Ultraviolet is a British miniseries from 1998 starring the then rising star Jack Davenport and the nearly unknown Idris Elba as vampire hunters. There are no friendly bloodsuckers to be found; they are referred to as 'leeches' by the stoic Vaughn (Elba) and his team which includes doctor Angie (Susannah Harker) and Father Harman (Philip Quast). Davenport plays a cynical copper who's brought on board when he is forced to kill his recently resurrected best friend, amusingly played by True Blood's Stephen Moyer with impressively terrible hair. The series is dark and gritty and closer to the tone of The X-Files than anything from Whedon's stable; it's best treated as science-fiction which follows the team's search for evidence of a vampire conspiracy. It's also surprisingly morally ambiguous in its six episodes as it explores Angie's grief over her turned (and promptly killed) husband. The direction is unusual and creates an incredibly intense atmosphere in the often dark and enclosed spaces we visit, and what's more, nobody ever says the word 'vampire'. The show spans themes from religion to biological warfare and treats almost all of them thoughtfully, and mercifully it also has nothing to do with the film of the same name. Ultraviolet is slightly dated now, but if you need a break from the romanticism of the modern vampire and want to watch a talented cast work with a well-written expansion of the traditional vampire myth, it's the show for you.
