Created by Cole Haddon.
In this 10 episode series, the tale of Dracula the iconic vampire is rediscovered and reinvented. Jonathan Rhys Meyers portrays the Count who arrives in Victorian London passing himself off as an American businessman. Working alongside him is Renfeild (Nonso Anozie) as his lawyer and accomplice and Abraham Van Helsing (Thomas Kretschman).
As the American businessman named Alexander Grayson, he proclaims he has come to London to introduce a brand new revolutionary technology, this is actually a cover for Dracula to destroy a secret organisation called 'The Order of the Dragon'. Apparently the order who runs a lot of things in certain societies in Europe and perhaps the world murdered his wife centuries ago and turned him into a vampire. He wants the new technology to thwart the Order's plan in controlling the oil industry, he also aims to destroy them from the inside. Dracula allies himself with Van Helsing because the doctor has also suffered under the evil ways of the Order, they murdered his family. During one of his presentations he meets Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker and Lucy Westenra. He is captivated by Mina's beauty because she is the 'reincarnation' of his lost love Ilona. He falls in love with her of course but cannot allow himself to be distracted and he cannot bring himself to 'simply take her' as Renfield suggests. Dracula answers that if he were to turn Mina 'that would be an abomination'.
At first the show seemed intriguing and interesting, I understood form watching the trailer that this would be a different version of Dracula, one with whom many vampire fans would sympathize with. I confess that the reason I got into this show was cause of the vampire genre and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I am a big fan and thought he would make a great vampire.
Everything is different in this show, the characters and the plot. Dracula is actually Vlad Tepes who was part of the Order a long time ago but because of some unmentioned crime, he was excommunicated, his wife burnt at the stake and him turned into a vampire. He is 'resurrected' by Van Helsing who forms an alliance with him to destroy the Order. Mina is not an assistant school teacher like in the novel, she is a medical student working under the tutelage of professor Van Helsing. Her fiancee Jonathan is a struggling journalist who doesn't approve Mina's career ambition and wants to marry her quickly so that she'll abandon her studies and become a good wife. Mina' best friend Lucy loves hanging out with her, even a little too much, Lucy has deep feelings for Mina and yes she is in love with Mina. Lucy is depicted as a lesbian.
The dark and mysterious 'Order of the Dragon' seems like an evil cult or society like the Freemasons, they are depicted as the villains of the story. They seem to be running things in the British Empire as well as being responsible for certain gory events of history, like Jack the Ripper. Their true endgame is not really mentioned, they want to control the oil industry and they'll do anything to achieve this aim, even murder. By now this is starting to sound like 'Dracula vs the Freemasons or the Illuminati or any villainous order from a Dan Brown novel'. The series mixes what certain audiences today love: conspiracies and vampires.
However this does not work, in fact the whole show does not work. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is perfect and super sexy in this role, I watched the show all the way to the end so that I could see more scenes with him topless! As well as watching him do what vampires do best; biting and killing.
The story reminds me of the Coppola film adaptation with the whole Mina being the reincarnation of Dracula's true love, please! Dracula as the American businessman has to really pretend and act committed to his new technology in a Steampunk Victorian London, with his so called 'wireless electricity'. He looks for ways to walk in the sunlight. I see that they insult Stoker's novel some more by making him sensitive to sunlight. Van Helsing finds a serum to inject into Dracula after many experiments but it's not 100% effective. He 'sleeps with the enemy', with the Lady Jane who is part of the order and a Vampire hunter who does not suspect him at all.
Many questions are unanswered, such as: if Dracula was part of the order, why did they turn him into a vampire? How did they do that? Why did the order murder Van Helsing's family?
A show that has a character that looks more like a mix between Citizen Kane and Howard Hughes and a conspiracy a la Da Vinci Code? No wonder this show was poorly received and was not picked up for a second season.
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