The Rules of the Beast

If anybody who lived under a rock and never heard of the story of count Dracule before and watched this episode, it would be a good introduction. to me it was a new way to look at an old and beloved story

Silly, off- beat humor and gross horror. What's not to like? The first episode has a very spooky, but self- unaware, Jonathan Harker and a light- hearted and silly Sister Agatha. We like what we've seen and will watch further episodes.

I liked it. And for me, the Creators Mark and Steven have proved again after their near impeccable show Sherlock which was again my favorite.

From start their was freshness. Creepy atmosphere, good amount of horror and in slow pace improvising details of Count Draculas devil face. The creators knew how to reveal the pros and cons of being a Vampire and Dracula is the strongest of them.

Performance wise, the lead actors did their part very well be it Count, Agatha or Harker. The best was the small surprises which are revealed slowly as the episode progresses like who is actually Sister Agatha or how did Harker escaped Counts Mansion. Brilliant.

Waiting for next episode now.

A superb start to this three part dramatisation. I was a kid that grew up on Christopher Lee films, I've disliked many attempts to bring Transylvania's finest back over the years, but this had me gripped. It was a very sinister and scary opening episode, which was wonderfully gothic and creepy.

Great acting, Claes Bang though, awesome. It looked impressive, very smart production values, but it was the tone that impressed me most. It just works. 9/10

The team of Steven Moffatt and Mark Gatiss reconvene to provide us with their own take on the legend of "Bram Stokers: Dracula". With their halo slipping a little after the later episodes of "Sherlock" my anticipation is a little tempered for this, but the opening episode was excellent.

Unconventional nun, Sister Agatha (Dolly Wells) is interviewing what remains of Jonathan Harker (John Heffernan) in a convent. Through flashback, we see Harker arrive at the stately home of Count Dracula (Claes Bang). As Harker's heath deteriorates, his host appears to get younger with each meeting. As the truth comes to light, Agatha comes to appreciate that she's not as safe in the holy house as she would have hoped.

I liked this a lot. Tonally, I think its spot on. A true horror story, pushing the limits of the BBC CGI limitations to the fore but not without humour and wit, both for the cutting one liner, from the phenomenal Dolly Wells - or some high camp from the Count himself. I'm not sure how he gets away with some of the lines he does. It's not a straight adaptation, using the bones of the novel as a starting point for taking aspects of the story to different places, but it's all the better for that. I picked up on references to both "Sherlock" and "Dr Who" (is it too much to hope that a Victorian Nick Fury appears in a post credits scene as says that "He's putting together a team).

I do feel like this is a little longer than it needs to be, maybe sticking to that "Sherlock" format a little too rigidly. So it's a bit padded. But this is a minor complaint about a show that comes alive whenever Dracula appears (ironically) and has found an excellent foil for him in its Van Helsing.