TomMarlowe

I certainly didn't resent the time spent watching the first two episodes but, this is obviously not the high-budget Helsing experience we're normally used to.

That said, production values are still great, ther show is atmospheric, the CGI works, (mostly), & overall, it's a decent, if unchallenging show that, refreshingly, have seem to have Helsing battling a new protagonist, rather than Dracula.

So, it looks good, it uses some great locations, and definitely has a 'rich' feel to it. However, as the title suggests, it lets itself down in a few, unfortunately key, points.

CASTING: The actor playing Caroline stands head & shoulders above the other main actors around her, yet feels strangely under-utliized so far. Helsing doesn't quite fit the remit of his role. I'm just not getting his lifelong weariness or the horror of all he's seen. Skip looks like he doesn't want to be there, & Cody came across as s little too ineffectual at the moment - With luck, that character will be fleshed out. In contrast to the male actors, and aside from Caroline, Izabella (Helsing's companion), radiates a nice, brooding, 'Romani' aura, that had me believing in her as a character, and Elena has the right mixture of old and new that her age would carry.

Don't get me wrong, the guys all do a passable job, but they need an extra 10% or so to achieve the levels of the female actors! Possibly, they're still getting used to their characters, & we'll see more depth to them as the show progresses, but right now, the women are carrying this show.

Will I watch the remainder of the series - absolutely. Look! It's not going to break any TV barriers here, but it's strong enough and fun enough to draw me back for the remaining episodes as they're released.

Just finished watching the first season (8 episodes), and I definitely want to know more.

OK, not every performance in the show is Emmy-worthy - a couple of the supporting roles could have been better - but the performances from the main cast and their interactions as their relationships grew and changed, certainly worked for me. I became invested in Emma's dilemma, the dynamic between Bobby/Nick and the others, Preston and his wife's difficulty to communicate...

There were many threads to this show, and I wanted to pull on them all. I'm really looking forward to S2, and the opportunity to learn a little more...

Every episode revealed just enough to have me coming back for the next. Five seasons in, and I still didn't really know what was going on, but I was still gripped during every frame.

OK. With todays bingeable options, you DO notice a number of repeated events. For example: Many people drown, receive CPR and spit all over the camera.

Just about every male character was shot in the shoulder or the leg, or had a limb pierced by a branch at least eleventy-gazillion times.

Hurley had bottomless pockets and could carry about 100lbs of Apollo bars at any one time.

That said, it WAS a weekly show, and you'd be watching, say, S2E4 a year or more later, not the following day, so we can't criticise, based on today's viewing habits.

For suspense and intrigue, I'd be hard pressed to think of a comparable TV show made in the last 20 years and, even today, I'm always happy to introduce it to friends.