Netflix/BBC One - Dracula (2020) TV Series

 

So having watched Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (BSD) recently on Netflix, I stumbled upon this other Netflix series and decided to give my review on it. I will state right at the outset that I highly recommend this series. It's only 3 episodes long at around an hour and a half each episode, so it's quite a quick binge-watch. But I do think it's a fantastic series and highly recommend it. A basic summary:

The series starts off as though it will be a faithful adaptation of the book, and I feel that sets things up quite nicely for the various twists and revelations that eventually come. From there, the details of the book and characters do show up but in far different ways, however it's all delivered in a manner that doesn't feel too jarring. I will admit that it sort of threw me off at the beginning because I did think they were trying to be faithful to the book. But once they introduced certain characters and when Jonathan Harker in particular started experiencing various things that were not in the book, I realized that I could not adhere to any expectations. It's a very good re-imagining of the story with some elements that are great and some that are not so great. The costumes, special effects and environments are amazing, especially in 1897 in Transylvania and on board the Demeter. 

I will reveal that one of my biggest gripes is that the series ended far, far too soon. They needed at least one more episode to really bring the story to a satisfying conclusion, especially as it pertained to Dracula and his apparent weaknesses as a vampire. I was very impressed with the psychological aspect. I loved how they sort of re-invented the powers and weaknesses of Dracula while keeping some of the tried and true elements of past depictions but, like I said, the ending left a little to be desired and I think it's because they should have had at least one more episode to solidify what they were trying to do with Dracula and his psychological fears. There are plenty of satisfying twists and turns that keep you surprised and the ending of the first two episodes are very well done, leaving you on a cliffhanger that you have to see what happens next! I think it's a worthy retelling of the famous Count Dracula story and I do recommend folks go and see it.  

I will be going over the series in detail so do watch the series and come back and read my review of it to see if you agree or not.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

I have to say that I loved this portrayal of Dracula. They revamped him (pun intended) to give him a modern edge (and that will be explained momentarily) while staying true to the classic Dracula, at times feeling like they were paying homage to the Bela Lugosi/Christopher Lee portrayals, especially in the way this Dracula dressed and looked when he put on his vampire face.

I think what I liked most about this Dracula was that he was a monster through and through, literally up until the very end (which I'm a bit iffy about). Having watched Coppola's BSD, where Gary Oldman's Dracula was more of a softy and was all romantic and shit (and that has it's place in vampire lore, I suppose), this Dracula wasn't any of that. He wasn't looking to find love or seduce Mina Harker into becoming his bride or establish an eternal love. In fact, when he saw a picture of Mina, he really didn't react at all, which was refreshing after having watched BSD. No, this Dracula was all about himself...and blood!

Again, having to compare this to other vampire franchises, this was so fucking refreshing! A vampire who actually CRAVES blood and can't control himself around it! One of my biggest gripes about Legacies and the whole TVD universe was the fact that the vampires there never really craved blood. They drank it but never craved it. They could survive on blood bags or on animal blood, but when it came to human blood, they never really had a lust for it. With the exception of maybe Stefan, who had an addiction as it were, the other vampires never had a problem when it came to controlling their so-called blood lust. They became too docile and too human as a result of it.

 

Not so with Dracula! It was absolutely fantastic how Dracula would try to pass himself off as a connoisseur of sorts, claiming that he chose to feed on certain individuals when it so pleased him when, in fact, he couldn't help his blood lust. The moment he smelt it or saw it, the eyes would change and the fangs would come out. He might be able to control it for a time but he had to satiate his blood lust somehow. He had no choice, and I loved that. I loved it because that should be what a vampire does. That should be a part of the curse, that a vampire should not be able to control his or her blood lust as that is what defines the vampire monster.

What I also liked about him was that he didn't care about humans. While that may seem obvious considering he is a vampire, with movies like BSD or other vampire franchises, where a level or romanticism and glorification of Dracula or other vampires is involved, there isn't any such thing here. They try to develop it but with the clear intent of turning everything on it's head. Whether it's Lord Ruthven onboard the Demeter—who thought that Dracula had chosen him to be a partner—or it was Lucy Westenra—who thought she could be young and beautiful forever by Dracula's side...they were all shown the truth: Dracula didn't care about them. 

