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Is anyone else watching BBC’s Dracula?
- Thread starter Soap
- Start date
Anyone else noticing blown out black levels on some scenes on an oled? Not sure if my settings are messed up.
Netfliz, Dolby vision etc
Netfliz, Dolby vision etc
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Well, just finished it and the ending could have been a lot better. Didn't like it much at all after enjoying everything else.
I figured the light at the window would be a trick. I was expecting it to suddenly drop away revealing the real sun, or for him to walk out into the real sun after being exposed to a fake source.
Would have been neat if she made him realize all his other superstitions were in his head, then used his confidence to kill him.
Would have been neat if she made him realize all his other superstitions were in his head, then used his confidence to kill him.
I enjoyed it, but the ending felt a bit... sudden. Rushed. Idk.
3rd episode just wasn't good. Made me want to re-read Hellsing, tho.
Overall, very enjoyable series still, and not at all what I expected.
3rd episode just wasn't good. Made me want to re-read Hellsing, tho.
Overall, very enjoyable series still, and not at all what I expected.
I really enjoyed the first two episodes and they set up a potentially cool premise for the third ep.
That third ep I thought was fucking awful in a cringey way. I'm really shocked at how far the quality dipped. What a shitshow of bad writing. There's too much I didn't like but the part that most made me cringe at embarrassment was
This whole show is like a microcosm of Moffat writing where everything is amazing at first before somehow he manages to shit the bed right at the end. I'm extra mad because I thought the first two eps were A+ rad as hell and the third ep is a true turd.
That third ep I thought was fucking awful in a cringey way. I'm really shocked at how far the quality dipped. What a shitshow of bad writing. There's too much I didn't like but the part that most made me cringe at embarrassment was
Dracula getting out of the secret lab containment by managing to contact Mark Gatiss, his lawyer, because he could guess the wi-fi password and then everyone just going along with it and allowing it to happen even though he's the most dangerous serial murderer in the world no fuck off Gatiss and Moffat this was SHIT.
I would have watched seasons of this show with Dracula messing around in the 19th century because those eps were quality. I hated all the parts with the young people too. Oh how I wish the timeskip never happened now.
I would have watched seasons of this show with Dracula messing around in the 19th century because those eps were quality. I hated all the parts with the young people too. Oh how I wish the timeskip never happened now.
This whole show is like a microcosm of Moffat writing where everything is amazing at first before somehow he manages to shit the bed right at the end. I'm extra mad because I thought the first two eps were A+ rad as hell and the third ep is a true turd.
1st episode was great
2nd episode was amazing (I will probably rewatch this one a few times)
3rd was classic Moffat shitting the bed.
2nd episode was amazing (I will probably rewatch this one a few times)
3rd was classic Moffat shitting the bed.
Yep. Right on schedule.
Fucking baffling. Someone has to have told him that he like chronically does this by now- you'd think that would foster some self reflection.
It's on US Netflix right now; I think they put it on there on Saturday.
Lol this was exactly why I was waiting for this to finish before wasting time watching it. Moffat just can't deliver.
At least Sherlock got a couple of good series before it really shit itself.
Still only seen first episode. Did they cover what happened to Mina and Agatha after the final scene?
I don't think the third episode takes away from the first two. If you ignore the last minute of the second episode, it's a perfectly good ending.
One of the biggest issues with Moffat's writing is that he tries so hard to put in clever twists and to hide them from viewers as much as possible, often to the point of misdirecting viewers with fakeout explanations that are better than the one he is eventually going to reveal. That tends to mean that what he writes is interesting up to the point where he needs to start paying off the things he's been setting up, whereupon it all falls to shit.
Dracula manages to do slightly better at avoiding that tendency, which led to some really good moments such as:
But then there's the bad stuff, and it's not all from the third episode.
