One of the things that I like most about Moonlight is the way that the show consistently takes on television stereotypes and turns them on their ear. The vampires don't wear leather or goth makeup, and in episode 3.05, Arrested Development, the teenagers don't look like they've just escaped from the set of Smallville.

In the episode, a serial killer is stalking call girls via the Internet. Mick and Beth, through a series of odd coincidences, end up on the hunt together. Beth because she is looking for the killer, Mick because he is looking for the killer's next victim.

Mineo, the teen from the episode, is actually a two-hundred year old vampire who was turned at the age of sixteen. Being perpetually stuck at sixteen means having eternal acne, never mentally maturing past conspicuous consumption of skater magazines and Playstation and according to Mick, always hormonally charged.

“You know boys that age think about sex 20 times a minute, and that's a scientific fact? Times two centuries, that's gotta take a toll.”

It does, in fact, take a toll. In his search for a girlfriend, the sexually-frustrated teen has taken to killing Internet call girls.

On some levels, the vampire teen is symbolic of Mick's Id. Mick would like a relationship with Beth the way Mineo would like to have a relationship with a girl. Any girl.But both vampires are frustrated in this area just because they are vampires. (At one point, Beth asks Mick “hypothetically, of course” how sex works between vampires and humans. Mick's answer: a very terse “Badly.”)

The good: The teenage vampire was well done. I like the concept because it is very true to life in that it is very difficult to be a sixteen year old boy. Mineo didn't go to school at Sunnydale high school (Buffy's geek guestage Andrew was GQ compared to this guy). Even as a mortal, his problems weren't the ones that Dawson faced back at the creek. He'll never grow out of that cracking voice. He'll never develop the muscles that are supposed to go with that awkward height.

I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of his background, though. The writers were obviously trying to show a parallel between him and Mick and knowing more about him would have made the connection that much more clear.

The bad: The Mick/Beth plot should come with a warning label: watch out for falling anvils. I want to believe that Mick and Beth have chemistry, and that there is potential for a relationship there. But I want to see it built believably:through shared moments of relationship development.

Instead, what I have is the impression that the two of them are FATED! Why? Because it can't be a coincidence that they're working the same case. Because Mick dropped his car keys. Because he happened to be walking into the hospital right when she's walking out. Because he called her.

Sorry show, but you're still going to have to try harder.