Which ties into the other aspect that I liked about this series. While it's a common trope that young people especially seek immortality and perpetual youth, even if it meant killing and feeding off of other people, that trope was turned on it's head here. There was nothing cool or romantic or seductive about becoming a vampire or becoming undead (there is a difference here). Though Dracula would often refer to those he turned into the undead as "brides," he carried none of the compassion and love that the term implicitly carries with it. First, there was no guarantee that Dracula biting and then killing a human would turn them into vampires. With Jonathan, he was surprised by how fast and how much of his "spirit" he retained when he awoke as undead. The humans he turned, he looked at them as more or less like toys or experiments. He knew that there was a great chance that they would not become vampires like himself, but would become "the unfortunate few who remain sentient as they rot." In Transylvania, those unfortunate few were literally left crumpled up in a box.

The others that were perhaps more evolved and closer to the vampire that Dracula himself was, he treated them no better. His 'brides' too were left in a box and were fed other humans for sustenance, even babies. And once that bride was no longer interesting or amusing to him, Dracula would stake her. It was incredible how heartless he could be, being amused at how a baby suddenly became undead and marveled at it, questioning whether or not he should let the baby live simply because he was curious about it (apparently, a baby vampire had never happened before). This was a Dracula who was a clear sociopath...he didn't care. And for fools like Lucy, who fell for that classic trap of thinking that 'the bad boy would only be good to her,' she soon realized that dating a vampire and even becoming a vampire wasn't all that it was cracked up to be.  

This is part of the reason why I hated the Lucy character. Props to the actress for doing such a great job because I both hated her character and applauded her demise. She was so fucking annoying but I felt like she represented the most vapid, most narcissistic of personalities in today's society. She got off on the idea of dating a vampire and didn't care that he killed people, including children. The fact that she didn't care was what had intrigued Dracula the most, since he had never met someone so devoid of empathy as himself. And the nice touch that they added to her character was that she lamented being so beautiful because people would only smile and love her because of that beauty, implying that perhaps she wished she wasn't so beautiful.

Well....

This was fucking brilliant! The makeup was excellent and again, props to the actress because I swear she had that Brundlefly thing going! I do wonder what she would have looked like had she not been cremated (which was brutal considering she was awake throughout the whole process). Suddenly she got what she wanted (immortality) but at a cost: her beauty. The one thing she had felt was a negative in her life suddenly became the one thing she cared about losing the most. And I suppose to Dracula's credit, he saw past the charred flesh and disfigurement and was intrigued by her spirit and her mind and her lack of fear when it came to death. He didn't care what she looked like and was content to keep her around forever (until he became bored with her, of course). He didn't really care about her at all. Again, she was an experiment, a toy that just didn't work out. He shed no tears and felt no remorse when she died. She was just another in a long line of broken toys.

I loved it because it removed all the romanticism and allure of being a bride of Dracula or being a vampire. You didn't get to stay young and beautiful forever. You didn't become this cool or aristocratic immortal who could live forever, feeding off of humans while having the time of your life. To quote The Lost Boys poster:

"Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die. It's fun to be a vampire!"

Well, not so much here. Here, you decayed, piece by piece. Your body literally started falling apart like a zombie. And if you retained any sentience or spirit, the hunger of being a vampire was overwhelming. As Mina would find out, Jonathan didn't have the will to fight his hunger. No one did. You became a slave to the blood lust and everyone around you, including your loved ones, were in danger. You became an abomination. And even drinking Dracula's blood didn't yield any positive results. For Zoe, all she got were the memories of those victims that he had killed, in particular Agatha Van Helsing. No supernatural powers. No advanced healing or shortcut to immortality. Through and through, this series turned vampirism into a true curse and I applaud it for that.

Speaking of Agatha Van Helsing....I fucking LOVED her! I really did. I don't particularly know why. I think a part of it was her personality. She was fearless! She was intelligent, witty, sometimes reckless, humourously aloof, confident (bordering on cocky and it would cost her), but she was most of all fearless. I loved the contrast between her and Dracula, in that Dracula would look at humans as toys or experiments and see himself as superior while Agatha would reduce him to an equal level of insignificance. She wasn't impressed with his powers or feared his fangs. She regarded him as a mere beast, a curious new species of animal that she was intent on learning about and ultimately putting down. He was like a rabid dog to her who just happened to walk upright like a human. 

The sheer gall she had to challenge him and disrespect him was the definition of brazen, bordering on arrogant which would cost her at times. The chess match between the two was an appropriate symbolism. It was a chess match, and when Agatha thought she had the upper hand and had Dracula all figured out, he would make a move that would prove her wrong. And vice versa. I think what I loved most about her was her sheer defiance of him. She knew what he was and how powerful he was and how savage he was...and yet she didn't care. She would not give him the satisfaction of knowing that she feared him in any way.

