Episode Title: “A Whiff of Sulfur”
Writer: Daniel Knauf
Director: Steve Shill
Previously on “Dracula”:
Episode 1.01 “The Blood is the Life”
Has the vampire market been ex-sanguinated of new ideas? While “Dracula” certainly brings a fresh perspective to the undead prince of blood sucking beasts (sorry Chupacabra, you’re still #2), it’s not without heavy flaws. Alex Grayson’s (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) business acumen and plan are a bit ironic. A supernatural creature trying to introduce science and reason into the world. That’s funny. This version of Dracula tends to remind me of the Leviathan’s from “Supernatural’s” seventh season. Despite their various flaws, their business ventures were vast, and far more interesting.
Rhys Meyers continues to deliver a shifting and uneven performance as Vlad the Alex Gray Dracula guy. In a scene where Abraham Van Helsing(Thomas Kretschmann) draws blood to address Dracula’s aversion to sunlight, Rhys Meyers dials it up beyond eleven. For such a fierce creature, Dracula has such a low tolerance for pain that it distracts from his primal moments, making him seem like a giant wuss. From what I can gather, he also has three or more speaking voices: the first is the dreadful wussy pain voice, accompanied by the normal, ego driven indoor voice, and the vulnerable, moral one. The latter represents the easiest to handle, and those moments are few and far between.
Renfield (Nonso Anozie) addresses a major, glaring issue that should be easy to correct: why not turn Mina (Jessica De Gouw) and make her yours? This one question sums up one of the biggest problems I have with this show. Being undead, unstoppable to most, what prevents you from getting what you want? Well, having a moral center of course! Dracula would consider her an abomination, which reflected, says a lot about how he looks at himself. The problem is that the character goes to vampiric measures to get what he wants that it just doesn’t make sense. You live forever, you’re infatuated with her, wouldn’t you want her to live forever with you? His morals aren’t THAT strong.
“A Whiff of Sulfur” opens with almost the same resurrection sequence with Van Helsing from last week. We get a little bit more story, but not much. We get it, Van Helsing’s got beef with The Order of the Dragon. The scene plays out mostly for spectacle, and to see Dracula writhe in pain as a crucifix knife is stabbed through his foot. But the show’s mythology expands here as well; Van Helsing points out that our Dracula is indeed Vlad the Impaler.
Very few characters in this episode play well without Dracula on screen. The only compelling persona on the show remains Jessica De Gouw’s Mina Murray. The headstrong character passes a key medical exam, bringing her one step closer to becoming a physician, not a nurse! There is a potential story arc that could make her the new Van Helsing, in as much that she could assume the position as nemesis to the vampire. Will that happen? Probably not, especially considering the love story angle that next week’s episode is heavily pushing.
However, “Draculas’s” biggest weakness is that most of the plots can be achieved without Dracula himself, making the vampire more of a set piece than a reliable character. Van Helsing and Dracula’s plan to bring down the Order of the Dragon plays a big part in this episode. Dracula stays his fangs and goes for buyouts and leverage. A question you have to be asking yourself is why do we need Dracula if the methods he goes about his plan could be achieved through other, non-dead individuals? Are there no other rich people Van Helsing could befriend? The only member of the Order that Dracula killed was taken out via weapon and poorly choreographed, slow motion karate moves. Surely there is an assassin that could have been hired? Is there no one else?!
Jonathan Harker’s (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) stake in all of this is as an informant for the big bad. This serves to bring Mina closer, while getting dirt on those he seeks to do in. Harker’s character had a lot of potential through the journalist angle, but instead, Cole Haddon seeks to align him too with Dracula. His one true ability is to see that Greyson is bringing him closer for some odd reason. (Some dude offers you a job and a place to stay, something is definitely up).
All that’s left now is a bunch of uninteresting adversaries. Lady Jayne/Laurent has potential; a strong female capable of handling herself and quite possibly Dracula too. If not, she’s capable of vanilla, repetitive, and very clothing oriented sex scenes. The one in this episode, inserted no doubt to play up Dracula’s sexiness in case you forgot, feels like a rerun.
The visuals continue to stun and this show practically runs on nostalgia. Special effects seems to be few and far between, but when used they are made to count. The Order has a pair of “Seers,” using them to keep an eye on Greyson/Dracula. In stunning fashion, of course he knows he’s being watched. To thwart them, the mirror they spy on him with is cracked with streaks of blood running down. I’ll take more of that!
What exactly did this episode manage to accomplish aside from pissing me off? Not a whole lot. Granted, “A Whiff of Sulfur” feels like it’s putting pieces into place for future episodes. But by that time, will the show be worth watching? A show that refutes its main character’s reason for existing can’t be good can it? “Dracula’s” main flaws are a lot to overcome in a short amount of time. With uninteresting characters as bland as the set pieces they move among and a plot so shaky that the foundation could crumble at any time, what’s stopping this show from being canceled? Ratings of course! “Dracula” proves that name alone can pull in numbers, and it will continue to flourish on a network that cares not for story.
Does Dracula deserve this lackluster NBC production? Was it better off remaining untouched by a saturated market and a network whose acronym should stand for “NoBody Cares?”
