Did anyone watch this Steve Moffat Mark Gatiss take on the classic?
Have to be honest the trailers put me off entirely but for one reason or another found myself at a loose end last night and decided to give it a go and it was pretty good actually. Okay the 'smart comedy lines' like "You are what you eat" really jarred and pulled me out but these were few and far between.
The rest was quite excellent. It was a visual treat, creepy when it needed to be and downright terrifying at times. Much gorier than I was expecting to. On a couple of occasions genuinely horrific.
The performances were fantastic too. Full credit to John Heffernan as a wonderful Jonathan Harker who looked and seemed to feel like me as I return to work this morning. Dolly Wells was also superb as a new take on Van Helsing.
Overall an absolute trimuph and can't wait to see the rest.
I thought a lot of it was daft and over the top, but it's Dracula, so those are probably points in its favour.
The 'reveal' of the identity of Van Helsing didn't really work for me 'cos I twigged who they were pretty much straight away, due to them sounding and acting exactly like Van Helsing.
I think casting Karl Howman as Dracula and letting him ad lib his own lines was a brave choice
Bold, stunning telly. The pressure is on for the final episode to land it though.
Everyone was wondering what was inside no. 9.
I recorded it, but knowing me and what else I have to watch I'll probably get round to it in about 5 years 😂.
Thought it was good fun, figured out ending for part 2 (though expected it to be part 3) because it was pretty much a thing I'd planned to do on a story I have in my big folder of "stories I will never get around to writing"
Well in contrast to the positive reviews here I found the second episode a bit of a let down, certainly compared to the first. It lost a lot of the horror elements of the first and moved more into the now traditional sharp witty dialogue that for me came across as self satisfied and articifical ... okay we're dealing with fantasy here so epecting it 'to feel real' is my problem!
The situation had a defined ending, well not the ending ending, but the ending to the characters and this robbed it of tension as it was more like a camp brutal Columbo. We know the end, it was about the way it reached it rather than then being a tense horror mystery.
There's no denying it took things in its own direction and was bold, just didn't work for me. By far the best thing in it was Dolly Wells who I'm no aghast I wasn't aware of before this as she was quite brilliant as Van Helsing. Though there was that line at the end were Karl Howson (genius Leigh S) asking why are you talking, that's not you. All she does it talk so that one really jumped out as daft.
Yeah so while I'm in to the end I hope this one gets to more of the tone of the first episode not Dracula 1972 as I'm kinda expecting as the temptation to turn it into an entirely camp romp takes almost complete control of the writers.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 03 January, 2020, 06:55:51 AM
All she does it talk so that one really jumped out as daft.
I'll preface my comments by saying that I didn't see the first episode, but thought it would easy enough to just take a look at the second. I shouldn't have bothered - it was excruciatingly awful. Endless reams of smug, self-satisfied, chatty dialogue, undermining any attempt to build up atmosphere, and one of the worst depictions of Dracula ever committed to the screen. (Not the actor's fault, I'm sure - he can only go with the script he's given.)
Hmmm.
Well they fucked that up. Episode 3 is a complete load of arse.
The last episode was indeed mostly utter guff.
I did like the Peter Cushingesque table-jump, though.
Yeah that final episode was an utter let down. I really liked the idea of moving the story to modern England as after all that was the basis of the original book. An ancient monster cast forward to contemporary times. The trouble was it was a bit rubbish.
It seemed as if they got so trapped and enamoured with their deconstruction of vampire lore that they forgot to write decent story. The trouble was their deconstruction was utter bobbins and utterly failed to stand up to examination. The lose of a decent story entirely removed me from caring even if it had been good.
Such a shame after such a strong first episode.
Quote from: JamesC on 03 January, 2020, 10:55:49 PM
Well they fucked that up. Episode 3 is a complete load of arse.
Or to be honest I could have just said that as its a perfect summary!
