Back on Drac

JRM not as Dracula, but who cares?

Woo hoo! As I hoped, paying full attention during a second viewing of Dracula’s premier episode prompted Ter and me to watch the second episode last Friday night. The first time is always a rush of blurred images and mental questions that demand answers ahead of schedule, so unless I adore something from the first scene, as happened with Sleepy Hollow, my overall impression can result in a snap judgment. At least I recognized that Dracula deserved a second shot, and I’m glad I gave it to him. We reran the pilot just ahead of the second episode and have agreed that, yep, it’s a series worth watching.

It took the first scene in the second episode to hook me; now I am committed. I admit, however, that without Jonathan Rhys Meyers, it wouldn’t be as strong. He’s having as much fun playing Dracula pretending to be an American as Dracula is having fun pretending to be an American. There’s a sly humour in his portrayal that’s nicely balanced by his ability to fall into the vampire’s natural state of predator on the prowl. The guy has charisma, that’s for sure. I was mesmerized by his Hugo Boss commercials, for Pete’s sake. Put him in a period piece and I’m pretty well sunk. I liked him in The Tudors (though I maintain that the king he was playing was not Henry VIII), and he stole the show in Oliver Stone’s Alexander if only because he was so drop-dead yummy that his few scenes are better remembered than the bulk of Colin Farrell’s work in the title wig. So, as with Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt, if JRM is in it, I’ll give it a second look. In Dracula’s case, I’m glad I did.

Story-wise, it’s heating up as well. The twists and turns keep it interesting. The Order of the Dragon is the true villain of the piece, peopled by power-grubbing aristocrats allied with seers and vampire hunters. Few of the characters have taken hold as well as Dracula, but there’s definite potential in Mina, Harker and van Helsing. Renfield is proving to be a veritable Jeeves, Lucy is the perfect society confection, and Lady Jayne is the requisite leather-clad bad girl with a feral purpose of her own. She’s not as clever as she thinks she is, though. She knows there’s a vampire loose in London and wants to bring him down herself, but she hasn’t figured out that it’s the guy she’s already taken to bed. She’ll probably be the last to know.

Cheeseball animated fight scenes aside, I’m on board. My own vampires agree: it’s gratifying to see a vampire who accepts that he is a vampire!