Demons: Nothing Like Nebraska

And so the first season of Britain's answer to Buffy The Vampire Slayer comes to an end with a story that not only drew inspiration from Buffy, but also Supernatural and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Nothing Like Nebraska opened with Luke and Galvin on the heels of a demonic clown (as seen in every modern paranormal tinged show e.g. Supernatural's Everybody Loves A Clown), but before they managed to smite him he splatted Luke with a magic juggling ball. This gave the young Van Helsing nightmares about the death of his father - and he also had a vision of Father Simeon (Richard Wilson), the zombie priest from The Whole Enchilada trying to warn him about something.

When Luke and Ruby finally go to see Simeon, he has been killed, and Luke accuses Galvin (who had been to see the undead priest previously).

Luke is then approached by a fraudulent medium (rather a tautology?) called Karen Speedwell (Father Ted's Paulin McLynn), who claims to have a message from his late father. Again, the idea of a supposed psychic suddenly developing "real powers" is nothing new in this kind of show (look at the excellent Sarah Jane Adventures story Secrets Of The Stars).

However, what could have been quite a good tease for the audience - leading them to think she really could talk to the dead and maybe Galvin is a "bad guy" - is immediately undermined by showing us that her "spirit guide" is actually Gladiolus Thrip (Mackenzie Crook) from They Bite.

Now I'm all for bringing villains back - even from the dead - but there seemed some confusion over Thrip's return. Initially, it was strongly suggested that he was a ghost (by the way he suddenly appeared when Karen 'summoned' him and the fact that Galvin didn't just smite him when they first met again), but then at the climax of the story - when Mina does her whole blood-drinking vampire shtick (as seen in Suckers) - he's a 'normal' vampire again.

Ultimately, Nothing Like Nebraska felt more like a Demons' "greatest hits" than an end-of-season grand finale, throwing in as much good stuff as possible from previous episodes and just seeing what stuck.

The show confuses 'complicated' with 'subtle' when it comes to plotting out its stories, for example once the audience found out Thrip was pulling the strings (very early on) we didn't need to hear the various members of Luke's Scooby Gang explain this several times.

Galvin had also started drinking at a strange bar - where he is the only customer - run by a half-life, who fulfills the exact same role as Willy of Willy's Bar in Sunnydale (home of Buffy Summers).

And I wasn't really sure of what the evil clown's magic goop added to the story or what sort time scale there was between that, Luke's nightmares and Thrip orchestrating his behind-the-scenes plan.

However, whatever it may lack in originality and quality scriptwriting, Demons makes up for in enthusiasm and general enjoyability. A lot of effort has obviously gone into the design of the show and the appearance of the half-lifes, it's just a shame the same care hasn't been taken with the stories.

I guess as more and more of these shows tread similar ground there will be some overlap, but Supernatural - for instance - manages more than 20 episodes a year, and most of those are either entirely original or put a clever new slant on an old cliche. Demons couldn't manage six episodes.

Hopefully, Demons will return for a second - and maybe longer - season, but much more work needs to be put into developing a totally unique world for the show to operate in and some higher quality scripts.