Dracula: "The Devil's Waltz"
I feel a bit out of sync with other viewers for this episode, as most seem to be claiming that the show has just turned a corner, whereas I'm still in the region of "meh." It's not that it's bad, but I'm still not particularly gripped and the myriad of little subplots are beginning to get tedious. When is vengeance going to start raining down? That's what we're all here for, right? And even if you're saving that for the grand finale, it's not like The Count of Monte Christo couldn't sustain suspense and intrigue for the two hour lead-up before the denouement.
As it stands, everything is still sort of plodding along - not stalling, but not really heating up either. Following on from last week, Renfield has been kidnapped at the behest of Lord Davenport in a bid to discover his employer's weakness, Van Helsing is still trying to concoct a serum that will allow Dracula to walk about in the sunlight, and Mina/Jonathan prepare for their engagement party while Lucy pines and Mina has dreams in which Grayson pulls an Edward Cullen.
But given each character's mini-arc in this episode, something reminded me of an article I read on this blog, which sums up something that's bothering me about this show:
Heroes (male or female) have a black-and-white morality, are unwilling to compromise, and have a narrow, inflexible world view. By contrast, villains (and morally ambiguous characters) have a far more sophisticated point of view and are able to appreciate the shades of grey in life. This goes hand in hand with heroes being naive and child-like whereas villains are mature and smart.
That's pretty much Dracula in a nutshell. Despite Jonathan Rhys Meyer's insistence that Dracula "is the bad guy", he frequently comes across as a better class of human being than the likes of Jonathan and Van Helsing. Whereas Jonathan seemed all too eager to drop his old friends and Van Helsing was too intent on his revenge to care about Renfield's whereabouts, it was Dracula who dropped everything in order to go in search of his friend, kill his tormenters, and tend to his injuries afterwards. Okay, so this is the bad guy, right?
Now, it's not that I don't think villains can't have layers, and it's not that I don't think a character like Dracula would be fully capable of killing random women in the street and yet still care deeply for a select group of people, but I just don't feel that the show is handling Dracula's internal contradictions particularly well. Every now and then they throw in a scene to remind us that he's evil (such as the death of poor forgotten Sinéad), but for the most part they seem to want us on board with his quest for vengeance, his respect for Renfield and his love for Mina. And it doesn't come across as deliberately complex, just inconsistent.
Not helping is the fact that our heroes (notwithstanding Jonathan's confession to Mina about how he was wrong to ditch his friends) are being made to look bad in comparison. As the above quote points out, good guys are often portrayed as narrow-minded, inflexible and classist. Villains are mature and suave and forward-thinking. It doesn't matter how many innocent women Dracula kills, because at least he believes in woman's rights, wants to bring clean, free energy to the world, and doesn't have a problem with homosexuality.
It just all feels very clumsy to me that's all, like the show wants to have its cake and eat it too: demonstrating that Dracula is a dark and violent threat, but at the same time not willing to really explore any of the ramifications of this by glossing it all over with his sophistication. Anyone else getting that feeling?
As such, I can enjoy the pretty costumes and the beautiful cinematography, but it's becoming apparent that there isn't much depth to the storylines.
***
Finally we get some backstory on Renfield and discover why he's so devoted to Dracula, though (again at odds with other viewers) I wasn't all that hooked. I'm thankful that it didn't involve Grayson rescuing Renfield from slavery and him pledging his eternal devotion in return (which I was half expecting) but rather that Renfield tried to come to his defence, only for the situation to turn sour and Grayson to expose his vampiric powers. Okay, that's a decent enough scenario, but ... I dunno it still didn't feel hugely original to me and it again plugs into my irritation at portraying villains as progressive and liberated in regards to racial issues. I mean, this show is aware that the real Vlad Țepeș butchered thousands of Turks, right?
Yet as gruesome as the torture session was, it does demonstrate the bond between Dracula/Renfield which provides a neat little semi-twist on each characters' relationship with the other in the original novel, and it was pretty fun seeing Renfield laughing maniacally on the floor when Dracula turns up. I was expecting some sort of witty response when Janina asks: "who does Mr Grayson love?" along the lines of: "ME! RENFIELD! OBVIOUSLY!" but I guess the writers wanted to toe the line.
