This page contains various reviews of the TV series "Kindred: the Embraced, in which Mark Frankel played the role of Julian Luna. Below you will find the reviews as they were written... (hopefully) ..... as with any review, some are positive and some are negative.... Either way, we hope that in providing this information, you might find that your interest is peaked and you will seek it out and decide for yourself. If you have already seen it, perhaps you'll be interested to see which reviewers, if any, agree with your assessment.....

FOX'S TAKE ON VAMPIRES HAS LITTLE BITE, LESS WIT

MIKE DUFFY

Page: 3D

METRO FINAL

'Kindred: The Embraced'

* out of 4 stars

8 tonight

WJBK-TV, Channel 2, Fox

Spare us the bloody curse of self-important vampires.

"Kindred: The Embraced," a flamboyantly silly saga of rival clans of vampires living in modern-day San Francisco, takes itself way tooseriously.

This portentous odyssey of a supernatural Mafia might be more palatable if the producers exhibited even an ounce of wit. When the subject is vampires, you need a little loopiness to go with the ludicrous premise.

But no such luck with Fox's dopey "Kindred."

These five contentious families of new wave neck biters, who embrace their victims -- therefore the title -- slither onto the Fox airwaves with a movie premiere tonight. They take over their regular spring season time slot at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

The vampires replace "Party of Five," the exceptional Fox family drama which completed its season run last week. Maybe we should just call this new one "Party of Jive."

Clunky dialogue sprouts everywhere amid sex and violence.

"I don't care if your parents were monsters! I don't care if you're a hooker from the drug cartel. . . . No one is taking you away from me!" a love-struck homicide cop bellows to his vampire love thing.  Unfortunately, Mr. Man fails to give these words the campy twist they deserve.

You'll also need a scorecard to figure out the night crawling congregations in "Kindred." It goes like this:

The Ventrue are aristocratic vampires, a Kennedyesque clan headed by Julian Luna (Mark Frankel, "Fortune Hunter"), who is Prince of the Ventrue and supreme ruler of all five clans. Yeah, he's the moodily handsome Godfather of neck-nosh.

The Brujah are the gun-toting mobsters, big fans of spontaneous mayhem.

The Torreadors, led by curvaceous nightclub owner Lillie Langtry (Stacy Haiduk, "seaQuest DSV"), are the expressive, artistic vampires. Langtry operates The Haven, a favored vampire hangout.

The Gangrels are the rockateen hipsters, bikers and blood- sucking Gen Xers.

And finally we have the Nosferatu, the oldest of the clans, a savage chrome-domed bunch headed by Daedalus (Jeff Korber, "China Beach").

Naturally, we require a non-vampire hero to battle all that evil. This would be Frank Kohanek (C. Thomas Howell, "The Hitcher"), the homicide cop who is constantly cranked up on pouty indignation.

In future episodes, a tough-cookie journalist named Caitlin Byrne (Kelly Rutherford, "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.") will saunter into view and become romantically entangled with Julian Luna.

Aaron Spelling ("Melrose Place," "Beverly Hills, 90210"), television's sultan of glossy ultra-schlock, is the producer behind "Kindred: The Embraced." He has been very busy this mid- season, having already
unleashed the dizzy soap opera burritos "Savannah" (WB) and "Malibu Shores" (NBC).

Because of the show's self-consciously puffed-up vampire mumbo jumbo, one can imagine a cult following for "Kindred: The Embraced." Instead of Trekkers, we'll have devoted Embraceables obsessively deconstructing each overblown episode in cyberspace.

Different vampire strokes for different vampire folks.

Me, I'd rather giggle affectionately and watch "Dark Shadows" reruns. Barnabas Collins was cool. And he didn't take himself too seriously.

Tuesday, Home Edition
Part F: 11

EMBRACE FOX VAMPIRES AT YOUR OWN RISK
HOWARD ROSENBERG

A girl vampire pouts to a boy vampire: "This is your vengeance against me, served as cold as your heart."

