. From the very little I remember, it started as insomnia medicine, but it was getting better and becoming the Sopranos with vampires before it was cancelled. Or maybe the Godfather with vampires, since the Sopranos started in 1999. Whatever mafia-related media franchise it is, watching the politics and manoeuvrings was far more engaging and interesting than the early dramathon.

[@Jordan83709]

God! It's funny really, I remember this show, but also I don't remember it! lol I remember loving it, watching it when it was on, and seeing mostly how it ended. I remember good bits, but not everything. Thank you so much for even talking about this show.

[@claudiasilva1140]

According to some of the old White Wolf devs (the game publisher behind Vampire the Masquerade\World of Darkness), another point of contention that led to the cancelling of the series (or at least before the broadcasting of the last episode) was due to Aaron Spelling using official material from White Wolf books (text, images, etc.) without permission on the series and their websites, which led White Wolf lawyers to send them a letter. Apparently, Spelling did not take this kindly, and chose to immediately shut down the series, rather than to deal with it (since there was one single last episode to broadcast).

[@HonestObserver]

Amazing. The people demand you make this into a full series of episode recaps. Also too bad for Alexandra she didn’t catch a cab ride in LA instead

[@pkphyre8920]

20:28 iirc you can learn powers outside your clan traditions (in v20th at least) it's just more expensive.

[@mementomori771]

24:12 wait holy shit that was all episode 1

[@CthulhusDream]

Dude I would love to hear you talk about the other 7 eps! As someone who is only tangentially aware of White Wolf lore i would love someone to explain the episodes and all the little jokes and cool tidbits that'd go over my head.

[@joearnold6881]

But the show is terrible and doesn’t have jokes or cool tidbits. It would mostly be “they got this detail wrong just like they did in every other episode” He made the right choice just covering the first episode.

[@diamondhamster4320]

When koka so good it cures your vampirism.

[@samz8691]

This video made me curious enough to want to check out the rest of the show so I'll probably watch it with a friend.

[@happyxerox]

I'll need to come back to this video to calibrate my expectations if that Exalted show ever gets made.

[@zachorrzachary]

Port Charles has the most WOD creatures appearances on a day time soap opera I can think of since it contains, vampires, werewolves, a wraith (And their shadow if I remember correctly), and other super natural beings.

[@TheMandalp]

wait not 1 hour lore talk before we get to the topic of the video ? good as always william

[@WarDogMadness]

I watched it last Halloween. Loved the cut to mess TV show . Have you seen forever Knight.

[@nateshandy2070]

Oh, Brian Thompson! Hey, how ya doing, buddy? Always good to see you. And nobody made you put a prosthetic on this time!

[@Zeithri]

I disagree, Frank should had been the main character. BUT, seeing the supernatural would had imbued him and turned him into a Hunter - Zeal: Avenger, and his partner should had turned out to have been an Mage ( Mage the Awakening ). Just turn it into one big World of Darkness show!

[@ihatevnecks7015]

Except Hunter: the Reckoning didn't exist for another 3 years, and Mage: the Awakening wasn't WoD (and also didn't exist for many more years). Ascension's themes were way beyond anyone writing this show.

[@tomegadrakon]

@@ihatevnecks7015 They'd need to bring Andrei Tarkovsky back from the dead to get a Mage the Ascension show going.

[@Bluecho4]

I'd definitely like to see another Vampire: The Masquerade TV series. Maybe one of those prestige television shows that everyone was on about for a few years. Make the protagonist a Neonate, newly plunged into the World of Darkness. Create a complex web of alliances and intrigue. Maybe set the show in the 90s, as a nostalgic period piece. (While also neatly side-stepping all the plot developments from V5, which are...controversial, to say the least).

[@redcap1923]

If memory serves right, they mention in the show or implied that vampires can be out in the sun as long as they've drunk blood recently. Or that was made up for the show to film during the day. The one episode where nosferatus appear in the shadows and a pair of evil one looks almost like a traditional nosferatus was hilarious.

[@hartthorn]

The wild thing with Frank the Cop is that... it's friggin C. Thomas Howell! The Outsiders, Red Dawn, the Hitcher, he was at least a solid film actor, so one hell of a get for this show. And THAT was how they used him? I remember this show when it came out and being... mostly disappointed. Like, the vamps just lacked the oomph when they decided to cut loose. But it was also TV and SFX just weren't cheap back then.

[@VRO_000]

This was actually my 1st exposure to V:tM. It just took a while to realise it after actually playing Bloodlines / getting into the lore that that show i've seen back in the 90s had some similar stuff in it and look it up to see that, yeah, it was V:tM related. Same thing happened with the Mario Bros. film from the 90s, which i only saw on TV starting after the credits. Though that one i saw online it was Mario related, so i guess it's the opposite.

[@patrickpurciful]

8:05 Oh~ WillieSRD... Im loving the new segment I think that marketing is difficult, and nowadays getting a show like this off the ground would be next to impossible, but man it woulda been great if this was good. I also wouldntve watched it if it was.

[@kood995]

"Even if its just fans making a web series." *Looks at* *_"Hunter: The Parenting"_*

[@cerosis]

So episode 1 was just a backdoor pilot for Hunter

[@thegamedesignlexicon]

Wow, I had to look it up to confirm that it was C. Thomas Howell ... I was wondering if this was the only thing he could get after Soul Man... But OMG dude has been in soooo many sub 5 star imdb rated movies and tv shows... What a promising career gone wonky. E.T., The Outsiders, Tank, Red Dawn... to pretty much this for the rest of his career.

[@Xearrik]

I remember watching 2 episodes and thinking it was interesting. It never showed the next episodes... I didn't forget about it though. I forget about a lot of stuff, but for some reason this one would creep back up on me, and I would be like. "I wonder if they'll ever do that again. That Masquerade lore is interesting." I even have done research into the lore, and it's pretty neat. They could set a new show in any era. There is a ton of lore to pull from.

[@CrowePerch]

This was an incredible watch on stream, it was amazing in the worst way possible. Honestly I feel like it could survive a modern incarnation on the CW with what they were going for.

[@stevemanart]

I watched K:TE when it aired, and this show is the first time I was ever really aware of the concept of Day For Night in low budget shooting. I would love to see a follow up tho.

[@nilus2k]

16:25 I want these exact words written on my tomb stone

[@STS-qi1qy]

I most certainly did not forget it. A shame about the accident.

[@mofute]

i never forgot, dammit i taped this shit on VHS!

[@bluedude332]

This video should have had a KEEPS sponsorship.

[@sinmenon4347]

Tempted to ask if you have plans of making a game on Vampire Swansong or the visual novels. Great content btw

[@Bondanalloy]

also, other clans can learn protean, it's just not common. just like when other episodes everyone has auspex powers etc.

[@Livingdiceman]

It never really had a shot. I remember when it was advertised and the network just did not know what to do with it. It had a solid framework, but writing/acting was weak. Though it is fun to see some early career actors like Titus Welliver turn up.

[@cjr1382]

an empty mug and a water bottle

[@TheSevenRiders]

9:40 Frank isn't a very good detective.

[@alcidesprieto1967]

22:16 Her driver was agent 47😂

[@PBoneSteak]

I actually own two three VHS sets of the show. God, I'm old.