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My Thoughts on Netflix' First Kill

Introduction

The cancellation of Netflix’ First Kill made me think of all of the problems I had with the show. Personally, I felt like First Kill largely misused their time considering the season only had eight fifty-minute episodes. There were so many subplots that drew my attention away from Jules and Calliope, who were unfortunately the least interesting part of this show. I wanted to root for them, but like many fans expressed on Tik Tok, I felt more chemistry between their mothers. I honestly think their mothers would’ve made more interesting protagonists, as the premise of two women falling in love and challenging their beliefs would hit harder if the women were older.

In addition, here are some of the major concerns I had with the show.

I spent the entire show trying to figure out the lore of this world. I think a first season should establish a relatively solid foundation in terms of the magic systems in that particular world, but First Kill didn’t do any of that. The differences between legacy vampires and regular vampires weren’t very clear, and it was never properly explained how a vampire turns someone to begin with. Additionally, why does Elinor have special powers? Did she use her powers on Oliver or did she just manipulate him? Do her powers even work on other vampires? The Emerald Malkia was also never fully explained, and the plotline of it living inside of Jules’ father was really strange and made the lore make even less sense. If the world, or at least Savannah, knows that monsters exist, why does the Guild seem like a secret organization? It really only makes sense for the monster hunters to be a secret if monsters are also a secret. Personally, if a zombie could speed through a school and rip out someone’s spine, I’d want to know that there were people trained to handle that.

Elinor was not a convincing villain. Maybe I missed something, but I don’t think Elinor is in the wrong for leaving Theo bleeding out after he and Apollo locked her in a bathroom and tried to kill her. Yes, what she did to Oliver was wrong, but Jules doesn’t know about that. Jules turning on Elinor at the end didn’t make any sense within the narrative.

More on that note, the monster hunters were in the wrong 90% of the time. They got mad at Jules’ family for killing their friends, but they were the ones who attacked first. And with the vague connotation that the monster hunters were mostly people of color, I really didn’t like that they were the aggressors of the story.

I hate to say it, but I didn’t feel the chemistry between Cal and Jules. Maybe it was because there was so much going on that they didn’t get enough screen time, but they didn’t feel like star-crossed lovers. I needed to see them just sit and talk about things, or do something other than run from their parents and hide. For a show allegedly centered around these two girls falling in love, there was surprisingly little time spent on them falling in love.

If given the chance, here are the major changed I’d make to the season:

I would have Cal and Jules already dating, or at least flirting, when the show starts. If we want the show to focus more on their parents keeping them apart, then we can’t also try and establish a relationship at the same time. Also, the reveal that Jules is a vampire and Cal is a hunter would hit harder if these girls already had pre-established feelings for each other. Instead of Cal being ready for Jules, I’d change it so Cal has no idea Jules is a vampire until Jules bites her.

I would throw out everything with the Malkia and the other kinds of monsters. Having sort of standard vampires would save a lot of time, as the general public knows how vampires work. Even having the turned vampires and legacy vampires would be enough to reasonably explain within the time frame. This would free up so much more time to properly explore the characters without the audience getting caught up in figuring out the lore.

I would age up Elinor and Oliver so that Jules doesn’t even know Oliver existed. Their parents are vampires, so it wouldn’t be abnormal for Elinor and Oliver to be 20 or even 200 years older than Jules. I think hiding Oliver’s existence from Jules would better justify his animosity towards their family and also place enough distrust in Jules to make her willing to hear him out. The betrayal needs to feel bigger so it better matches everything that happens with Cal’s family.

Final Thoughts

I think First Kill pulls heavily from popular shows and theoretically should’ve thrived. As a major fan of shows such as The Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, and Teen Wolf, I know the appeal of mildly cringy teen dramas. However, I think television as a whole has moved past those kinds of shows. We’re far more interested in high production value, complicated dramas that are essentially eight-hour movies. If First Kill had come out in 2014 I think it would’ve gone on for several seasons, but unfortunately in 2022 it simply isn’t in line with current television trends.

Bring Back The Disney Princess Movies

Introduction

Disney movies are a staple part of so many people’s childhoods. Especially the classic Disney Princess films of the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. Some of my personal favorites were “The Little Mermaid”, “Tangled”, “Mulan”, and “Princess and The Frog”. Of course, Disney had a clear lack of diversity among these films, with “Princess and The Frog” being the first Disney Princess film to include a Black lead, and the first to include a POC lead in general. (While “Mulan” and “Pocahontas” came out previously, neither fit into the stereotypical princess plotline, something that will be addressed later in this article).

The different story arcs of Princess of Color and their white counterparts

As of 2022, Disney has come a significant way in terms of diversity. Films such as “Moana” and “Raya and The Last Dragon” that have come out in recent years show that Disney is at least attempting to diversify their princess tales. However, there is a significant difference between how their white princesses and princesses of color are portrayed. As Disney also attempts to push away from the stereotypical princess narrative by showing princesses who don’t need romance and wear practical outfits instead of massive ball gowns, it creates a harsh shift in the stakes princesses of color have to face. Pocahontas, Moana, and Raya are all faced with the literal destruction of their home and death of their people, Mulan has to fight in a war, and Jasmine is nearly forced to marry a man three times her age (not to mention Jasmine isn’t even the protagonist in the film, she’s the love interest of the titular character Aladdin). In comparison, the white princess stories are mostly self-contained to their families or individual kingdom. Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, and Aurora all have conflicts that are mostly contained, definitely nothing too high risk.

Why does this matter?

Women of color rarely get to see themselves as the gentle, loving, soft princess. They’re the fighters, which isn’t necessarily bad, but it’s also exhausting to always be the character with the weight of the world on their shoulders. As a Black woman, sometimes I want to see a character that looks like me whose only problem is finding a romantic partner or being mildly dissatisfied with my current life. I want to see characters that get to wear fancy dresses and have someone fall completely in love with them. Women of color deserve to see themselves as the “fairest of them all”, the delight of the town, the soft, gentle character that everyone adores. By only having the white princesses have these characteristics, Disney enforces the idea that women of color don’t get to have those things. So bring back the classic Disney princess film, give us the same joy Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella did when we watched Brandi fall in love.