It's a little sad that they couldn't resist the idea for episode 3, but even if they had, and even if they'd stuck more closely to the novel, I think we'd still be talking about the third episode as the weakest. I think that the first two episodes worked well because they were in confined locations with a small set of characters - a series that followed the novel would still shift to a more expansive setting and I think that's where Moffat and Gatiss would have gotten lost regardless of what they did with episode 3.
Dracula manages to do slightly better at avoiding that tendency, which led to some really good moments such as:
- Dracula lying on the ground in the shadow asking Harker to describe the sunset.
- the way the castle episode creates a sense of growing unease as Harker's blundering efforts to figure things out get effortlessly defeated, before finally going for the first major diversion from the novel and having Harker killed (and then killed again, and then also again)
- Claes Bang's delivery. Some of the old classic lines did seem a bit like they were forced in (because they clearly were) but he did as good a job as he could with them and a great job with original stuff. It's very difficult to play Dracula as a character that feels both familiar and interesting and Bang manages it
- the Demeter episode turns what could have easily been a very boring segment of the story into something genuinely unpredictable and at times actually as clever as Moffat always wants to be. It's a slow burn of setup and payoff of multiple character arcs, most of them doomed, and the confined space works well
- the twist at the end of episode 2 is....I had mixed feelings at the time, but mostly because I expected Moffat to fuck it up. If I hadn't known who was behind this I would have said that it was a promising twist and opened up new territory for what had otherwise not diverged much from the original story
- Dracula watching the sun on TV was a nice character moment. Dracula adapting to new technology in general was interesting. It's easy to overlook now because the book is ancient, but when it was released, Stoker's Dracula was a story incorporating the latest tech of the day - characters telegram each other, Seward uses a phonograph to voice-record journal entries, blood transfusions are performed even though it was written several years before the discovery of blood types made this a safe operation, and Harker name-drops his Kodak camera to Dracula when talking about the estate Dracula is purchasing. A Dracula that Skypes Renfield to get himself freed and quickly adapts to mobile phones is a reasonable contemporary update
- Van Helsing is a good character with great acting, and the Dracula/Van Helsing dynamic works surprisingly well - mostly due to the actors because the plot setup to support that dynamic doesn't really exist
- the way the castle episode creates a sense of growing unease as Harker's blundering efforts to figure things out get effortlessly defeated, before finally going for the first major diversion from the novel and having Harker killed (and then killed again, and then also again)
- Claes Bang's delivery. Some of the old classic lines did seem a bit like they were forced in (because they clearly were) but he did as good a job as he could with them and a great job with original stuff. It's very difficult to play Dracula as a character that feels both familiar and interesting and Bang manages it
- the Demeter episode turns what could have easily been a very boring segment of the story into something genuinely unpredictable and at times actually as clever as Moffat always wants to be. It's a slow burn of setup and payoff of multiple character arcs, most of them doomed, and the confined space works well
- the twist at the end of episode 2 is....I had mixed feelings at the time, but mostly because I expected Moffat to fuck it up. If I hadn't known who was behind this I would have said that it was a promising twist and opened up new territory for what had otherwise not diverged much from the original story
- Dracula watching the sun on TV was a nice character moment. Dracula adapting to new technology in general was interesting. It's easy to overlook now because the book is ancient, but when it was released, Stoker's Dracula was a story incorporating the latest tech of the day - characters telegram each other, Seward uses a phonograph to voice-record journal entries, blood transfusions are performed even though it was written several years before the discovery of blood types made this a safe operation, and Harker name-drops his Kodak camera to Dracula when talking about the estate Dracula is purchasing. A Dracula that Skypes Renfield to get himself freed and quickly adapts to mobile phones is a reasonable contemporary update
- Van Helsing is a good character with great acting, and the Dracula/Van Helsing dynamic works surprisingly well - mostly due to the actors because the plot setup to support that dynamic doesn't really exist
But then there's the bad stuff, and it's not all from the third episode.