By far, my favourite Agatha part was when Dracula had her cornered. She had provoked him enough and now was his chance to take her and make her suffer. He had her dead to rights and she knew it. And yet, her resolve never faded. She faced certain death with the same defiance as she had always shown. And as he went in for the kill, her line to him was fucking great!

"Come boy. Suckle!"

Bad...ass!!! 

And I liked that as confident/cocky as she was, there were moments when Dracula surprised her and had her on the ropes and she showed genuine fear and uncertainty. But she would always bounce back and regain her footing, never allowing herself to become a victim, even when Dracula killed her. I feel like she was a worthy re-imagining of the Van Helsing character. 

Now I had mentioned that there elements that weren't so great and I truly believe that these elements were brought about because they only dedicated three episodes to this series. They should have had four. They should have had two episodes taking place in the late 19th century and two taking place in the here and now. I felt like having only one episode in the here and now rushed things and either didn't set up the final revelations about Dracula adequately or left a lot of loose ends that needed tying up and characters/institutions that weren't used to their full effect.

One revelation that I wasn't a fan of simply because there wasn't enough of a build up were Dracula's weaknesses. The idea that Dracula was repelled by the cross or was afraid of sunlight or could not enter into a dwelling unless invited in....that all these 'weaknesses' were mere habits that he adopted throughout the centuries made no sense. I think I get what they were trying to do, to create this sense of irony as it pertained to Dracula finally being free. Once it was revealed that the sun didn't burn him or that he could very well enter into anyone's house without an invitation suddenly removed major obstacles to him taking over the world, so to speak. That he was suddenly free from these inhibitors meant he was essentially unstoppable. But it was when he was unstoppable that he decided he needed to stop. Like I said, I get the ironic twist to it and I can appreciate it but they needed another episode to set this up properly.

I just found it unbelievable that in 500 years of existence, Dracula never tested those limitations. He never let his hand stand in the sun to see if it burned. He never pushed through a doorway into someone's house just to see if he could do it. I'll have to give credit to the TVD universe here because that's what every vampire on that show did....they tested their limitations. I find it hard to believe that Dracula never did that and he feared the sun and the cross and couldn't enter into people's homes simply based on the idea that he too, out of habit, came to believe the folklore surrounding vampires. 

Regarding his fear of the cross, I can appreciate that he feared it not because of the holiness implied by it, but by the symbolism of Jesus giving himself over to death, something that Dracula apparently could never do. While I'm quite content with the mystery of how Dracula became a vampire (as sometimes the origin story can be quite disappointing....BSD had a very disappointing origin for Oldman's Dracula), I felt like they kept hinting at a story that we should have seen. Dracula himself says that he was a warlord and Zoe went on about how Dracula's brother and father and sons all died in battle while he remained alive unnaturally, all because he feared death. Whether they were hinting that he was, in fact, Vlad The Impaler is never answered, but it's at least hinted at. 

For that reason, I feel like an extra episode was needed, if only to establish more concretely Dracula's habits and how they came to be. They could have gone over Dracula's history and perhaps delved deeper into his fear of death and how he came to fear the sun and all holy objects. If we were shown his fear of death in a more visual way, it would have set up Dracula finally overcoming his fear and embracing death all the more potent. We could have gotten a more plausible reason for him to choose death other than the ambiguous one that we got, that being that he didn't want to live with the shame of being a coward who feared death. That was weak.

I wasn't a fan of this ending, mainly because there was no logical reason for Dracula to finally embrace death when he was truly free to do whatever he wanted. And the manner of death was disappointing. The idea that drinking Zoe's blood because she had cancer and was thus "dying," and therefore her blood was poisonous to him because a vampire can't drink the blood of someone dying, made little to no sense. As Dracula himself pointed out: "You're mortal. You've been dying since the day you were born." I felt like they gave in and did what they had spent the whole series avoiding doing: giving Dracula a romantic edge. Him dying and creating this illusion of making love to Zoe as he slowly drained her life as a way to not allow her to feel pain, while erotic to a degree, wasn't consistent. He had spent the majority of the series lacking any degree of empathy towards anybody, but for his final act, he shows it? 

I also feel like they wasted the Jonathan Harker Foundation. The fact that Zoe admitted that their funding sources were questionable and Renfield admitted that their funding stream was opaque, if not "occult," they gave the Foundation a presence that they never used to full effect. I was looking forward to them experimenting on Dracula, performing questionable tactics and perhaps crossing the line on that which was inhumane, even on an entity that was inhuman. I felt like they could have set up a greater rivalry between Zoe Helsing and Dracula, continuing the battle between Dracula and Agatha but with Zoe in her distant aunt's place. Also, they could have delved more into Jack and his work at the Foundation as well as further exploring his feelings for Lucy and thus making his killing of her all the more poignant. All this would have been greatly served by another episode. 