Really enjoyed this until the 3rd episode what a disappointment
Yeah, I'm in the 1.75 out of 3 camp. First episode was excellent fun and fresh (to me), the second actually felt longer than it's 90 minutes despite some good individual bits.
And the third was just very Moffaty. An explanation that makes sort of sense but then has you thinking: No, actually it doesn't. Why is that [spoiler]bit of the tale is myth that he has tricked himself into believing but this bit is a real supernatural power.[/spoiler]
The tone was a bit off to me too; mobile phone shenanigans and WiFi password jokes didn't sit well with a [spoiler]charred corpse[/spoiler]. American Werewolf made that work but this didn't. And the treatment of Lucy as a whole made me think the writers really hated that sort of character. Really hated.
I actually really liked Claes Bang - he'd have made a grand Bond 15 years ago. And why have I never seen Dolly Wells before. She's on my watch list now.
Quote from: Tiplodocus on 06 January, 2020, 11:00:04 PM
And why have I never seen Dolly Wells before. She's on my watch list now.
The first time I saw Dolly Wells was on The IT Crowd. She played the model that Roy fancied at Jen's dinner party. Only she'd had an accident and her face was wrapped in bandages.
Episode 3, was such a disappointment. The first one re-wrote vampire myths and played with troupes, episode two what a nicely done country-house murder mystery at sea, but that third one was pants from the beginning: as with so much TV drama, this was horrible things happening to horrible people, so who cares? who are we rooting for here? not even the villain.
Episode 3 sagged so much in the middle with obvious padding and a fair bit or extraneous exposition, for elements that weren't central to the story, and the whole Foundation thing never made any sense, as did the insipid lawyer, WTF? We can have armed units and black choppers on Whitby beach but hey a halfarsed lawyer wanders into the inner sanctum and Dracula is out of there...
I fully expected 'love' to save the day as was the norm in Dr Who, and in a way it did here too, disappointing waste of a good set up, show and resources.
Quote from: Proudhuff on 08 January, 2020, 03:05:42 PM
Episode 3, was such a pile of shite disappointment. The first one re-wrote vampire myths and played with troupes, episode two what a nicely done country-house murder mystery at sea, but that third one was pants from the beginning: as with so much TV drama, this was horrible things happening to horrible people, so who cares? who are we rooting for here? not even the villain.
Episode 3 sagged so much in the middle with obvious padding and a fair bit or extraneous exposition, for elements that weren't central to the story, and the whole Foundation thing never made any sense, as did the insipid lawyer, WTF? We can have armed units and black choppers on Whitby beach but hey a halfarsed lawyer wanders into the inner sanctum and Dracula is out of there...
I fully expected 'love' to save the day as was the norm in Dr Who, and in a way it did here too, disappointing waste of a good set up, show and resources.
FTFY
Once I realised that Moffat & Gattis just wanted to have fun and play with the setting I was happy enough to just go along for the ride. The more ludicrous it became the more I enjoyed it.
I think there were some pretty good moments in the show overall, and I thought that both Mr Bang and Ms Wells did a great job. Glad to see it finish though, at one point I thought they were going to set up for a second series.
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 10 January, 2020, 08:48:48 AM
Once I realised that Moffat & Gattis just wanted to have fun and play with the setting I was happy enough to just go along for the ride. The more ludicrous it became the more I enjoyed it.
I think there were some pretty good moments in the show overall, and I thought that both Mr Bang and Ms Wells did a great job. Glad to see it finish though, at one point I thought they were going to set up for a second series.
I dunno why you don't think there couldn't be a second series...
-PJ
Quote from: pauljholden on 10 January, 2020, 01:55:09 PM
Quote from: Bolt-01 on 10 January, 2020, 08:48:48 AM
Once I realised that Moffat & Gattis just wanted to have fun and play with the setting I was happy enough to just go along for the ride. The more ludicrous it became the more I enjoyed it.