Vampire prose, vampire chompers, vampire glowing eyes, vampire murder, vampire sex, voluptuous vampires cavorting in their underwear. If the slow, somber, anemic, pugnaciously absurd premiere of Fox's new "Kindred: The Embraced" were a theatrical movie instead of a series, you wouldn't walk out.
You'd run.

Be patient, though, for a future episode made available for preview indicates that this contemporary tale about humans turned bloodsuckers (known as Kindred) benefits from a creative transfusion, improving dramatically after its 90-minute opener that introduces Mark Frankel as Julian Luna, a Godfather-like prince of five vampire clans, and C. Thomas Howell as Frank Kohanek, the San Francisco police detective who thinks Luna is an ordinary mobster.

Kohanek doesn't know that the sexy dish (Kate Vernon) he's sleeping with is Luna's old flame and a formidable vampire herself. But like Luna, she's a good vampire, in contrast to the bad vampires, led by Eddie Fiori (Brian Thompson), who challenge his leadership. Meanwhile, the Kindred do lots of sluggish moping, blood is liberally sucked (vampires apparently being immune to the AIDS virus) and the show's Mafia metaphor ends up sleeping with the fishes.

Even without zee usual Transylvania accents and black capes, all of this is quite dopey, with Howell's obtuse Kohanek being such a thick lug, stifling nearly every scene he's in, that you wouldn't mind driving a stake through his heart.

Fortunately, his camera time is cut drastically in that future episode, a sort of "West Side Story" meets "The Godfather" that dwells on Luna and juxtaposes tender romance, a child-in-jeopardy subplot and a potential clan rumble in fascinating, twisting ways that create poignancy and interest. Pretty good stuff.

Which episode is most representative of the real "Kindred" remains to be seen. Play it safe, in any case, and wear your garlic necklace.

* "Kindred: The Embraced" premieres at 8 tonight on Fox (Channel 11).

C; Page 16; Column 1;

Turf Wars In Which Hunks Vie For Blood
CARYN JAMES

Maybe it was only a matter of time before Aaron Spelling moved from the glamorous, conniving denizens of his usual soapy hits to characters who have truly earned the name bloodsucker. In the newest Spelling-produced series, " Kindred: The Embraced," the heroes are vampires masquerading as drop-dead-gorgeous humans. Five clans of them live in San Francisco, locked in a "Godfather"-style turf war. The most powerful clan is led by a handsome, shadowy businessman named Julian Luna, the Michael Corleone of vampires. There is a clan
of young biker vampires. There are even pumped-up vampires with a Schwarzenegger-style leader. When these characters cry their blood-red tears, it's a fashion statement.

But "Kindred," which might have been wretched and campy -- think "Melrose Vampires" or "Vampires 90210" -- turns out to be a wry morality play with Julian as a dashing antihero. At its best, "Kindred: The Embraced" shares the appeal of "The X-Files" and other trendy tales of the paranoid and supernatural.

Unfortunately, the series begins tonight with a lame 90-minute pilot that focuses on the show's whiny ostensible hero. C. Thomas Howell plays Frank Kohanek, a shabby, vampire-hunting detective who falls for Julian's former
lover. The earnest Frank is unintentionally a wimp. As the series develops, though (beginning tomorrow in its regular slot, Wednesday nights at 9 on Fox), the turf warfare explodes and the show seems transformed. Watching vampires feud over family honor is always more entertaining than seeing a cop in puppy love.

Tonight's episode does provide helpful "Kindred" lore. Julian (Mark Frankel) is the Prince of all the clans, and the character most in debt to Count Dracula.  He has a widow's peak in his slicked-back hair, and lives in a mansion with gold-tasseled drapes. Yet Mr. Frankel gives Julian a seductive, contemporary air. With his own rigorous code of honor, Julian is determined to keep the peace.

