The BBC has paired with Netflix to bring us a new take on Bram Stokers Dracula. The show premiered on January 4th on Netflix with 3 hour and a half long episodes. It follows the story of Dracula and his adventure to get a foothold in England. The show stars Claes Bang as Dracula, Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha Van Helsing, and John Heffernan as Jonathan Harker.
The show starts out much like you would imagine. It is 1897 and Jonathan Harker is making his way to Dracula’s castle to discuss his new purchase in England. The show is based on Bram Stokers Dracula however and changes some things for television. I haven’t read the book in a few years but things happen a little differently in the show.
The first episode is more of an interview with Jonathan Harker and what had happened to him at Draculas castle. It felt like one was watching “Interview with the Vampire” with all the questions that he was being asked. He was giving his personal account and everything but an hour and a half of that was too much. It really slowed a lot of the story down. They just kept on and on pushing his memory to find out more about Dracula. Sister Agatha was curious because she had studied the legends of the vampire and seemed she wanted to meet Dracula.
The first episode ended with the character [Sister Agatha] getting her wish, resulting in the most gruesome part of the entire series. Harker invites Dracula into the convent and he goes on a killing spree resulting in everyone’s death but two characters, Sister Agatha and Mina, The love of Jonathan Harker’s life. Unlike the movie, Mina didn’t really serve much of a purpose in this show.
The second episode did extend the story a little further. Dracula had put together a voyage to England on the Demeter. He had Sister Agatha aboard as well as other members of the voyage that would serve a purpose for him when the time would come. That purpose, as you may or may not know, is that when a vampire bites you they can see your memories and learn about you and your life and Dracula needed that. He was a warlord a warrior and needed to learn how to fit in with an aristocratic England.
The mystery of this episode was most enjoyable. More of a “who did it” mystery show to figure out who or what was killing the people on the boat. Once they did figure it out it was because of the expertise of Agatha Van Helsing. Her plan was ingenious, I really don’t want to spoil it. However, the end result that leads to the 3rd and final 90-minute episode is what broke my heart.
Episode 3 was terrible honestly. The first two episodes really felt like Dracula. The producers and writers really missed an opportunity to make this a great show by pushing the time forward to this generation. The whole mystique of Dracula is that his story is set throughout history.
This episode was a very sad attempt at a rehash of Dracula 2000. Dracula was brought to the “New World” 123 years in his future to basically become rich and powerful and do the same things he would have done in 19th century England. He was a lab rat to use his blood to try and cure disease. Which didn’t work out for miss Helsing, the descendant of Agatha Van Helsing. She had cancer and her blood was poison to Dracula so he couldn’t save her.
I enjoyed 2 out of 3 episodes of this show. Had episode 3 been a continuation of the story that was given to us in episodes 1 and 2 I would have enjoyed it more. Sadly that wasn’t the case. It would have been better if Dracula had woken up in England during early 1900s. But no! He had to go to the future and find Lucy and kill her and then figure out what his curse is and then possibly die? I mean who really knows with that terrible ending.
I hope if we get a season 2 of this show it’s better and maybe goes back in time a little and gives the viewers more of an insight at what made Dracula the way he is. That would be so much better.
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