- Mina Murray's role is reduced to background character. What starts off well with a colourful letter at the beginning ends up with her sitting silently in the convent waiting for the TV-style reveal, then she has a few moments with Harker before running away forever and later doing stuff off-screen
- It makes sense for Dracula's fears to be based on the fears of the people whose blood he is drinking and the show brings up that explanation and then tosses it away for a last-minute "I'm so clever" moment from Van Helsing
- Lucy is kind of meant to be shallow so a modern portrayal being vapid isn't surprising, but she's written like a parody of a real character. It reeks of middle-aged people sitting in a room imagining what they think a modern young person might be like
- Dracula just gets away with stuff too easily. This is fine in the late 19th century and it's not a problem for Stoker. It's not a believable contrivance in the early 21st century, especially not when there's a rich organisation that knows exactly who and what Dracula is and whose goal is to capture him
- It makes sense for Dracula's fears to be based on the fears of the people whose blood he is drinking and the show brings up that explanation and then tosses it away for a last-minute "I'm so clever" moment from Van Helsing
- Lucy is kind of meant to be shallow so a modern portrayal being vapid isn't surprising, but she's written like a parody of a real character. It reeks of middle-aged people sitting in a room imagining what they think a modern young person might be like
- Dracula just gets away with stuff too easily. This is fine in the late 19th century and it's not a problem for Stoker. It's not a believable contrivance in the early 21st century, especially not when there's a rich organisation that knows exactly who and what Dracula is and whose goal is to capture him
It's a little sad that they couldn't resist the idea for episode 3, but even if they had, and even if they'd stuck more closely to the novel, I think we'd still be talking about the third episode as the weakest. I think that the first two episodes worked well because they were in confined locations with a small set of characters - a series that followed the novel would still shift to a more expansive setting and I think that's where Moffat and Gatiss would have gotten lost regardless of what they did with episode 3.
I don't see a worthwhile path forward for it.
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This is exactly how I feel. Third episode was all around terrible.
They could have done something interesting with Dracula fearing crosses and the bible because he empathically absorbed so many god-fearing peasants, like how much of Dracula is actually himself and is he just some gestalt entity defined by the average of his victims' values. The rapid change in his diet in the 21st century could then cause a giant shift in his own personality.
I just finished the first episode. I think that might be enough for me. This show is too much cheese for me to handle.
Meat loaf once sang that 2 out of 3 ain't bad... Pretty much right for this show. First two episodes were great, the writers disappeared up their arse for the third.
Some not so bad ideas
Just written and filmed terribly. It felt like they ran out of budget in 2 episodes and had to hamfist a modern day ending together.
The first two episodes both used a similar device - someone telling a story, to tell the story. The third opted for smart devices and teenage drama, allowing it to eat up so much time the actual ending felt contrived and tacked on. Bit of a shame really.
Some not so bad ideas
- The nihilistic Instagram girl getting off on the danger and losing her looks, the thing she cares about - wouldn't have been a bad standalone episode. As it was, drawn out, clunky and detracted from the series trying to tie itself up
- The idea of memories living in blood, of van helsing being able to absorb her ancestors memory through blood the same way Dracula was acquiring skills and deadly knowledge like Sylar from heroes or some shit... Sure why not
- The Jonathan Harker foundation felt like it may lead somewhere - the students, the experiments, the study of Dracula... But no, none of that went anywhere because...
- They gave Dracula an iPad and he used it to contact renfield / his lawyer - and I hate to say it, he should stop casting himself in his own stuff. Noticeable quality tank the moment he showed up.
- Van Helsing understanding Dracula's weakness, his inability to die, met by his mercy at the end - refusing to let her feel pain - again was a good idea, a good twist, just all of the dialogue and exposition leading up to it was wanky
Just written and filmed terribly. It felt like they ran out of budget in 2 episodes and had to hamfist a modern day ending together.
The first two episodes both used a similar device - someone telling a story, to tell the story. The third opted for smart devices and teenage drama, allowing it to eat up so much time the actual ending felt contrived and tacked on. Bit of a shame really.
