Renew First Kill!
I’m a sucker for lesbian vampires. When they announced First Kill, I was thrilled; never mind I wasn’t the target demographic.
Touted as “Buffy meets Killing Eve,” the Netflix series is the story of Juliette Fairmont, an adorkable lesbian vampire. She falls hard and fast for Calliope Burns, the new girl in school. Alas, Cal belongs to a family of monster hunters, trained from birth to take creatures like Jules and her family down. A heated encounter in a pantry and attempted staking later, the attraction is mutual and undeniable. Will our heroines be able to defy centuries of enmity and be together?
Cal and Jules’ relationship isn’t an easily ignored subplot but the raison d’etre of the show. Both girls have always known they are queer, meaning the tedious teenage coming out plotline can be dispensed with. They are an interracial couple, with the Burns family receiving as much focus as the waspy Fairmonts. They do what young lesbians in love and lust actually do: kiss and have sex. Which hasn’t been missed by critics, who moan the show “oversexualises” the pair. Would they say this if they were a straight, white couple?
One of the most important relationships in the show is that of Jules and Ben, her best friend since childhood. Most media portrays lesbians and gay men as separate species who loathe one another; these two are a mutual adoration society, giving advice and support where their families can’t. He’s a sobering reminder homophobia still exists in this universe: his on-off boyfriend Noah is closeted and refuses to dump his girlfriend, leaving Ben heartbroken.
Other than the queerness, I love that the central relationship is age appropriate. One of the cornerstones of vampire romances seems to be a staggering age gap, which translates as a hundred years plus year old man grooming a teenage girl, however you look at it. In the case of American stories, it frequently entails characters having Confederacy pasts (True Blood, Twilight) - roughly equivalent to a European author romanticising Nazis. Best of all, Jules is alive, waving aside the spectre of necrophilia that haunts most vampire yarns. Win-win!
The innovation doesn’t end there. Vampires are reimagined as a matriarchal society, with ‘Legacy’ vampires - the rarest kind, practically impossible to kill - descended from Lilith. Jules’ parents Margot and Sebastian face discrimination from other vampires because he is a human she fell in love with and turned. Their glamorous grandma Davina embodies all the pride and prejudice of their heritage, but if the show has a villain, it’s Elinor, Jules’ Machiavellian bombshell of a big sister. A power hungry serial killer, she has managed to ostracise her twin Oliver from the family, making out he’s the evil one. Understandably, he wants payback.
Critics have been quick to pillory the show with the sneering they reserve for teenage girls and queer properties. A sniffy Variety review claimed it was a “tired take on teenage lesbian vampires” - trust me, it’s hardly a populous field, with only the Carmilla webseries and the dismal film of The Moth Diaries in the past few decades. The CGI has come in for some flak, which is forgivable - the last shot of the show is endearingly naff - but we endured fake fangs and moth eaten dog costumes in other series and nobody complained then.
It looks as though Netflix won’t renew First Kill, continuing their marked disdain towards wlw series. They didn’t promote it until the very last minute, raising questions. Previously they’ve argued cancellations were due to “the pandemic” or “low ratings,” but that excuse won’t wash here. The show was a word of mouth hit on Twitter, with sapphics the world over urging each other to watch. They’ve renewed Heartstopper when its ratings are considerably lower; you can’t help suspecting lesbophobia and other prejudices are at play.
The wider world betrays its complacency every time a queer franchise is cancelled or ends badly. “It’s only a TV show,” they shrug, “there are plenty of others.” Not for us. With its queer heroines, one of whom is Black, and message of love overcoming all, First Kill is unique and has the potential to be a life affirming, empowering show for millions of young women around the globe. It deserves another chance #RenewFirstKill
Touted as “Buffy meets Killing Eve,” the Netflix series is the story of Juliette Fairmont, an adorkable lesbian vampire. She falls hard and fast for Calliope Burns, the new girl in school. Alas, Cal belongs to a family of monster hunters, trained from birth to take creatures like Jules and her family down. A heated encounter in a pantry and attempted staking later, the attraction is mutual and undeniable. Will our heroines be able to defy centuries of enmity and be together?
Cal and Jules’ relationship isn’t an easily ignored subplot but the raison d’etre of the show. Both girls have always known they are queer, meaning the tedious teenage coming out plotline can be dispensed with. They are an interracial couple, with the Burns family receiving as much focus as the waspy Fairmonts. They do what young lesbians in love and lust actually do: kiss and have sex. Which hasn’t been missed by critics, who moan the show “oversexualises” the pair. Would they say this if they were a straight, white couple?
One of the most important relationships in the show is that of Jules and Ben, her best friend since childhood. Most media portrays lesbians and gay men as separate species who loathe one another; these two are a mutual adoration society, giving advice and support where their families can’t. He’s a sobering reminder homophobia still exists in this universe: his on-off boyfriend Noah is closeted and refuses to dump his girlfriend, leaving Ben heartbroken.
Other than the queerness, I love that the central relationship is age appropriate. One of the cornerstones of vampire romances seems to be a staggering age gap, which translates as a hundred years plus year old man grooming a teenage girl, however you look at it. In the case of American stories, it frequently entails characters having Confederacy pasts (True Blood, Twilight) - roughly equivalent to a European author romanticising Nazis. Best of all, Jules is alive, waving aside the spectre of necrophilia that haunts most vampire yarns. Win-win!
The innovation doesn’t end there. Vampires are reimagined as a matriarchal society, with ‘Legacy’ vampires - the rarest kind, practically impossible to kill - descended from Lilith. Jules’ parents Margot and Sebastian face discrimination from other vampires because he is a human she fell in love with and turned. Their glamorous grandma Davina embodies all the pride and prejudice of their heritage, but if the show has a villain, it’s Elinor, Jules’ Machiavellian bombshell of a big sister. A power hungry serial killer, she has managed to ostracise her twin Oliver from the family, making out he’s the evil one. Understandably, he wants payback.
Critics have been quick to pillory the show with the sneering they reserve for teenage girls and queer properties. A sniffy Variety review claimed it was a “tired take on teenage lesbian vampires” - trust me, it’s hardly a populous field, with only the Carmilla webseries and the dismal film of The Moth Diaries in the past few decades. The CGI has come in for some flak, which is forgivable - the last shot of the show is endearingly naff - but we endured fake fangs and moth eaten dog costumes in other series and nobody complained then.
It looks as though Netflix won’t renew First Kill, continuing their marked disdain towards wlw series. They didn’t promote it until the very last minute, raising questions. Previously they’ve argued cancellations were due to “the pandemic” or “low ratings,” but that excuse won’t wash here. The show was a word of mouth hit on Twitter, with sapphics the world over urging each other to watch. They’ve renewed Heartstopper when its ratings are considerably lower; you can’t help suspecting lesbophobia and other prejudices are at play.
The wider world betrays its complacency every time a queer franchise is cancelled or ends badly. “It’s only a TV show,” they shrug, “there are plenty of others.” Not for us. With its queer heroines, one of whom is Black, and message of love overcoming all, First Kill is unique and has the potential to be a life affirming, empowering show for millions of young women around the globe. It deserves another chance #RenewFirstKill
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