Stream It Or Skip It: ‘First Kill’ On Netflix, Where A Teen Vampire And A Teen Vampire Hunter Fall In Love

Don’t we all love stories of forbidden teen love? People from rival factions coming together for the ultimate romantic story? It seems to be something that’s especially prevalent in shows that involve teens and the supernatural. Netflix’s new teen drama has a story that’s very familiar, but told in a modern, 2020s way.

FIRST KILL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Vivid visions of two girls kissing each other, two halves of a peach coming together, blood-red pills and other things.

The Gist: Juliette Fairmont (Sarah Catherine Hook) has been having those vivid dreams, along with night terrors and migraines, which she treats by taking blood-red capsules. 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. But now Juliette has her eyes on a new girl, and she gets extremely nervous around her.

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. You see, Juliette is a vampire, and her family of vampires has been living a “normal” life in Savannah, Georgia. But she needs to commit her “first kill” or the wild instinct to kill will just get worse, as her mother Margot (Elizabeth Mitchell) and older sister Elinor (Gracie Dzienny) both explain. So when Juliette and Cal get a chance for “7 Minutes In Heaven” at a party, she goes for it.

Then again, so does Cal. You see, she’s a vampire hunter, part of a family of top monster hunters that just moved to Savannah. She is also looking for her first kill, and she’s disappointed when she has to go on a demon hunt with her brothers and just act as a lookout. 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. So when Cal encounters Juliette and sees the bloody pills, she knows she has one of those monsters hiding in plain sight. So during the 7 Minutes in Heaven, she goes for it, as well.

But here’s the thing: Both of them are also extremely attracted to each other.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? A same-sex version of Angel and Buffy in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, no doubt about it. Netflix even mentions Angel and Buffy in its description of the show. And just last Halloween, Netflix released Night Teeth, which featured some lady vamps nightcrawling around Los Angeles.

Our Take: There’s actually a good story buried somewhere deep within First Kill, created by V. E. Schwab based on her short story. It’s the classic Romeo and Juliet story, with two star-crossed lovers falling for each other and trying to make things work despite their opposite circumstances. But the first episode is weighed down by an extraordinarily clunky execution that makes that story impossible to find.

Almost every second of the narrative is explained away by voiceover, either Juliette’s or Cal’s. We know that narration is something that teen shows like to use a lot, and it’s especially relied on in whatever we see debut on The CW. But when almost every other scene has a character’s “inner thoughts” being voiced, it’s a sign that what’s on screen isn’t doing enough to move the story forward.

It’s too bad, because Lewis and Hook actually have strong chemistry with each other. From the minute they “meet-cute-ish”, you can tell that there’s more between the two of them than just professional desire, even before you realize who each of them is.

Speaking of which, we get the format of the first episode, where we see Juliette’s story, then Cal’s (though it seems that Cal gets significantly less time). But it’s not like we didn’t see hints coming, like the necklace Cal left that burned Juliette’s skin when she touched it. 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. So why be so manipulative? It feels like another piece of narrative gymnastics that didn’t need to be used.

Sex and Skin: Lots of making out and people putting hands on each other’s hips, but that’s about it.

Parting Shot: Juliette has bitten Cal. Cal has stabbed Juliette with a silver steak through the heart. How will the other survive?

Sleeper Star: MK XYZ is only in one scene as Tess, but it does seem like she’ll figure more in the story going forward, as an influence on Cal against maintaining a relationship with Juliette.

Most Pilot-y Line: Elinor tells Juliette that her first kill didn’t even fight back. “I think some people prefer to die young,” she says. Nope, there is no one we know that wants to die young. Do they think they might? Sure. But want to? No, unless they’re suicidal and need help.

Our Call: SKIP IT. First Kill could have been a fun teen supernatural series. But its storytelling is so clumsy it’s just very hard to watch.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.