This series is up against some stiff competition, airing as it does during the same era as Being Human, Vampire Diaries and True Blood. It is also following up on the heels of some classic supernatural television, namely Buffy the Vampire Slayer and X-Files.
What it does well at is keeping up a suspenseful plot arc and terse dialogue that keep things moving. At times, the dialogue crosses the line from terse to vague and clichéd though. All the actors seem highly competent, and manage to stay in their roles even when given poor lines - thankfully, this isn't a problem in every episode.
What I really noticed while watching this is how poorly its style and special effects compare to similar other shows. Both X-files and True Blood are favourite shows of mine and both obviously did a lot of research to keep up with the fashion, music and lingo of their time. By comparison the music, conversations and fashions in Blood Ties seems like they were pulled from a 1995 Style Guide - or worse still, from a Sears catalogue! The intro song, in particular, sounded so cringe-ingly outdated that I had to mute the television every time it came on. It's a shame, because Canada has some great cutting-edge music and fashions to choose from but in this series, it's painfully obvious that the budget (and imagination) needed to track it down just weren't there.
However, I think that most of these flaws stem from Canadian underfunding of television and the arts. When will this country's government get with the (television) program and realize that, by denying its budding stars a decent stage to shine on at home, it is driving all of its talent away? Probably never... it has been a huge problem for decades. Still, Blood Ties gives one the sense that talent still exists in Canada, even if it is doomed to languish in a latent form.
What it does well at is keeping up a suspenseful plot arc and terse dialogue that keep things moving. At times, the dialogue crosses the line from terse to vague and clichéd though. All the actors seem highly competent, and manage to stay in their roles even when given poor lines - thankfully, this isn't a problem in every episode.
What I really noticed while watching this is how poorly its style and special effects compare to similar other shows. Both X-files and True Blood are favourite shows of mine and both obviously did a lot of research to keep up with the fashion, music and lingo of their time. By comparison the music, conversations and fashions in Blood Ties seems like they were pulled from a 1995 Style Guide - or worse still, from a Sears catalogue! The intro song, in particular, sounded so cringe-ingly outdated that I had to mute the television every time it came on. It's a shame, because Canada has some great cutting-edge music and fashions to choose from but in this series, it's painfully obvious that the budget (and imagination) needed to track it down just weren't there.
However, I think that most of these flaws stem from Canadian underfunding of television and the arts. When will this country's government get with the (television) program and realize that, by denying its budding stars a decent stage to shine on at home, it is driving all of its talent away? Probably never... it has been a huge problem for decades. Still, Blood Ties gives one the sense that talent still exists in Canada, even if it is doomed to languish in a latent form.