I think there were some pretty good moments in the show overall, and I thought that both Mr Bang and Ms Wells did a great job. Glad to see it finish though, at one point I thought they were going to set up for a second series.
If they make a second series I hope someone exposes the film to sunlight.
I dunno why you don't think there couldn't be a second series...
-PJ
To be honest, my money is them on doing Frankenstein next.
ep 1 Victor Frankenstein at university (period gothic scifi piece) doomed love, creates monster "It's ALIVE!"
ep 2 opens on Monster on the boat, explaining the plot to - I dunno - the terrified crew who he's having to eat to stay alive, or something, oh no! Frankenstein is here, the monster chased off the edge of the boat into the arctic sea, to be lost forever!
ep 3 modern day fishing trawler, finds something in its net, etc.
-PJ
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 09 January, 2020, 06:21:23 PM
Quote from: Proudhuff on 08 January, 2020, 03:05:42 PM
Episode 3, was such a pile of shite disappointment. The first one re-wrote vampire myths and played with troupes, episode two what a nicely done country-house murder mystery at sea, but that third one was pants from the beginning: as with so much TV drama, this was horrible things happening to horrible people, so who cares? who are we rooting for here? not even the villain.
Episode 3 sagged so much in the middle with obvious padding and a fair bit or extraneous exposition, for elements that weren't central to the story, and the whole Foundation thing never made any sense, as did the insipid lawyer, WTF? We can have armed units and black choppers on Whitby beach but hey a halfarsed lawyer wanders into the inner sanctum and Dracula is out of there...
I fully expected 'love' to save the day as was the norm in Dr Who, and in a way it did here too, disappointing waste of a good set up, show and resources.
FTFY
Thanks for that :lol:
Quote from: pauljholden on 10 January, 2020, 02:46:30 PM
To be honest, my money is them on doing Frankenstein next.
ep 1 Victor Frankenstein at university (period gothic scifi piece) doomed love, creates monster "It's ALIVE!"
ep 2 opens on Monster on the boat, explaining the plot to - I dunno - the terrified crew who he's having to eat to stay alive, or something, oh no! Frankenstein is here, the monster chased off the edge of the boat into the arctic sea, to be lost forever!
ep 3 modern day fishing trawler, finds something in its net, etc.
-PJ
Well that's that sorted, lets go to the pub. ;)
The Mummy:
p1 ancient egypt, mummy entombed alive, cut to heroic 20s adventurers, reincartnated queen, open tomb
p2 the mummy explains plot to someone, turns out they're now entombed and the mummy and the reincarnated queen are together and oh no earthquake!
p3 mummy awake again, modern world! mobile phones, the power of love kills and or saves him.
It must be my round by now...
Dracula Series 2, Episode 1 (potential actual spoilers):
[spoiler]Agatha Van Helsing's DNA has replaced Zoe Van Helsing's cancery DNA, curing her/them of the condition and also immunising her/them against vampirism. Dracula turns out not to be as susceptible to cancery blood as he first thought, its fatal effects being another one of Big D's daft notions what he was totally wrong about and stuff. He is also shocked to discover that Zoe/Agatha is thus far un-undead, figures the answer must lie within familial DNA and decides to track down his living descendants to see if he can do what Jeff Goldblum couldn't do in The Fly. It all gets a bit Barnabas Collins.
Meanwhile, The Jonathan Harker Institute has got wind of the miraculous recovery of Ms. Van Helsing and attempts to track her down for experiments, but VH has taken off after Drac upon finding out what he's up to and no longer trusts the institute after discovering precisely who their mysterious donor is. Things go a bit David Banner/Richard Kimble.
The mysterious donor to the JH Institute turns out to be a character from the first series who everyone thought dead but is actually just undead and now has a bit of a grudge against Dracula, (probably Lord Ruthven 'cos he has money and a literary heritage (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Ruthven_(vampire))).[/spoiler]
There. I think that's daft enough to be highly accurate.
One word review: Crapula!