Dracula 1x01: "The Blood Is the Life"

[cleolinda]

heart-of-steel asked: Hello Miss Cleo. So. Dracula. (The TV series that is.) Did you like it, or hate it, or kind of both? (I know a recap is forthcoming on your blog, I was just wondering.)I’m just kind of staring at my computer trying to figure out what just happened. The more I think about it, the more o_O I get about it. I’m sunburnt from half

Comments

[lanalucy]

I dozed through about half of this, but I can tell you, because I am Texan, that his accent is not. I honestly don't know what the frak it is, besides bad.

[rufinia]

I am choosing to believe that it is "What a many-hundred year old Romanian vampire who sorted out a British accent is able to manage in terms of a Texan accent he's never heard and he's banking on the idea that no one else he's talking to in London can really tell the difference."

Or something.

[cleolinda]

Like, I know it's not Texan, but it's not... not Texan? I genuinely cannot figure out what's going on there.

[missychacha]

I've noticed alot of british actors tend to try and hide their natural accents with southern us accents with varying degrees of success. I don't know if that's whats going on here or not.

[bienegold]

Hail HYDRA! Immortal HYDRA!

So I was sort of using this as a barometer as to whether or not to watch it, and...man, I don't know. So many questions.

[cleolinda]

Yeah, someone asked me if they should watch it, and I was like, "... I don't know?" I'm hoping future episodes will hook people a little better. It's funny, they've got me with the Mina/Dracula stuff (even though I'm very attached to Mina and Jonathan as far as the book goes), but they just totally lose me with the British Imperial guys. I just so completely could not give less of a shit about them, and I'm not even sure why, because the rivalry is a good idea on paper. Maybe they need pretty dresses.

[evilsimon]

Until further notice, I choose to believe that the Good Guy side will muster under Good Guy Nikola Tesla.

[bienegold]

Can we just have a Five Fists of Science show instead?

[margi_lynn]

I would watch that SO HARD.

[lurkeriatipsos]

Since I'm not going to see Atomic Robo on NBC any time soon, I'll take it!

[ppyajunebug]

At this point I'm basing everything on if it was as bad as Reign.

Was this as bad as Reign? No, not even close. I wasn't actually screaming insults at the screen, so it gets a pass from me.

[silver_miko]

Omg, that was my qualifying comparison as well. Reign is just...It's amazing how that show filled me with rage barely five minutes in.

[reynardine]

Nothing is as bad as Reign.

[icprncs]

(OH MY GOD, IS THIS WHAT WE'RE GETTING INSTEAD OF QUINCEY? But I love Quincey.)

I very nearly replied to your "Texula" tweet with something along these lines. I just couldn't remember for sure if Quincey was Texan.

Your recap makes this sound a lot more fun than the show I watched. I mean, there's stuff about it that COULD be entertaining, but it's just such a mess--and not a confident, "we know we're being loopy" mess like Sleepy Hollow--that I don't know that I could bring myself to sit through more of it. Pare down the characters and ideas by half, maybe it would work. After this episode, I just don't want to deal with figuring it all out.

I do love Renfield a whole lot, though.

[bienegold]

Ngl, the tweets are probably what make me most hesitant at this point. Like, they did their research, but they're applying it backwards? It's very confusing and doesn't inspire confidence.

[cleolinda]

As I started going through and compiling all of that, it actually made me feel a little better? I guess because it at least reassured me that they weren't doing whatever the hell they felt like because they didn't know (or care) anything about Dracula or the time period at all. Like, I might or might not disagree with the direction they decide to go, but at least I know they care? I get what you mean about backwards, though--particularly with the Order of the Dragon background.