Yeah, just finished it. Really liked the 1st and 2nd episodes. 3rd had potential, but it went downhill pretty fast; wasted opportunity.
It's on Netflix in the US now.
It's on Netflix in the US now.
It's definitely on my list to watch, so I'll try and get to it at some point in the next few days. Probably a weekend thing for me, though.
Watched all of it tonight. I didn't care much for the first episode except for a few aspects, found the second episode the best and that's probably reminds me of the standalone episodes from Doctor Who that people actually like from Moffat, and I didn't like the 3rd much though there were again aspects I liked.
Dracula the character was great fun, but fucking hell that nun was dumb as shit for someone pretending to be oh so smart. And that foundation that dedicated the last century to finding Dracula being filled with people who thought it was a smart idea to put their fingers in his mouth(??) and to setup a cell with fucking wifi? I mean come on, that was just insulting to the viewer.
I liked it for what it was... But also was disappointed. I was expecting an adaptation, and got a re-imagining, which is fine. Just not what I personally wanted.
The third episode premise was such a good potential "twist" in theory, but it also fell apart almost immediately.
The third episode premise was such a good potential "twist" in theory, but it also fell apart almost immediately.
Looking back, even in the first two episodes which I liked, I think Agatha was a bit too far ahead of Dracula from the very Beginning.
Of course her plan had to fail somehow, but she never seemed to really lose control of the situation.
Really made Dracula less threatening in the grand scheme of things then he could or should have been, especially right at the start.
Of course her plan had to fail somehow, but she never seemed to really lose control of the situation.
Really made Dracula less threatening in the grand scheme of things then he could or should have been, especially right at the start.
First eps was up there with the best TV I have watched all year.
Second eps was great
There was a third eps
Second eps was great
There was a third eps
Half the problems in episode 3 felt like they had written themselves into a corner in a previous series and had to clumsily get themselves out, except the problems are also introduced within the same episode
Loved the first and liked the second episode but it fell apart very quickly in episode 3.
Agatha was awesome though.I'd love for her to get Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing outfit and go monster hunting.
The lawyer getting him out of this secret private facility was just so cringy and the whole plot with Lucy was just boring and felt unnecessary. I kind of liked the ending though. At least the part that he doesn't actually have all these supernatural weaknesses but has simply accepted them as reality over a few hundred years.
Agatha was awesome though.I'd love for her to get Hugh Jackman's Van Helsing outfit and go monster hunting.
The worst moment was in the final scenes of ep 3 where useless white guy was still blabbering about this girl who was absolutely nothing special and did not give him the time of day? Like I'm sorry Nice Guy, but no one gives a shit about your infatuation.
There was so much good build up and ideas and then they figuratively drove a stake in it's heart.
Loved Agatha and the Count himself tho. Every scene they had together was like watching fireworks. It really is too bad they ended it this way.
There was so much good build up and ideas and then they figuratively drove a stake in it's heart.
Loved Agatha and the Count himself tho. Every scene they had together was like watching fireworks. It really is too bad they ended it this way.
I didn't like this very much. The first two episodes, apart from some of the performances and practical effects work, didn't really do it for me, while the third episode was a complete dud.
The entire thing just came across as an exercise in futility - there have been so many versions of Dracula at this point that I don't see the need for another relatively straight adaptation involving dark castles, wooden stakes, crosses, coffins, etc. It's been done to death so if you don't have a completely new take on it, why bother? The third episode did do something different, but it was also awful and didn't leave much room for continuation, so again, I have to ask, what was the point?
The entire thing just came across as an exercise in futility - there have been so many versions of Dracula at this point that I don't see the need for another relatively straight adaptation involving dark castles, wooden stakes, crosses, coffins, etc. It's been done to death so if you don't have a completely new take on it, why bother? The third episode did do something different, but it was also awful and didn't leave much room for continuation, so again, I have to ask, what was the point?
So I'm content just watching the first two eps, if everyone seems to agree the third episode is terrible. But can anyone spoiler for me what happens/why it sucks so much?