Dracula Doesn't Sparkle

you would think ...

All summer, I’ve been eagerly anticipating Jonathan Rhys Meyers taking a turn as the count in NBC’s new series “Dracula”. With him in the title role, and with vampires desperately in need of salvation on the heels of the “Twilight” travesty, I thought, how can it lose?

Then I saw the premier episode on Friday night. Ter and I stayed up for it, in fact. I admit, I was horribly distracted through most of it (too much caffeine perhaps?), so will be rerunning it on demand before episode 2 the end of the week, but my overall impression is that Meyers is the sole reason for giving it a shot. He is, as expected, breathtaking, although I wonder why his character is pretending to be American when one of his most seductive features is his English accent. He slips back into it when he’s with Renfield, but in company, his voice completely lacks the timbre and charisma you’d think he needs to seduce his victims. Okay, that he needs to seduce me.

There were a lot of people in the first episode, and a lot of twisty turns that would have confused me even if I hadn’t already been distracted, hence my resolve to give it a second chance. I did catch a couple if things that piqued my interest – Mina is studying to be a doctor with Abraham van Helsing as her professor, and van Helsing himself appears to be allied with Dracula against the Order of the Dragon (a gang of witch hunters with a history as long as the Count’s). An uneasy alliance, to be sure, but a surprising one that warrants further study.

Oh, and animated fight scenes are cheesy unless you put out the big bucks for a crew at Industrial Light and Magic, so the duel between Dracula and one of the Dragon dudes (I forget which one) left me flat and resentful. It was so obviously computer-generated that I felt like I was watching a video game, which is something I will never do willingly. It’s understood that the industry aims at a demographic where I am no longer included, but still, if you’re going to slip animation into a live-action show, make it seamless so you can fool the oldies in the audience.

I love vampires and Dracula is the granddaddy of them all. Here is a chance to pay him due homage, so I am hopeful that the show gets better as it goes. I’ll give it a few more weeks before I decide for sure whether it’s worth my time.

At least he doesn’t literally sparkle, either.