The Channel 4 show Ultraviolet is a classic TV show. A slightly forgotten classic that’s now a horrifying 23 years old, but a classic. As I’ve explained elsewhere.
Minute for minute (sorry, Buffy, you had some wonderful episodes, but you had a lot – perhaps even whole seasons – that definitely weren’t wonderful), I doubt there’s ever been a better modern horror show (or at least modern vampire show) than Ultraviolet.
You can take my word for that, or you can just go and watch it on All 4.
What you absolutely should not do is watch the US pilot episode. It might have Idris Elba reprising his role from the UK show and Mädchen Amick from Twin Peaks et al. But that’s never going to be enough to make it any good.
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
