Drácula

Saw the trailer for the new BBC TV adaptation of Dracula, the Count spouting humorous one liners and the action taking place in both the 19th and 21st Centuries I was not sure if I wanted to devote 4.5 hours of my time to watching this. But I'm a big Dracula fan, plus I like Mark Gatiss so how could I resist? I couldn't. Divided into 3 episodes the first was for me the best. This is the beginning, set in the Old Country at Dracula's foreboding castle. Very impressive, the sets, the stunning location, superb special effects. It is also pretty scary. great acting. The only thing caught me off guard was having Van Helsing as a female, but it kind of worked and it is essential to treat that this as a "Based On" adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, or in other words a re-imagining. Pretty much the entire length of part 2 takes place on board the boat to England. It is good, thankfully the various characters help make it interesting, but it is a tad too long. Part 3 takes place over 100 years later in modern day England. This one is by far the most reworked part of the story. I like the idea of this but do feel that the writers are trying to be too clever for their own good with this section and the humour detracts from the horror, though it still has plenty of scary moments. I am glad that I watched the series, despite initial reservations. Like I have mentioned this is very much a modern reworking of the novel (none of the film adaptations follow the book exactly), watch it with an open mind. It's not going to please everyone but despite all the negative reviews so far it does have a respectable current average score of 7/10.

Where do I begin, without giving too much away?

I believe a good place would be to say that never did I think a show would pin me to the screen without ever wanting to move during the entirety of each of the first two episodes the way Dracula does. Breaking Bad is the only series to have done the same, and consistently.

I am amazed so far by Dracula. (And I almost hate saying that as I don't want to over hype it).

For a while now, the ratings on IMDB make me shake my head. Dracula is no different. The fact that it only has a 7.1 is unbelievable to me. This should be THE new show to watch. It almost leaves me at a loss for words with how good it is - for those who enjoy a highly intelligent script; extremely witty dialogue; great twists; a fast, forwardly-moving story (despite its slow-to-steady, almost delicious pacing, you'll understand what I mean if you watch it); fantastic acting; charismatic and sometimes quirky characters; and so much more! The only thing I can imagine is that perhaps people rated it based only on the first 20-30 minutes or so, which indeed are a little slow, in which case I would suggest they watch more and come back and re-rate; OR that some people have a problem with the subject matter. Well, that should tell you something. See, it is, simply, Dracula redone ... but REDONE SO WELL that it is raising hackles and disturbing those that don't understand this magnificent, bloody, especially clever piece of art.

Well done, creators! Bravo!

WATCH IT.

Edit: Lowered score due to the ending. The first 2/3 (two-thirds) were MAGNIFICENT. The rest felt uneven.

The third episode was simply terrible. It's a shame because the first two were pretty good. I don't know what they were thinking with the third, it's absurd and very out of place with the other two.

I like the vampire genre. This is another stab at the classic Dracula tale but with a lot of liberties. I found those liberties to be quite entertaining, however if you are a huge fan of the novel and hoping for some degree of accuracy or commitment you might be disappointed. This movie attempts to be scary, smart and funny. It succeeds somewhat. I enjoyed the campy special effects, they reminded me of the old classic horrors I grew up watching. All in all I found it to be fun. This is not a heavy duty serious gothic Dracula film, this is more like a mini series and has enough moments of humor to keep it a little lighter. Sets and costumes are beautiful. Camera work is good. Acting was good as well. I can definitely see why some people take issue with the overall storyline and some of the dialogue which can come off as modern. At the end of the day, every movie and show isn't meant for a serious award, sometimes you just spend a few hours being entertained by something new. And that's all. I enjoyed it.

Claes Bang is absolutely delicious as Dracula, I really liked him in the part and Dolly Wells just brilliant as Agata Van Helsing.

Episode one had me gripped, episode 2 was brilliant, except had the unwelcome wiff of the BBC fitting it's agendas in, but episode 3, as others have mentioned and I wanted to test, was indeed an absolute train wreck. Not only did it completely fail the first two, it was almost a different programme and the BBC, of course, got their agendas in there. Just awful, with a rotten ending to finish it. Watch the first two, don't ruin it with the third.

10/10 for the first two, 0 for the third.