Despite these flaws, I think this was a really good re-imagining of the Dracula story. As much as I do like BSD, I'd probably put this one over that simply because of how they portrayed Dracula and did away with all the romantic stuff.

Still, BSD had a topless Monica Bellucci. Kind of hard to beat that! 😎
    

Legacies - Yup, It's a Leprechaun, All Right

 

Discussing Ep. 3.7 - Watching this episode, I couldn't help but wonder if I had missed an episode because there seems to be a real disconnect with some of the storylines.

Hearing both Hope and Alaric talking about them exhausting their resources to search for Landon, to the point that Alaric neglected paying the school's property taxes, made no sense. Hope saying that she exhausted her search for Landon to the point that she gave him up for dead, saying how the Ascendant was gone and she even had a jar of Landon's muddy remains (which was bizarre) really felt like it came out of nowhere. Even MG talking with Alyssa, who is somewhere else and making it sound like they already had their discussions about Alyssa sleeping with Jed, really made it feel like there was some lost episode where all of this stuff happened.

Speaking of Hope and Landon....a glass jar?!? She kept his muddy remains in a non-descript glass jar?  I mean, I get that people keep the ashes of their loved ones in decorative urns and what not but this was just some black sludge that anybody could have broken quite easily if they weren't careful! Like I said last week, I'm glad that Cleo is part of the cast though her and Hope bonding as fast as they did was a bit of a surprise. Again, it felt like I missed an episode. And I liked how she was able to help deal with her grief, though all the good that it did considering it looks like Landon may still be alive somewhere, according to Hope. And that means Hope's obsession will continue.

I was actually glad that Cleo essentially told Hope what her problem was, in that Hope is literally obsessed with Landon. And her gushing about him didn't help matters either, especially when she made that bust and she commented how it didn't do Landon's many features justice or whatever she said. Please! That bust didn't look like him at all! No way does the real Landon look that masculine and brooding! LOL! I have to laugh when they do these busts because it's so hard to capture what the person really looks like. Even in real life, with professionals doing it, it can be really tough. I always remember this bust of soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo and how ridiculous it looked in comparison to his face.

So just when we thought that Hope was finally letting go and moving on, we get a fucking leprechaun! I'm thinking someone on the cast is a big 80's horror fan, considering they did that whole 80's slasher flick homage with Hope's therapy session and now this. This guy is literally a cheap knock off of a cheap 80's horror leprechaun! 

I thought this was stupid. I get that they're trying to bank on the whole St. Patrick's Day thing but this was really stupid! But once again, we get the plot of them trying to 'save the school.' Didn't we have this plot last week? And it's funny as fuck that I mentioned to Jenzy how this show was slowly morphing into Riverdale and all that was essentially needed to complete the transformation was a fundraising car wash. 

Well, lo and behold....

To be fair though, I also griped about how they weren't showing any vampire powers, and both Kaleb and MG used their vamp-speed in this episode! I—was—shocked! Regardless, this was still stupid. First off, they say they have no money, not even for Lizzie's precious smoothie bar. And yet, they're able to put up elaborate decorations and host elaborate auctions and bake copious amounts of food....with what money? And then, of course, we get Alaric and his cougar!

This was stupid too! Not that I was against Alaric getting some action in the romance/sex department, mainly because I think he's suffered so much that he deserves some kind of a win at this point. But the lady was just far, far too forward. Again, where is the class and grace? I applaud Alaric for not giving in, if only because this woman was completely reckless. She wanted to get it on with Alaric....in her office?!? She couldn't arrange to meet him at a motel or something? And all to approve a loan? Would his D really be worth $91,000?!? If he was THAT good, I really doubt Sheriff Mac would have left town, even if she was scared of the supernatural element! In the end, I guess it stroked Alaric's ego, but I wouldn't hold out any kind of hope for him since I've already stated my opinion on Alaric's potential for a long-term relationship.

Speaking of relationships, especially relationships that I couldn't give a fuck about, we have Josie, skipping school already, just because she's afraid of having lunch with Finch because she's unsure about how Finch feels about her. Really? Both Finch and Josie were like "gee, I don't know if you like me or not." REALLY?!? Since the moment they met, they looked like they were ready to rip each other's clothes off! What is it with this made up drama? Unless Finch turns out to be some kind of a witch or other supernatural creature and has a bigger role to play in the grand scheme of things, then I don't care whether she and Josie make it or not. I don't care at all!

