Dracula got killed at the end of last season, but that just means the forces of Hell aren’t organized, not that they’re gone.
SUMMARY (Spoiler-Free)
Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage) managed to finally kill Dracula (Graham McTavish) with the help of Dracula’s son Alucard (James Callis) and the magician Sypha Belnades (Alejandra Reynoso). While Alucard decides to watch over his father’s castle and the Belmont library, Trevor and Sypha head out to start working on killing monsters together as a couple. Following Dracula’s demise, his forces are separated. Isaac (Adetokumboh M’Cormack), one of Dracula’s two devil forgemasters capable of turning corpses into demons, starts assembling an army of his creations. The other forgemaster, Hector (Theo James), is held captive by four female vampires: Carmilla (Jaime Murray), Lenore (Jessica Brown Findlay), Morana (Yasmine Al Massri), and Striga (Ivana Milicevic). They want his powers for their own uses. Alucard gets two students in vampire slaying by the names of Taka and Sumi (Toru Uchikado and Rila Fukushima). Trevor and Sypha find a city run by a very strict Judge (Jason Isaacs) and populated by the mysterious Baron St. Germain (Bill Nighy) and the insane priest Sala (Navid Negahban). The two are tasked by the Judge to find out why devil marks are appearing around the town.
END SUMMARY
So, for those of you who played the games, the end of last season corresponded roughly with the end of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse and this season takes place between that and Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and may potentially be setting up for that storyline in the next season. Dracula is gone this season, but many characters point out that it definitely doesn’t make the world much better. Dracula, while he did eventually hate humanity to the point of wanting to exterminate them all for the loss of his wife, typically kept all of the demons, vampires, and monsters under his control, reducing their overall threat. Now, the forces of Hell are all competing against each other for territory and trying to expand as fast as possible. No matter who wins, humanity loses.
This season does suffer a bit from being kind of a transitional story. We see Trevor and Sypha facing off against a different kind of opponent than the previous fare, but it’s a slower burn. Their plot is mostly kept interesting by the presence of good supporting characters, particularly the Baron St. Germain who is based off of both his video game and real-life counterparts. In real life, the Count of Saint Germain was a rich man who constantly made absurd assertions such as time-travel and immortality and this version is much the same, except possibly telling the truth. Bill Nighy is excellent at selling his naturally unusual dialogue.
Meanwhile, we’re following Isaac’s attempt to find his own place in the world when he no longer works for Dracula. It’s interesting to follow a villain during his own refusal of the call period, but it plays out really well. Hector’s story consists mostly of him interacting with the vampire Lenore, who is part of a cabal of female vampires who want both equality for women and dominance for vampires, which is kind of an interesting dichotomy. Alucard doesn’t have a villain, instead focusing on dealing with training two human students in monster hunting as a way to deal with his own loneliness.
While the season doesn’t have a cohesive plot, it makes up for it by spending more time exploring the characters and the world, as well as having some excellent action sequences. It’s a lot darker in tone, particularly towards humanity, and that’s saying something.
Overall, the show is still going strong and I can’t wait to see the next part (please don’t cancel it, Netflix).
If you want to check out some more by the Joker on the Sofa, check out the 100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time, Collection of TV Episodes, Collection of Movie Reviews, or the Joker on the Sofa Reviews.
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