First Kill

2022 - 6 - 11

Post cover
Image courtesy of "CNN"

'First Kill' review: Netflix's teen vampire love story doesn't have much ... (CNN)

"First Kill" isn't good, but it's bad in semi-interesting ways -- the kind of young-adult genre show that Netflix churned out by the truckload before ...

The appeal of the genre is understandable, since as the examples above remind us, there are bountiful rewards if you get it right. That includes plot wrinkles related to their respective older siblings and glimpses of the occasional monster, realized through pretty cheesy special effects. It also requires rethinking some familiar tropes of vampire lore, since Juliette's folks are fabulously wealthy, no strangers to daylight and generally seen as pillars of the community, never mind their nocturnal pastimes.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "IGN"

First Kill: Season 1 Review - IGN (IGN)

Framed as a modern day, sapphic Romeo and Juliet, the main story centers on two teens, Juliette Fairmont (Sarah Catherine Hook) and "Cal" Burns (Imani Lewis).

Of course, it’s to be expected that the path to lasting love will be a rocky one for Juliette and Cal, as is the way in every supernatural romance. The other major problem is the overly complicated mythology and focus on the families of Juliette and Cal. Once the duo get past their own hangups about being attracted to each other by mid season in “First Love,” the two are mostly contending with the biases of their families and their kind. Outside of the steamy pilot, the couple is relegated to mostly soapy scenarios that don’t get very explicit. But there’s clearly been an executive note to steer clear of anything sumptuous, sensuous, or scary and just go for the flat lighting of a standard CW teen drama series. For a series set and shot in Savannah, one of First Kill’s biggest pitfalls is its utter lack of effective, ambient aesthetics. In the first half of the pilot, “First Kiss,” Juliette tells her side of the tale, literally and figuratively.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Bustle"

'First Kill' Left Multiple Cliffhangers To Resolve In A Potential Season 2 (Bustle)

Though Netflix has yet to renew 'First Kill' for a second season, the teen vampire drama's finale left multiple cliffhangers to resolve.

Following the painful split, both characters were in obvious pain, and there’s sure to be a reconciliation, or at least an attempt at doing so, ahead in Season 2. Though Roberts was announced as a producer in October 2020 following a reported bidding war, the full cast wasn’t announced until May 2021. Here’s everything we know so far about a potential First Kill Season 2. “The fan support for the show already is bananas. As it turns out though, Calliope “Cal” Burns (Imani Lewis), the new girl in town Juliette set her sights on, is a vampire hunter from a celebrated family of slayers. Based on a short story by bestselling author Victoria “V.E.” Schwab, who also created and wrote the sapphic fantasy teen drama, First Kill centers on legacy teenage vampire Juliette Fairmont (Sarah Catherine Hook), who’s tasked with claiming her first victim to take her place within her powerful family of bloodsuckers.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Polygon"

First Kill review: a queer vampire romance worth sinking your teeth into (Polygon)

Netflix's 2022 vampire YA romance, First Kill, has officially been released. Whether you're into vampires, queer romance, or teen stories, First Kill has a ...

In the era of prestige television, it can be easy to dismiss a show like First Kill. Shows about supernatural teenagers rarely get the respect they deserve, especially if they don’t have the budget of Stranger Things. But they can be formative for the teens that watch them. The monsters feel like they’re made for children, but the love story is a clear teenage romance, and this conflict could cause some viewers to lose interest. The fact that Juliette is a “legacy” vampire is mentioned constantly, but the audience is never really told what that means in practice. The threat to Juliette and Calliope doesn’t come from a monster of the week or an anonymous big bad, it comes from their parents. It’s established early on that Savannah has a history of being overrun by monsters, but the extent of that history, or what it might mean for the human characters on the show, is murky at best. And the special effects used to enhance these mystical creatures are uneven — some are completely CGI, others are very clearly just actors in heavy makeup — and this imbalance only makes them look more out of place. All the popular vampire shows or movies in the past two decades feature some kind of Romeo and Juliet storyline — The Vampire Diaries’ Stefan and Elena or Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Angel and Buffy — and First Kill doesn’t shy away from these pop culture comparisons. Vamps aside, the Burnses fight ghouls and shapeshifting beasts, all of which look like they walked straight off of the Buffy set in 1999. But Juliette is a rare breed, a legacy vamp with a conscience who is desperate to avoid killing at all costs. But when she finally goes to shoot her shot, Juliette is met with a stake straight to the heart. Hook is especially intriguing, playing Juliette with just the right mix of teenage aloofness and sexual frustration. Based on a short story by V.E. Schwab, First Kill follows Juliette Fairmont (Sarah Catherine Hook), a legacy vampire living in plain sight with her vampire family in Savannah, Georgia. (In First Kill, being a legacy vamp means you’re born, not made, though how exactly this happens is unclear.) At 16, the blood pills she’s lived off of her entire life are losing their efficacy, and it’s time for her to make her first kill.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Variety"

Netflix's 'First Kill' Is a Tired Take on Teens, Lesbians, Vampires, and ... (Variety)

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 ...

