The first season of Netflix’s First Kill Season 1 has come to a unexpected finish. Throughout the season, vampire Juliette (Sarah Catherine Hook) and vampire hunter Cal (Imani Lewis) have been pining for each other, much to the dismay of their respective families and communities. After all, it’s been proven time and time again that vampires and hunters aren’t compatible.
First Kill is based on the short story by bestselling YA novelist V. E. Schwab, who is both an executive producer and co-writer of the eight-episode first season. Framed as a modern day, sapphic Romeo and Juliet, the main story centers on two teens, Juliette Fairmont (Sarah Catherine Hook) and “Cal” Burns (Imani Lewis). Both attend Lancaster Academy in Savannah, Georgia, and are intrigued by one another.
In the first half of the pilot, “First Kiss,” Juliette tells her side of the tale, literally and figuratively. Leaning far too much on voiceover, she shows and tells us about how she feels out of place in her opulent family that are all Waspishly gorgeous and well-attired. Juliette is instead sweet and socially awkward, and desperately trying to navigate what seems like onset puberty with family-prescribed pills she has to take several times daily.
Their link has posed many challenges — for themselves and others — and resulted in multiple near-death incidents, causing the two to rely on one other more than anybody else. With so much riding on the season finale, as Oliver (Dylan McNamara) continues to try to persuade Juliette to join his side, and with relationships in jeopardy, the season promises to be exciting.
It takes a whole 34 minutes into the first episode for First Kill Season 1 for a traditional monster to even show up, but that’s probably for the best because the directors don’t seem concerned one iota with making any supernatural creature in the entirety of this series scary at all. The mix of prosthetics and special effects are not great, and mostly get supported by anemic fog machines.
First Kill Season 1 Review
To end this intense First Kill season 1 finale, Talia makes a bold move. Refusing to let her husband kill their son, who she knows still exists despite him being a vampire, she asks for a moment alone to say goodbyes in the basement. Instead, she helps him escape, taking him to Oliver to stay alive, be safe, and learn control. (Oliver throws her a pretty wonderful comment about being the best mother he’s ever known, too, which is quite an interesting turn to keep these families connected despite Cal and Juliette’s breakup.) Once inside, Oliver takes Theo to the back where a horde of monsters is waiting. Now, it’s time for Oliver to reign pure chaos upon Savannah.