Because in the end, she may turn out to be another Alyssa Chang. Apparently, according to the actress on her Instagram account, this was Alyssa's last appearance on the show. And I'm sitting here thinking....what a fucking waste! What was the point? What was the point of her being on the show at all? She was a bit player who ended up exiting the show on a bad note, mainly cheating on MG with Jed. What was the point of this character? Simply to get MG to grow out of his 'nice guy' persona? And speaking of MG...

First of all, I don't know if it was my imagination, but the actor looked older for some reason. I can't put my finger on it. And that's not a good thing when he's supposed to be portraying an immortal vampire! I suppose neither Stefan nor Damon kept their youthful looks throughout TVD's run either but I don't know what it was that made MG seem a lot older than he was in the last episode. Secondly, why does he have the Ascendant? Like I said before, it seemed I missed an episode where the Ascendant was revealed to be not working and being a major piece of the puzzle as to why they couldn't get Landon back. Now, all of a sudden, MG has it and had been hiding it under an illusion spell by Alyssa and he essentially betrayed Hope in the process. I have no idea what the hell is going on!

If they hadn't wasted an episode where they were trying to save the school...AGAIN...and had spent the time filling in these gaps, all these developments wouldn't have felt so jarring. And like Jenzy said last week, this is so directionless. Where are they going with all of this? Is it all just about saving the school? Is it all just about obsessing over Landon? Is it all just about Josie trying to quell her rampant sexual urges at a 'normal' school? Just like Alyssa Chang, this all seems so pointless.

TVD S5 called....they would like their season back!  

Legacies - To Whom It May Concern

 

Discussing Ep. 3.6 - So for an episode that was boring as fuck, I have a surprisingly number of things to say about it.

I could not have expected Hope to be doing anything else other than mourning the loss of Landon in this episode. It was to be expected so I can't really gripe on that. What did surprise me was that she wasn't looking for him. The entire episode wasn't her just exhausting all possibilities of her trying to find him. That was somewhat refreshing if not surprising. But what I took away from this storyline with Hope was something that I experienced in my own life.

It's rather funny if not ironic what this franchise has done to the element of death. It made death irrelevant. Thus the idea of mourning the loss of a character comes off as bizarre if not ridiculous. Why mourn a character that will eventually come back to life at some point down the road? Why mourn a character who is not really dead? So when we see Hope mourning the loss of Landon, it comes off as stupid because he's obviously not dead but yet she still mourns. We, like the other characters, expect her to just 'get over it' because death has become so meaningless in that world. Funny enough though, I was on Hope's side on this one. I felt bad for her because everyone just expected her to put a smile on her face and go on like everything was normal so as to recruit new students to the school. And it was possibly the most insensitive thing the other characters could have done.

I kept thinking about my own experiences when a family member had died. I remember people telling me to "be strong" and "they wouldn't want to see you sad or to see you cry" or "they're in a better place" and all these trite sayings that meant nothing in that moment of grief. You know they're trying to help but it just doesn't. More than anything, those words become annoying if not downright irritating. So I understood Hope's outburst and why she was shutting down. While I still think her and Landon breaking up is the best move for either character at this point, I am somewhat glad that she didn't just move on too quickly. 

I was also happy with Landon's development. It was surprising how they actually addressed the fact that Hope was always the one to save him and he had to finally step up and be the one to save himself. Again...refreshing and necessary. What I didn't like was NecroTed's role in it all. I suppose it was funny seeing NT in his original job as an ice cream store employee. And while it made sense that Malivore would punish him by making him do the things he hated the most, I though it was monumentally stupid how the one thing he had to do to break out of his shackles was to sing a song! Not sing a good song in its entirety. Not sing a song really, really well. 

No....he just had to put out a weak ass performance and he'd be free. What the fuck?

See, I remember on Justice League Unlimited when Batman had to do something similar to free Wonder Woman from a curse. The way the played that up was beautiful!

Ya see....there it was funny! You thought Circe was talking about Batman's identity when it fact, she was talking about his ability to sing really well. I was kind of expecting the same thing here. But that's not what we got at all. NT forcing himself to sing a tune was barely Earth shattering for him. And having Landon finally stand up for himself and beat the shit out of NT as a way to break free of his shackles was kind of stupid as well, given the fact that Landon has been in fights before so I don't get why him beating up NT was such a big deal. I suppose they were trying to show how Landon was more passive in his own struggle for survival in the past and was always waiting for Hope to save him but they really hyperbolized that. Regardless, if this means Landon and Hope find their identities apart from each other, all the better.