Instead, Hook and Lewis’ complete lack of chemistry makes their dynamic so stilted that these moments come out of nowhere to land with an awkward thud. (If anyone has chemistry on this show, it’s maybe Mitchell and Wise as their clashing mothers, but maybe that’s just the exhaustion of trying to locate a spark on this show talking.) Sunk by a noxious combination of flat writing and flatter directing, the actors never get enough runway to make these characters anything but facsimiles of overwrought tropes. Instead, “First Kill” hangs Hook and Lewis out to dry with uninspired faux “banter” and poorly staged “sexy” scenes. The Romeo and Juliet parallels are of course intentional, but too obvious to be particularly clever, Sapphic twist or no. 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.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "TeenVogue.com"

Netflix's “First Kill” Cast: Meet the Characters and Who Plays Juliette ... (TeenVogue.com)

If Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Romeo and Juliet had a baby, it would grow up to be queer urban fantasy series First Kill. Vampire fanciers, monster hunters ...

Brought together in front of their Savannah high school, their meeting sets off a clash between two very old families with vastly different ideas about who the real monsters are. who happens to be the youngest member in a long line of very wealthy vampires. First Kill season one is now out on Netflix, and it's everything you’ve wanted in urban fantasy but haven’t gotten much of before.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Cinema Blend"

First Kill Cast: Where You've Seen The Netflix Stars Before (Cinema Blend)

Imani Lewis (Calliope Burns) · Sarah Catherine Hook (Juliette Fairmont) · Aubin Wise (Talia) · Jason Robert Moore (Jack) · Dominic Goodman (Apollo) · Phillip ...

She also played Clementine on Zoo during the second and third seasons, and had a recurring role in Chasing Life. First Kill is streaming on Netflix as of June 10. Will Swenson plays Sebastian in First Kill. Swenson’s fans know him best for his work in the theater. He has appeared in the films Kicks, August Falls, and He’s All That. Netflix fans may recognize Swenson for his recurring role in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina as Pan. He’s also appeared in episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, The Good Wife, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. It’s sure to be a great show for fans of vampires. She also had a recurring role as the Snow Queen during Once Upon a Time Season 4. Wise also appeared in the film Dimlland. the Bronx, Farewell Amor, The Forty-Year-Old-Version, and Premature. Her first major gig was as Tanya on The Get Down. The following year, she appeared in Bo Burnham’s critically acclaimed film, Eighth Grade, which made it on many best movies of 2018 lists. She wants to continue her family’s monster hunter legacy but finds herself conflicted when she starts to fall for one of her enemies. The series follows a legacy vampire and a legacy monster hunter who fall in love, very Buffy The Vampire Slayer meets Romeo and Juliet, but a little more modern, racially diverse, and queer.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Collider.com"

'First Kill' Season 1 Ending Explained: Relationships Tested and ... (Collider.com)

Throughout the season, vampire Juliette (Sarah Catherine Hook) and vampire hunter Cal (Imani Lewis) have been yearning for one another as their romance has ...

Together, Juliette and Oliver give the key to Elinor’s storage locker to the police, where they find the driver’s licenses of the dozens of people Elinor has killed over the years. Determined to keep this unfortunate turn of events under wraps, Margot (Elizabeth Mitchell) decides it’s her time to be the new Keeper, eager to step into the role and leave her mother in the past with most of her outdated traditions. Where the family stands at the end of the episode is unclear, as all three children are quite separated from their parents. However, it isn’t until the confrontation when Elinor threatens the rest of the Burns family that Juliette makes the decision to join Oliver and take Elinor down for her crimes. With so much on the line going into the season finale, as Oliver (Dylan McNamara) continues trying to get Juliette on his side and with relationships up in the air, the season finale is completely game-changing. Instead, she helps him escape, taking him to Oliver to stay alive, be safe, and learn control. After the fight with Elinor (Gracie Dzienny), Cal and Juliette walk into the bathroom to see Theo (Phillip Mullings Jr.) and Apollo (Dominic Goodman) on the floor, with Theo seemingly having bled out. Everything is too loud, too bright, and the thirst for blood is unquenchable. While she’s terrified of what’s happening to him, Jack (Jason R. Moore) immediately takes action and straps Theo down in the family’s basement, preparing to defeat the monster that, in his eyes, has taken the place of his now-dead son. Out of the four other Burnses, Talia is the only one absolutely dead set on not murdering Theo, while both Cal and Apollo side with their father and refuse to believe that any part of their brother remains. The first season of Netflix’s First Kill has come to a truly unpredictable end. Their bond has created quite a few obstacles — for themselves and others — and led to several near-death experiences, forcing the two to lean on each other more than anyone else.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "TV Guide"

