When Victoria Schwab sat down to write an anthology short story about vampires in 2019, she already knew that whatever she wrote for television would adapt. So one of the first questions asked by VE Schwab, a well-known author by her pseudonym, was what vampire show she wanted to see.
“I want a’Buffy’that I didn’t have, but it creates space for strange characters,” Schwab said in a video call from Los Angeles last week, referring to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” rice field. “It’s in the center of the story, not the edge.”
Schwab traveled from Edinburgh, where she lives, to Los Angeles and premiered the Netflix series “First Kill,” based on her short story of the same name. Schwab is a prolific fantasy writer who writes books, stories and graphic novels for adults and teens, including the 2020 bestsellers.Adiralu’s invisible life.She has developed some television and film adaptations of her work, but this is the first to reach the screen.
“‘Buffy’,’ Supernatural’,’Charmed’—they didn’t disappoint me, but they were out of date,” Schwab said. While she was writing her short story and a pilot based on it, she aimed to “capture that barbaric and angry fun, but for a new generation.”
“First Kill” follows two high school girls who are in love but have major problems that interfere with their romance. They are supposed to destroy each other.
Calliope Burns, a monster hunter played by Imani Lewis, wants to prove herself to her family with her first murder. At the same time, the vampire Juliet Fairmont, played by Sarah Catherine Hook, needs to shed human blood to enter her adulthood. When the two girls kiss for the first time in the pantry at a house party, their commitment to duty begins to crumble.
The show follows the structure of a classic teen drama, studded with a fantastic plot twist. A meaningful glance full of longing and annoying social interactions in the school corridor lives alongside the raging ghouls in the graveyard, the vampires erasing the victims’ memories, and the monster hunter scene sparring in the garden. .. Since its premiere, “First Kill” has been one of the top 10 most popular shows on Netflix in the United States.
Calliope and Juliet join the rapid growth of television heroes in the footsteps of Buffy. Recent series such as “Warrior Nun,” “Teenage Bounty Hunters,” “Legacies,” “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” and “Motherland: Fort Salem” have been featured in the lead of young, sometimes annoying and confused women. Super powerful, mysterious ability to track people. One of the differences between these shows and their spiritual predecessors is that they serve spectators who crave more expression.
“First Kill” showrunner, headwriter and executive producer Felicia D. Henderson is an industry veteran of programs such as “Family Matters,” “Moesha,” and the original “Gossip Girl.” In her recent phone call, she described “First Kill” as a descendant of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” But she added, “Your children are never like you. They go out to do their own thing.”
“First Kill” is a show. “It’s a place to normalize queer love, normalize black families in the genre space, and further normalize young women in Kick Ass. As an artist, you have the opportunity to create the world you want.”
Schwab spent four months writing a short story of about 33 pages. “I was deeply aware of how terrible it was to have one character instead of your entire identity,” she said. “When you have something, that person must be on a pedestal. They must be much more idyllic than they are, and have far fewer flaws.”
She grew up to love seeing “Buffy,” but Schwab said, “As a gay woman,’Buffy’ is not always useful to you.” Schwab, 34, appeared in his late twenties, and she didn’t equate with Buffy’s best gay witch character, Willow, so the show “taken to realize I’m gay. It probably contributed to the time. ” friend.
“She was very grown up, very sweet and very kind,” Schwab explained. She was gay if she wasn’t like Willow (or her girlfriend, even sweeter and gentle Tara) because Schwab lacked examples of other queer characters on the screen and in books. She said it shouldn’t be.
It took years to find a series that offered a strange female character that Schwab was excited about. “Me I loved “Killing Eve,” especially Season 1, “she said. Debuting in 2018 and ending this spring, the British series follows Vogue-worthy costume-loving world-wide psychopath assassins and the brilliant and dedicated MI6 investigators who are obsessed with her. ..
“It’s very rare to see female antiheroes, especially those who are active from places of ambition and self-involvement,” Schwab said. “It is said that men must be self-led, self-attached, and women must be sacrificed.”
One of the big points Schwab took from “Killing Eve” when he wrote the “First Kill” pilot was that the two leads should be on an equal footing while competing with each other.
“This is not a show about victims and invaders,” she said. “Vampires are not predators, hunters are not prey, and vice versa. It is almost constantly competing for strength.”
What appealed to Henderson about Schwab’s “First Kill” pilot was the rich depiction of black girls and other traditionally underrated groups. She compared Laura Winslow, one of the protagonists of Henderson’s sitcom Family Matters in the 1990s, with Calliope Burns.
“Most of her story was about finding her own boyfriend, or dealing with Akel’s obsession with her, or becoming a good daughter,” Henderson said of Laura. “Then you go all the way to Calliope Burns, and yes, she’s in high school, yes, she’s in love with the wrong thing, but she also has complete control over her destiny. I am. “
“I see a young black girl fleeing from her relentless neighbor to a young black girl who fights vampires in the middle of the night to keep the world safe,” she added.
For Henderson, making a show was personal. “There is a young woman in my life who needed this,” she said. She talked about her granddaughter who had a hard time coming out when she was 16. Henderson said the show was for a girl like her, wherever she was.