Finally, I was happy to see MG's development. I did like how they played it up a bit for laughs, which was subtle but it worked. Maybe it's because I know people like MG. Maybe it's because I was like MG at one point so I get the idea of learning to say 'no' to people and learning to speak up for yourself....maybe that's why I actually enjoyed this character growth. How far they will go, whether MG will go overboard is tough to say because they can have him go to such lengths that he becomes a selfish prick about helping others. But for the time being, I liked it.

So now we get to my gripes. First off, what the fuck was this all about? Dorian's the new principal? Emma and Dorian specifically left Alaric high and dry to deal with all the supernatural disasters all by himself because they didn't want to endanger their own lives or endanger their future family or some bullshit like that. So what do they do? Dorian finds work....IN MYSTIC FALLS!!!! The fuck is wrong with these writers?!? Oh, just as long as it wasn't at a supernatural school, then it's okay with Emma that Dorian works there?!? That's like telling someone they can't work at a hospital for fear of getting Covid but it's okay to work at the restaurant next to the hospital where all the health care workers frequent because it's not at the hospital! That's fucking asinine! And I'm more than bitter that both Alaric and Josie embraced this tool with open arms as though he and his idiot girlfriend didn't break Alaric's heart and left him to die when he needed them the most!

Then we have this horndog of a girl who fucking needs a cold shower! Like, seriously...decorating Josie's locker as a welcome gift? SHE'S KNOWN JOSIE FOR ALL OF ONE FUCKING AFTERNOON!!! Who the fuck does that?!? Like I said before, if this were a guy....so much shit would be hitting the fan it would stop working from the sheer weight of all that shit! This is stalker-type behaviour and it's a red flag but Josie's apparently fine with it because she's Josie. Fuck...whatever! I'll give credit where credit is due to Finch for admitting that she came on too strong with the whole decorated locker nonsense. Still, why even go that far? I just thought this was really dumb.

I also don't understand what it is with this trend of high school students not having any parents. Ethan, Finch, all those prospective students....it seemed like none of them had any parents around. Even with Ethan I was wondering how he is surviving, given that he's only 17 years old. Is he renting a place in Mystic Falls? How is he paying for that? Is he working? Does his mom send him money? Who lets a 17 year old do this without a legal guardian? With the exception of Alaric, there are literally no parents around...anywhere! It's fucking BizarroLand is what it is.

Now we get to my biggest gripe of this episode. I mentioned to Jenzy how there doesn't appear to be any vampires on this show because we don't see any kind of vampire activity at all. No vamp speeding, no blood feeding, no super strength, no fangs, no vampire eyes....nothing! Oh, sure...we're TOLD there are vampires but we're not SHOWN this. So here we have Günter, a vampire kid whose family was apparently hunted and/or killed by none other than Alaric Saltzman back in his vampire hunting days. So we have a chance to see a vampire go full on vampire. We have a chance to see the fangs, the eyes, the vampire speed....all of it! And we see......NOTHING!!!! Absolutely fucking NOTHING!!!! No fangs! No vampire eyes! He lunges at Alaric with a speed so slow I thought we'd have to wait until the next episode to see if he actually made it to Alaric, that's how fucking slow he was! You never would have guessed that he was a vampire and you would not have believed it if someone told you he was a vampire because you'd be asking for proof of such a claim!

I mean, do you remember when vampires in this franchise used to do this? When they got really pissed off or were really hungry or were ready to fight, they put on that whole vampire face? Or when they wanted to attack someone, they went in with full vampire speed and used vampire strength? That's what made them threatening. That's what made them scary. That's what made them vampires! What a concept! Maybe Jenzy is right and they just don't have the budget for that type of high-end special effects anymore. But even aside from the special effects, none of the vampires on the show are real vampires. They're not real werewolves either. They're all so docile and human it's disgusting. Is it any wonder now that people view Legacies on a completely different level than TVD or TO?

And while I'm skeptical of them adding new cast members, I am intrigued by Cleo.

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the accent that adds a different aura to her. I liked how she approached Hope and essentially helped her come to terms with her grief. But I was disappointed in that I was seriously expecting Cleo to be from NOLA. I don't know why. Again, maybe it's the accent and the look because she sounded like someone who would be from the French Quarter. I think it would have been cool to have someone from New Orleans be on the show as a sort of anchor to Hope's past. Mainly because it irks me that Hope believes that Salvatore School is her only home. Uhm....HELLO?!? You still have family in New Orleans! That is where your father made his name. That is where your mother became the alpha of her pack, the Crescent Wolves. That is where your aunt and cousin now live. The fuck is this that Salvatore School is the only place in the world that Hope can live?!? 