First Kill Review: Netflix's Teen Interracial Queer Vampire Drama Is a ... (TV Guide)

The Netflix teen drama First Kill is Romeo and Juliet for today's audiences but with a lesbian vampire high schooler falling for a female vampire hunter.

On the other side of town, Calliope ( Imani Lewis) comes from a long line of monster hunters and is trying to prove to her family that she's ready to make her first kill. The deeper setup is well-to-do vampire Juliette ( Sarah Catherine Hook) is pressured by her family to make her first kill not just as a rite of vampire passage, but because she biologically needs blood that she's tapped herself and can't sip sanguine Capri-Suns anymore. It's a classic tale of girl meets girl, vampire girl realizes other girl is a vampire hunter, girl tries to rip out girl's neck, girl stakes girl through the heart, girls fall in love anyway.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Cosmopolitan.com"

Everything You Need to Know About the Cast of Netflix's 'First Kill' (Cosmopolitan.com)

Vampires are finally back on our screens, and Netflix is taking the genre to the next level with First Kill. Everything changes in Savannah, Georgia when ...

You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io Advertisement - Continue Reading Below He's been in productions like Les Miserables as Javert on Broadway and Stacee Jaxxx in Rock of Ages. Talk about range! Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below About her: Based off her IG bio, she definitely wants you to know she has a double first name.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Decider"

Stream It Or Skip It: 'First Kill' On Netflix, Where A Teen Vampire And ... (Decider)

Sarah Catherine Hook and Imani Lewis star as the star-crossed lovers in this teen supernatural series. Elizabeth Mitchell also stars.

By the time we got to Cal’s end of the story, we knew what both of the girls were; it might have been a better idea to integrate the scenes, even if that kills whatever “twist” was in that episode. Why? Because it doesn’t seem that twists and turns and massive surprises aren’t going to be what First Kill is about. What Shows Will It Remind You Of? A same-sex version of Angel and Buffy in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, no doubt about it. They run into each other between classes, and the new girl, Calliope “Cal” Burns (Imani Lewis) seems to be equally taken with Juliette. But then we see clues that Juliette’s interest in Cal is more than just attraction. “I think some people prefer to die young,” she says. She’s especially upset when her former girlfriend, Tess (Mk Xyz), calls her to say she got her first kill, which is noted with a tattoo on her arm. But now Juliette has her eyes on a new girl, and she gets extremely nervous around her. It’s too bad, because Lewis and Hook actually have strong chemistry with each other. So when Juliette and Cal get a chance for “7 Minutes In Heaven” at a party, she goes for it. It seems to be something that’s especially prevalent in shows that involve teens and the supernatural. She calls herself “popular by association” because she hangs out with childhood buddy ben Wheeler (Jonas Dylan Allen); they dated each other before they both realized that they were gay. Netflix’s new teen drama has a story that’s very familiar, but told in a modern, 2020s way.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Den of Geek"

First Kill Season 1 Ending Explained (Den of Geek)

At the center of Netflix's First Kill is Juliette Fairmont (Sarah Catherine Hook), a Legacy—pure-blood—vampire and Calliope Burns (Imani Lewis), a vampire ...

They are behind the resurgence of monsters in the area and because of them, the townsfolk are hip to monsters in their midst and mobilized to fight them. After being exiled from the family for being particularly sadistic—which he blames on his twin, Elinor—he comes back to Savannah to exact revenge and wreak havoc on the Fairmonts. He wants his parents and twin sister to suffer as he did, and he wants to turn Juliette against them. He and Apollo (Dominic Goodman) search for the family a crest belongs to, and Apollo goes to Elinor (Gracie Dzienny) for help identifying the crest. And after convincing the family to leave her alone with Theo to say her goodbyes, she escapes with him, and takes him to Juliette’s brother, Oliver (Dylan McNamara). Calliope and Apollo go home to tell their parents Theo is dead, but Theo is there when they arrive. The Burns lead an unsuccessful raid on the Fairmonts and lose two friends and fellow hunters while failing to kill any of the legacies. Both families have to fight to maintain power within their respective cultural hierarchies, all while contending with their family drama, and the people of Savannah who know monsters are back in their city. Now Elinor and Margot (Elizabeth Mitchell) have to keep up appearances so the other families can’t make a claim for the serpent. Talia against Jack, then against both the Guild—who no longer trusts them—and the monsters amassing in Savannah. When the girls see each other at school the next day, they both have to confront their fears… Early on, the blood capsules Juliette takes to curb her appetite become ineffective, and she needs to feed before she loses control. Both girls are next up in their families to take on their first kill, but their feelings for one another complicate things.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Den of Geek"