Another clan is led by a miniskirted nightclub owner named Lily Langtry. She is the Lily Langtry, once Oscar Wilde's pal; those vampires age well. The thuggish Brujah clan (pronounced as in brouhaha) is led by the muscle-bound Eddie Fiori, who is determined to wrest power from Julian. And the Nosferatus, in homage to Murnau's classic film, are hairless, with pointed teeth. They all drink blood discreetly; they've had centuries to refine the technique.

The pilot also serves as a glossary of vampire-speak. The "masquerade" is the big joke the vampires put over on the rest of us, by passing as human. To be " embraced" is to be turned into a vampire, one of the "Kindred" (like being a made man in the mob).

In a strong episode called "Romeo and Juliet," to be shown on April 17, the Brujahs take advantage of Julian's niece, and the fun really begins. Julian stomps into Eddie's office and declares war. "My city?" he yells. "Against my blood? Did you think I wouldn't answer?"

Though "Kindred" would be better without Frank and his witless dialogue, it's too much to hope that he will disappear. The noble Julian has guaranteed his life, and, besides, Mr. Howell gets top billing. In tonight's episode, Frank looks into his lover's eyes (he has not yet seen them turn that undead white or watched her turn into a wolf) and says with soft-spoken sincerity, "If you were working for Luna, you'd tell me, wouldn't you?" Oh, sure she would.

If only networks could cross-pollinate. Then Nash Bridges, the San Francisco detective Don Johnson plays in his new CBS series, could hunt the Kindred while he's in the neighborhood. Nash Bridges versus Julian Luna: now that would be a fair, and exquisitely groomed, fight.

ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
May 8, 1996

Season finale of Fox's vampire series `Kindred: The Embraced'
Kinney Littlefield

Please, just one more bite. As veinsucking vampire shows go, the season finale of ``Kindred: The Embraced'' is good to the last drop. In fact, it's the best episode of the sexy Fox series so far.

Called ``Cabin in the Woods,'' this steamy season ender offers plenty of dangerous romance and cool vampire moves - and enough surprises to keep viewers craving blood all summer long.

For starters, vampire prince Julian Luna (Mark Frankel) and his paramour, newspaper editor Caitlin Byrne (Kelly Rutherford) - who will never win a Pulitzer for investigative reporting since she still hasn't discovered Julian is non-human - continue their sizzling pas de deux. They get it on in a rustic getaway in Sonoma, until some of Julian's undead enemies show up in the nearby graveyard where Julian was supposedly buried long ago.
These bad guys are from the Mafialike Brujah vampire clan, just drooling to spill Julian's blue-chip Ventrue blood. To survive, Julian is forced to reveal his vampire nature to Caitlin - well, briefly.

Unfortunately, how Julian maintains his relationship with a newly knowledgeable Caitlin, while staying true to his vampire vows, is the lone implausible note here.

You see, Kindred have the power to make humans forget. This power has been used before on Caitlin, and on Julian's human foe Detective Frank Kohanek (C. Thomas Howell), by his not-so-human cop partner Sonny (Erik King). So, within this Kindred world, memory-erasure is valid, but it's also a way too-easy plot fix.

Still, Julian's psychological sway over Caitlin is one of the more intriguing elements of the show. From the beginning, the way he's played the withholding male to her yearning, trusting female has been annoying, unsettling, but riveting.

``Cabin in the Woods'' also proves why gothic ``Kindred'' is more than ``Melrose Place'' with extra-long fangs. ``Kindred's'' cast members are actors. Frankel, well trained on the English stage, knows how to speak subtle volumes without saying a word. As Julian's enforcer Nosferatu Daedalus, Jeff Kober is an intriguing mix of sensitivity and menace.

And guest star Titus Welliver, as new and corporately creepy Brujah honcho Cameron, is a fine, intelligent foe for Frankel's Julian.

Now if ``Kindred's'' producers could just make Julian's nemesis Kohanek sharper and bolder. Right now, he isn't enough of a threat.

Otherwise, ``Kindred's'' season ender is intensely seductive, making this one midseason series that had darn well better return in the fall - or I'll personally cast a vampire curse on Fox.