Overall, like I said, it was a boring episode. I did like the character developments but there was hardly any action to keep my interest. And by the looks of the next episode, we're back to the goofy fairy-tale-monster-of-the-week format again.

Oh...joy!

Legacies - This Is What It Takes

 

Discussing Ep. 3.5 - Soooo....I don't know what to make of this episode. Some good, some bad, some of it was jut really, really weird!

While I like a good homage to classic slasher flicks from the 80's, especially Friday the 13th, I don't understand why they did it like this in the first place. This was supposed to be Hope's mind. Why did she recreate Friday the 13th? Why was her psychological environment made to resemble an 80's slasher flick? She's never claimed to be a fan of the genre. Neither has Landon. So I don't understand the context at all! It felt so arbitrary other than the writers deciding to have a little fun and get everyone dressed up in bad 80's fashion. But it would have made more sense if, in her mind, she were back in NOLA for example, or maybe wherever it was that she and Hayley went to when Hope was a kid and the Mikaelsons were asleep from having absorbed the Hollow. Or make it resemble LoTR or Star Wars since that was what Landon was into. Much like the Salvatore musical, it seemed like it was done more for getting some laughs and less because it really had anything to do with Hope's character or the plot of the episode. 

I'll be fair though. I LOVED the fact that they finally addressed the elephant-in-the-room...that being Hope's devotion to Landon at the cost of everything else. Now, it wasn't expressed to the extent that I would have liked (they made it seem like she was sacrificing her friends for Landon rather than her own independence and agency, but I'll take what I can get at this point). And I LOVED that they created a seemingly unsolvable issue between the two: Hope is literally toxic to Landon! Now, while that does make a lot of sense, what doesn't make sense is that they never figured this out before. I don't know if it's because Landon was possessed and restored by Malivore and therefore carried a piece of him or if Hope was always toxic to Landon because he is Malivore's son. Either way, I would have thought that the moment Hope kissed Landon, that he would have suffered some kind of allergic reaction (much like vampires immediately recoil when they touch vervain). But that never happened. There was never any indication that Hope sleeping with Landon would essentially kill him. 

It's funny that I mentioned Buffy in my last review because this was somewhat Buffy-esque in the way they brought this rift between Landon and Hope, though it is nowhere near as tragic or as gut-wrenching as it was between Angel and Buffy. I'm supposed to believe that Hope had to full on sleep with Landon in order for her toxicity to kill him? Why? I thought it was only her blood that could kill Malivore? I didn't know that her toxicity was similar to that of a STD! Either way, it seems as though Hope and Landon cannot be together and I like this wrinkle in their relationship. It's a viable obstacle to keep them apart and I'm all for it.

Though I don't understand how or why Hope had to do that therapy box in the first place. And what I didn't like was how quickly everyone remembered Hope and Landon. Granted, they had the spell to bring everyone's memories back but I recall that last season, it was a whole story arc where Josie had to do a spell to get everyone to remember who Hope was. She even met Freya to get tips on how to do the spell. Similar to what I said about them taking the 'specialness' out of things, much like prison worlds and healing werewolf bites on vampires, they can restore people's memories rather easily now! I mean, they spent at least five episodes last season having everyone forget Hope, including Freya, and it was a big deal when they all remembered! Now, they all remember her again without any fanfare? I don't understand how any of this works anymore. I wish I could be optimistic about Hope continuing her journey without being obsessed with Landon but I remember Elena and Damon trying to do the same thing and think that perhaps this will go down the same path. I hope I'm wrong.

So with Hope now realizing she cannot be with Landon and Sheriff's Mac's son, Ethan, now seemingly in the picture, I could see Hope suddenly developing a relationship with him. My biggest concern is that she's going to end up sleeping with him in a much quicker time frame than she did with Landon. If she does that, I'm going to lose any and all respect for her and for the writers! I will totally hate her character if she made Landon wait to have sex (which was fine and was her prerogative and I actually respected her for that and Landon was willing to wait) only to get it on with sexy, bad boy Ethan in three episodes or less just because he's hot and just because she's feeling lonely and what not. Fuck that and fuck her and fuck the writers for perpetuating that stereotype if they do that.