Honestly though, I was a lot more interested in Janina Kleiberson, this show's answer to Ramsey Bolton. I'm wracking my brains here, but I can't think of another female character (who wasn't a dominatrix in a comedic role) who embodied the role of the Torture Technician. Seeing this role performed by a woman was interesting, though it opened up a truck load of questions as to where on earth a Victorian lady picked this stuff up! I was frustrated at the amount of people griping about the apparent anachronism of a black man in Victorian London (READ A BOOK! THERE WERE TONS!) but even I was rather thrown by the sight of a proper English lady shoving a blade under a man's fingernails. What the heck is her story?
As with the seers and Josef, it's becoming a real problem that I'm finding the guest stars more compelling than the central cast. I'll see it through to the end, but if there's a season two I'll probably refrain from these weekly reviews. No hard feelings, show.
Because when you get down to it, why on earth did Lord Davenport feel the need to go to such drastic lengths to find out what was important to Lord Grayson? I mean seriously, you kidnap and torture a guy? Why not just pay off one of his servants to do some prying around the house? It would be cheaper, easier, and not go against the Order of the Dragon's direct orders.
Miscellaneous
Pet peeve: when actresses wear too much makeup in bed. No women alive would ever go to sleep as much eye-shadow as Mina had on. Think of the panda bear eyes in the morning!
I saw one person complain about "inequality" when the torturer's male henchmen were torn apart on-screen and she wasn't. What, the vampire woman chained to the gurney in her underwear and slowly burnt alive as she screamed in agony wasn't "equal" enough for you? As with Renfield's torture, this again felt more like violence for its own sake rather than anything that actually pushed the story forward.
Speaking of whom, was that vampire women the same one that Dracula found in Lady Jane's basement? Whether or not, I'm confused as to why he was moved to tears to find her there, yet has no qualms whatsoever in experimenting on another one in this episode.
According to him "people are getting suspicious" that no one has seen Grayson in the daylight. Are they? Because it only came up at the end of this episode when Browning finally puts two-and-two together and points out that all these vampire killings started at the same time Grayson showed up.
I wonder if Dracula is beginning to warm to Jonathan now that he's helped him find Renfield, going above and beyond the call of duty to track him down and give Dracula the lead he needed.
I believe this is the first time we've seen Mina interact with her father. I'm in two minds about giving her a living father, since a) Book!Mina is an orphan whose independence is pretty much rooted in the fact that she raised herself, and b) it's not like Doctor Murray has actually done anything yet. I'm much more interested in seeing more of Lucy's mother, considering her role in the book.
The sheer size of my eye-roll could not be measured when Dracula said: "I don't like guns." What, he's Batman now as well?
Mina and Lucy's dresses were utterly gorgeous, though I hated whoever did Mina's hair. It looked as though she was wearing pig-tails.
I had to laugh when, after Renfield witnesses the gory murders of all the Americans on the train, Dracula stands over him and says: "you're safe now." Reminded me of that Malcolm in the Middle episode when a kids gets stuck in a deflated bouncy castle and Hal jumps to his rescue, screaming: "you're safe now!" while standing over him with a knife. Also amusing was the way Jane threw the line: "Grayson's man Renfield was abducted and tortured" into casual conversation.
A little bit more backstory on Lady Jane was given; apparently her husband is still living, but confined to a sick-bed. And she notes with some interest the lingering looks/hair touching that Lucy bestows on Mina. Hmm...
The whole lesbian angle with Lucy is thus far being played for nothing but angst, and I'm concerned that if they remain true to the Book!Lucy's fate it's just going to end up being another case of Bury Your Gays. Granted, there's no indication just yet that Lucy is headed for vampirism considering that she's barely interacted with Grayson, but a Dracula story without a vampiric Lucy is like Treasure Island without Hawkins in a barrel of apples. Throw in Jane's apparent inability to realize that Grayson is a vampire (and the implication that she's blinded by her desire/fretting about her impending age) and it really wasn't a good episode for the women.
Nice camera work on the Grayson/Mina dance and Mina's transformation into Ilona. Amidst all the devastated faces, my favourite reaction would have to be from Lucy's beau Alastair, who looked utterly bewildered throughout.
The best scene though would have to be Van Helsing and Dracula faking their introduction in front of Mina. On a similar note, I still find the rapport between Browning and Jane the most interesting. Were it not for their ages and the inappropriateness of Browning's comments, you'd almost call it father/daughter.
***
Now back to The White Queen. Hopefully I'll be able to get it wrapped up within the next three days.