Customer Reviews

Dracula - The Series

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm giving this 5 stars because back in 1991 when I watched this during its original airing, I never willingly missed an episode. By today's standards the special effects are interesting but simple, and yes, it is campy. The production understood itself though, and the camp actually adds to the fun.

This show had some of the wittiest dialogue I've ever heard, beautifully executed by some of the most engaging actors I've ever had the pleasure to watch on-screen. Some of whom have become quite popular since their Drac days. I was pleased to see it released on dvd and I've purchased both volumes. It may surprise some people but this is actually one of the most cleverly written shows to date.

Dracula, played to the hilt as the charming, sophisticated and wickedly ruthless villain by Geordie Johnson, is so much fun to watch. His relationship to the vampire hunters, Gustav Helsing and his 3 young charges, Max and Chris Townsend and Sophie Metternick, is far more complex than a 1/2 hour horror-sitcom (it's really unclassifiable)would lead you to believe. They may all be mortal enemies, but there is a level of gruding respect and fondness between them that is really sort of addictive. Both sides had plenty of opportunity to destroy their opponents but they never did. I think Dracula actually enjoyed the cat-and-mouse game ... and so did the hunters in their own way.

Yup, Dracula is evil and enjoys the hell out of it but you just can't help but like the guy in spite of it. The back-story between Dracula and Helsing is really interesting and different (displayed to best effect in the episode "The Decline of the Romanian Vampire") Some of the scenes between Dracula and Max are actually touching ("Bad Blood"), given the fact that old Drac can't have children of his own and Max seems to often represent the more whimsical side of his personality. The characters connect on an eerily comical wavelength ~ especially Klaus, played by Geraint Wynn Davies of "Forever Night" fame. You have to see once of his guest-appearances in an episode to know exactly what I'm talking about.

This is not a blood-and-gore vampire television show. It is intelligent, fun and witty ... and warm. It has extraordinarily complex character relationships, which is probably one of its most endearing qualities. But it is NOT a gratuitous, fx-ridden action-romp. Thank goodness.

Many years ago I wrote a few of the cast members and some of the production team and was lucky enough to receive personal responses. They were very kind and seemed to love the show just as much as the very loyal fans who still continue to love it to this day. It is not difficult to see why it still has a place.

Immortality of a sort. Dracula would be proud.

It's 2007 now and I still enjoy watching it every now and again.

Glad I purchased this, it was a great price and just about what I expected. 11 episodes of the tv series kind of a cross between the lost boys,goonies,and bat man. It is brings to mind Charmed also although I feel Charmed is quite a bit better. I would think eight to twelve year olds would enjoy it. Good harmless fun and a great introduction to Dracula which hopefully would inspire further interest in the genre for the uninitiated.

Dracula, The Series, Volume 1 is 11 wonderful episodes that take me back to my early college years, when the only thing on TV that interested me was MST3K, Peter Pan and the Pirates, and, yes, DRACULA!

The main character, played by Geordie Johnson was intelligent, smart, witty, and dangerous. Klaus, played by Geraint Wynn Davies, is Dracula's helper and does a very good impression of an unbalanced young vampire, too eager, too ruthless, to be properly controlled. The rest of the stars, while making their characters believable and interesting, just do not shine as much as the main core of the stories - The Vampires!

The writers and producers did a good job at working within the framework of the vampire legends and myths. True, some of the special effects suck but the vampire fangs and make up is pretty good and the series was filmed in Luxembourg which gave it a wonderful feel - real European landscapes and ruins. Watch it and then run out and get volume 2!

Be careful when you buy this. If it's just one disc than it's the incomplete series, and only ten episodes. You need to buy the two disc DVD set to get the whole series. The single disc is only ten episodes.

Now, if you do get the two disc DVD set there is a little problem of episode order toward the end of disc 2. I was watching the Dracula the series DVD set and I realized there is a pretty big mistake and this mistake dates back to the series' original air dates.

The final episode of the series is Klaus Encounters of the Interned Kind. This ends with the semi-cliff hanger of Gustav Helsing following Lucard (Dracula) and Klaus through a portal in Dracula's castle. And the boys Christopher and Max preparing to return to America with all of Gustav's notes. Yet someone made the mistake of airing the episode My Dinner with Lucard after Klaus Encounters of the Interned Kind.

My Dinner with Lucard is a clips episode of all the previous episodes (leading up to Klaus Encounters of the Interned Kind) and turned out to be a dream of Gustav Helsing. This is clearly set BEFORE he followed Lucard through the portal. I do not know why it was aired in the wrong order or why the DVD set maintains this misorder.

Otherwise it's a great DVD set of a fun TV series in the vein (if you pardon the pun) of shows like Goosebumps. The show focuses on the adventures of sixteen-year-old Christopher Townsend and his ten-year-old brother Max Townsend. They take up residence with their Uncle Gustav Helsing who lives with a local student, Sophie. Chris and Max soon learn that their uncle is actually a vampire hunter from a long line of vampire hunters and their biggest thread is Alexander Lucard, a highly successful and corrupt corporate mogul (sort of like David Xanatos of Gargoyles) who turns out to be Dracula himself. It's a fun show but jut be wary of the mistake in the episode order.

At 44, I'm still a kid at heart. I remember this show when it came out (I was an adult then, too), and have the dvd, now. Forget all these awful slasher movies. This is the kind of fun, spooky show I will let my son watch (with me, of course). Great fun (watch with the lights out!!)