Now I get to a major gripe I had in this episode and I seriously wonder if the writers are mandated to do this to the Alaric character at the behest of Plague, because the pattern continues! I mean, why not just cut his dick off right now and get it over with? Why not just stab him in the heart so he doesn't have to feel anything anymore? In the last episode, he had just slept with Sheriff Mac, or at least that is what they implied....which I didn't like because he had just basically asked her out for the first time in the episode prior by giving her flowers and all that...and yet they seemingly wasted no time in getting it on? Is chivalry and courtship truly dead? Are they also caught up in the 'hook up culture' of today? Did Sheriff Mac have no self control and ask to take things slow? I thought Alaric would be the one to keep those old traditions alive. I guess not! Anyway, so he had just slept with her and they seemed to be off to the races as a couple when a whole episode later...she's gone?!? She just up and left Mystic Falls without so much as a goodbye because she couldn't hack living in a town with supernatural creatures. That's it?!? She barely makes an appearance since last season and...POOF!...she's gone again? Fucking hell!   

Like, really! Just castrate the guy now! Why do they waste this character's time with potential love interests that will go absolutely nowhere? I mean, I don't care how resilient Alaric is....this guy should have ZERO hope of ever having a long-term relationship with a woman at this point! I mean, NONE! He shouldn't even fucking try! Let's go over his romantic history, just to prove my point, shall we?

Isobel - dead (left him to be with Damon, turned vampire then killed herself)

Jenna - dead (turned vampire then killed by Klaus)

Meredith - departed (left after Alaric died)

Jo - dead (killed at their wedding)

Caroline - departed (dumped him when Stefan came back into her life and essentially left him to raise two daughters on his own)

Emma - departed (chose to go with Dorian)

Sheriff Mac - departed (left Mystic Falls after learning the truth about the supernatural)

Why should this guy have any hope at all at this point?

I am completely baffled as to why they even bother. Why bother giving this fucker any kind of romantic interest if all you're going to do is either kill her or have her leave him? I suppose Sheriff Mac got off easy seeing as how she didn't die! But that sounds so fucking pathetic! I mean, I don't get it. I just don't get it. What has this character done to deserve this kind of fate with women? Is this a 'nice guy' syndrome that he's going through? Is it his beard? Does he smell? What is it about this character that he is resigned to this fate? 

Sigh! Anyway, speaking of lack of courtship and moving things too fast....we have this chick who seriously needs to take a cold shower!

What the fuck was this all about? I swear, if it were a guy who was acting the way Josie was acting with that tour guide from the high school, he'd have been ripped apart by society and rightfully so. I mean, Josie was practically drooling and that girl called her out on it, saying how Josie basically wasted the whole trip looking at her rather than listening to anything about the school. And to boot, the tour guide was down with it all! I swear, I thought they were going to go into some empty janitor room and go at it then and there the way they were eyeing each other! For crying out loud, people....have some fucking class! I'm sure to some people, Josie's behaviour was "cute" but I just found it annoying if not highly inappropriate. Like I said, put a guy in that spot and the optics of it come out VERY different, if not creepy! Sure, be excited, be giddy, but don't act like you're ready to rip each other's clothes off then and there! Fuck's sakes!

And finally, we have MG and Alyssa. I can't help but give them credit for having Alyssa cheat on MG because they at least didn't do a complete 180 on her character and suddenly make her a saint. She's a fucked up individual and her stepping out on MG is rather consistent with someone of her calibre of narcissism. But it begs the question: why do this ping-pong act with her character? Why have her go evil and then good and then evil again? I don't know if we're supposed to be rooting for this character or not. I'm fine with a character riding the edge, like Rebekah did when she was first on TVD. But at least with that character, you could tell that she was going a particular way but she still had her own failings to overcome. With Alyssa, you really don't know what side of the fence she stands on and why. She was so enamoured with MG and gushed to him about her love for him and allowed him to influence her attitude, only to abandon all that to sleep with Jed? 

I will say that I am somewhat curious as to what they do with Landon. Though they are hinting that Malivore and NecroTed are still around, there really isn't any big bad to threaten the lot of them. I would be totally fine if the next big bad were to be Landon himself! Yes, it would follow the Buffy playbook, where Angel turned into Angelus and became the main antagonist, but I'd be fine with that at this point. If Hope and Ethan do get together in record time and Landon witnesses this, I could see that setting off a hurt inside him that causes him to go down a dark path. So despite my previously stated misgivings about Hope and Ethan having sex too soon (which I would still abhor), if it were to be used as a catalyst to bring Landon to a point where he becomes the big bad, then I could accept it. My only concern would be that they would end the storyline too soon. I loved Dark Josie. She was a fun character to watch! But that arc ended way too soon. I think Dark Landon could be a fun one too, perhaps even more sinister though, but I worry that they won't ride it out for the long term. He's such a "good guy" character that turning him evil would be an intriguing thing to watch. Hell, I could even see it being Raf who comes to the rescue from the prison world and restores his good buddy Landon much like Xander did with Dark Willow. If they do it right, it could work. 

There may be hope yet (no pun intended)!