seraphcelene (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seraphcelene) wrote2013-10-25 11:48 pm
seraphcelene) wrote2013-10-25 11:48 pm
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TV: Dracula 1.1 - The Blood is the Life
First of all, this show is on NBC. The liklihood that I will continue to watch it is slim-to-none. I don't generally watch NBC or CBS. It's nothing personal, I just don't really think about those channels. Of course, this season has James Spader on The Black List and Sean Hayes in Sean Takes Over the World, so, hope springs eternal.
This Dracula, reminiscent in pretty much the most cosmetic of ways to the 1992 Gary Oldman/Francis Ford Coppola film, is a slick, vaguely steampunk-ish take on the Dracula mythology. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays Alexander Grayson. Dracula in an American disguise and bent on revenge for ... well, a lot of things, not the least of which is the murder of his wife by a secret vampire hunting organization a whole lot of years ago. Jessica De Gouw plays Mina Murray who also happens to be the spitting image, likely a reincarnation of, his dead wife.
Oh, and did I mention that Dracula is ably assisted by Thomas Kretschmann (who I always remember as Captain Englehorn from the 2005 King Kong remake) as, in quite the twist, Van Hesling. Dracula has a Renfield, a black man, and I don't particularly care for that pairing. Set in 1895, 30 years or so after the American Civil War, it's a distasteful adaptation. Literally and traditionally, Renfield is Dracula's insane and/or enthralled slave. In this version, the character doesn't appear to be mad, but he is enslaved by literary tradition and the historical fact. "Freedom" (such as it was) is problematic and doubly denied the character.
Myers, whom I love, has a questionable American accent that slides in and out.
And then there was the sex and the roof top scene. Okay, so I was all prepared for a historical drama and then the show went all Matrix meets The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
If nothing else it was a fun trip into cuckoo crazy.
This Dracula, reminiscent in pretty much the most cosmetic of ways to the 1992 Gary Oldman/Francis Ford Coppola film, is a slick, vaguely steampunk-ish take on the Dracula mythology. Jonathan Rhys Meyers plays Alexander Grayson. Dracula in an American disguise and bent on revenge for ... well, a lot of things, not the least of which is the murder of his wife by a secret vampire hunting organization a whole lot of years ago. Jessica De Gouw plays Mina Murray who also happens to be the spitting image, likely a reincarnation of, his dead wife.
Oh, and did I mention that Dracula is ably assisted by Thomas Kretschmann (who I always remember as Captain Englehorn from the 2005 King Kong remake) as, in quite the twist, Van Hesling. Dracula has a Renfield, a black man, and I don't particularly care for that pairing. Set in 1895, 30 years or so after the American Civil War, it's a distasteful adaptation. Literally and traditionally, Renfield is Dracula's insane and/or enthralled slave. In this version, the character doesn't appear to be mad, but he is enslaved by literary tradition and the historical fact. "Freedom" (such as it was) is problematic and doubly denied the character.
Myers, whom I love, has a questionable American accent that slides in and out.
And then there was the sex and the roof top scene. Okay, so I was all prepared for a historical drama and then the show went all Matrix meets The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
If nothing else it was a fun trip into cuckoo crazy.