Directed by: Various
First aired: 2021
Contains spoilers
Whilst I had stuck with Van Helsing from Season 1, finding it entertaining – even if it wasn’t high drama, I was less impressed with Season 4 than the preceding seasons (for completeness you can also read the reviews of Season 2 and Season 3). Because of this I did not run head first into season 5 when it dropped to Netflix.
It was something I knew I should rectify but I procrastinated and then I noticed that a box set of all 5 seasons on Blu-ray was being released. I picked it up and then did a serious binge session re-watching the first 4 seasons before hitting season 5. So, the first thing to report was that I enjoyed the revisit and, whilst I stand by my comments with regards season 4, it did hold up better – probably because the new characters felt more familiar and also because the lack of a distinct season arc meant less when you were immediately jumping into season 5.
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| Dracula escapes |
So, we were left (at the end of season 4) with apparently immortal heroes Julius (Aleks Paunovic, Chupacabra Vs the Alamo & Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency) and Axel (Jonathan Scarfe) mysteriously dying outside the bunker to a military research lab. Vanessa Van Heling (Kelly Overton, True Blood) was stuck in the dark realm as was her (scientifically created) daughter Jack (Nicole Muñoz, also Chupacabra Vs the Alamo, Sanctuary & Hemlock Grove). The dark one – Dracula (Tricia Helfer) – had escaped the dark realm in Jack’s form, killed the president (Jill Teed) and taken her form and Jack’s sister Violet (Keeya King) failed to kill her as she escaped in a helicopter.
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| Jack beneath Orava castle |
The season (mostly) then follows the path of getting to Dracula – however the first few episodes see Vanessa opening a portal in the dark realm that allows Jack to escape – but into the past. She appears in Transylvania (we won’t tackle the fact that she could understand the locals and vice-versa – in the previous episode she was psychically given the ability to read an obscure language, so perhaps it’s a knock on effect) at the point where the local Count (Kim Coates, Dracula the Series, Red Blooded American Girl, Innocent Blood & the Dresden Files ) and his bride Olivia (Tricia Helfer) have just had (almost miraculously) a child and that their familial name is Dracula. This is Dracula’s origin story and we discover that Olivia is to be used as a vessel for the “Dark One” – a malevolent spirit and, whilst not the source of vampirism, this could be said to be vampiric possession. Jack does do things that change the present to a degree (mostly making Dracula weaker). It was nice that the exterior shots used Orava castle.
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| Aleks Paunovic as Julius |
Back to the present and we discover that Washington DC is a safe zone. Whether the TV broadcasts from the previous season were to there only or to more unaffected regions (beyond the walls around DC it is still the vampire apocalypse) is unclear. The series knows it was the last season and (for those characters still standing) it does its best to bring conclusions to each story and is successful in this – though don’t expect each story to have a happy ending, it’s a mixed bag and rightly so. The episode stories all work towards that end or the conclusion of the season proper – though there is one flashback moment where the wig Aleks Paunovic was forced to wear should have been sense checked.
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| new mutation |
What I did notice was the pandemic awareness it brought to the construct – a chemical released by the Government to kill vampires, which causes chemical storms as deadly to humans as vampires (and causing powerful mutations in some vampires) cause the need to wear masks. There is also reference to ‘fake news’, the 45th president – Davis Park (Stephen Lobo) – was turned, presumed dead but is found and turned back to human (in an episode where MAGA caps are being sold in a scavenger store). This leads to the need to restore his presidency – and, of course the 46th president is a shape-shifting imposter. This didn’t feel pro-Trump or Biden, just a mismatch without a thought-out political narrative.
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| Dracula uses magic |
Not all was welcome. Vanessa is brought back in episode 9 but I could have lived without the majority of the episode which was essentially just a clip show showing Vanessa’s past triumphs and failures (as she learns, I guess). It felt positively filler, the character needed to return but it could have happened in a scene not an episode and was simply bad TV. Being fair, it probably felt even worse having binged the episodes it came from over the previous week/week and a half. Jack and Violet felt better constructed, as the series had time to develop them, which was to the benefit of the show. All in all, more enjoyable than season 4 and a fitting conclusion to the series. 6 out of 10.
The imdb page is here.
On Blu-Ray import @ Amazon US
On Blu-ray @ Amazon UK
4 comments:
To me this show never lived up to the potential it showed in early season 1. Just the premise of the vampires waiting for a big event like a volcanic eruption to come out of hiding was fairly interesting. But I agree that Netflix did make the final season a little better than season 4.
By the way, if you're interested The Legend of Vox Machina (on Amazon prime video currently) has some vampires that show up within the first 3 episodes (not in the first episode though).
Thanks for that... yes watched the first 3 episodes of The Legend of Vox Machina and will look to blog once the series is fully out and I know how much is vampire facing. But thanks for the heads up, its always worth highlighting new releases
I can't help to think the film mocks the President Biden as the 46th evil president. 😂
I'll stick with the thought in the review
"This didn’t feel pro-Trump or Biden, just a mismatch without a thought-out political narrative."
Which seems much more likely.
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