Dracula

Rammed in between  twenty new shows about witches this week we got Sky Living's Dracula. Not a conventional retelling of the vampire classic, but that tired old phrase a re-imagining.

 

So resurrected from a long nap, the Count comes to 1890's London all re-imagined as an American entrepreneur Alexander Grayson. But this isn't a social visit, no, there is revenge on his mind against his old foe the dastardly secret society The Order of the Dragon (Cue dramatic music). I know, that is when my heart sank as well.

 

All these types of show have to have some big nefarious organisation, it's like they say "How can we make this thing run six seasons without a plot pushing,convoluted secret society?" Dracula seemed to go down hill from there, plus for a show about the supernatural it was as eerie and unnerving as an episode of Peppa Pig. All the classic characters are about Mina, Renfield, Harker, even Van Helsing, but they are all too busy being re-imagined to engage our interest. Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Dracula gives the Count much the same gloss he gave Henry VIII in The Tudors, which means Dracula will be limping and sounding like Richard Burton by season four.

 

You certainly can't fault the production values of the show, it screams money being thrown at it. But all the glittering, golden opera houses in Europe can't paper over the fact this was a bit of a dull, lifeless affair. I give it half a dozen episodes before it gets retitled Alex Dracula and The Order of the Dragon.

 

Over