First Kill: Mythology and Monsters Explained (Den of Geek)

This article contains spoilers for First Kill season 1. First Kill tells the story of a forbidden romance between Legacy vampire Juliette and monster hunter ...

We have only seen glimpses of the larger worldbuilding, but It’s clear that the writers have a firm grasp on the history and the lore. I think that if we got to learn more about how we are different, then you can accept people who are different and not go, ‘I wish we were more the same’ instead of going, ‘thank you for teaching me about you. The relationship between Calliope and Juliette may be at the center of First Kill, but there is a rich mythology that backdrops the series. What does that mean his life is going to be, when you hear his big brother say ‘you’re not ready, you have to be 24.’ So we’re just giving you these little Easter eggs of what we might explore in the future in terms of the true and thorough mythology of the Guild.” We get brief glimpses at other creatures, including some that can appear to be human, which offers a lot of opportunity for cool fights and interesting kills. “It started as there was the devil and there were demons. In the show’s mythology, monsters are a known entity, but had been driven out of Savannah 25 years ago. Vampires aren’t the only monsters in the series. Then we come forward and in the contemporary world, it is now monsters in general.” We see Guardians creating warding in the Burns’ new home, and providing other kinds of support, but do not know much about them. The most powerful family is whoever is the Keeper of the Emerald Malkia, the serpent from the garden of Eden that created Legacies. Currently, Juliette’s grandmother is the Keeper. For Legacies, the first kill is a rite of passage. It is taboo for a Legacy to marry a non-Legacy, and Juliette’s mother Margot is somewhat shunned for marrying Sebastian, her human lover that she turned.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "HELLO!"

Netflix viewers all saying same thing about new teen vampire drama ... (HELLO!)

The series, which has been described as a queer teen vampire romance and is based on a short story by YA author V.E. Schwab, follows two star-crossed lovers - a ...

"But much to Juliette's surprise, Calliope is a vampire hunter from a family of celebrated slayers. It's a coming-of-age vamp show and I can't wait for season 2!" I want it all."

Post cover
Image courtesy of "TV Guide"

First Kill Stars Tease What That Finale Blowout Means for Juliette ... (TV Guide)

First Kill stars Sarah Catherine Hook and Imani Lewis breakdown the season finale blowout and tease what it means for Juliette and Calliope in a potential ...

You know the feelings that you have for all of these characters, for Juliette, for your siblings, for your parents, and it is real tough to find right now but Cal you are cut for this. "I think it's important for us to shine a light on the family dynamics where it's not a topic, where that's not a conflict. All she knows is to prepare, and to exercise, and to train. "The queer community deserves a show like this," Hook added. Throughout most of the first season, Juliette and Calliope were willing to put their budding romance ahead of everything: duty, instinct, and even family until Juliette crossed a line with permanent consequences that Calliope couldn't see past. It keeps Apollo alive, but it turns him into one of the things his family, and he himself, were trained all of their lives to kill.

Post cover
Image courtesy of "Decider"

7 Shows Like 'First Kill' (Decider)

Filled with vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts, vampire hunters, and love triangles galore, it's one of the most addicting YA romance dramas to land on ...

Based on the comics of the same name, this two-season series stars Kiernan Shipka as our Sabrina. Sadly, this one was cancelled due to the pandemic. Within the first episode, you’ll be rooting for Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke) to be a couple. The series follows Quentin Coldwater (Jason Ralph), a graduate student who discovers Brakebills University for Magical Pedagogy. In no time at all, he learns that the magic described in his favorite books series is very real and very dangerous. That witch-vampire-werewolf is Hope (Danielle Rose Russell), the latest student at the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. As great as The Vampire Diaries was, it often glossed over the whole high school thing. From Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec, this was the vampire romance show that started it all. Though First Kill is the latest of these kinds of stories and one that focuses on a LGBTQ+ couple, it’s far from the, well, first.

Explore the last week