The House of Van Helsing

I certainly didn't resent the time spent watching the first two episodes but, this is obviously not the high-budget Helsing experience we're normally used to.

That said, production values are still great, ther show is atmospheric, the CGI works, (mostly), & overall, it's a decent, if unchallenging show that, refreshingly, have seem to have Helsing battling a new protagonist, rather than Dracula.

So, it looks good, it uses some great locations, and definitely has a 'rich' feel to it. However, as the title suggests, it lets itself down in a few, unfortunately key, points.

CASTING: The actor playing Caroline stands head & shoulders above the other main actors around her, yet feels strangely under-utliized so far. Helsing doesn't quite fit the remit of his role. I'm just not getting his lifelong weariness or the horror of all he's seen. Skip looks like he doesn't want to be there, & Cody came across as s little too ineffectual at the moment - With luck, that character will be fleshed out. In contrast to the male actors, and aside from Caroline, Izabella (Helsing's companion), radiates a nice, brooding, 'Romani' aura, that had me believing in her as a character, and Elena has the right mixture of old and new that her age would carry.

Don't get me wrong, the guys all do a passable job, but they need an extra 10% or so to achieve the levels of the female actors! Possibly, they're still getting used to their characters, & we'll see more depth to them as the show progresses, but right now, the women are carrying this show.

Will I watch the remainder of the series - absolutely. Look! It's not going to break any TV barriers here, but it's strong enough and fun enough to draw me back for the remaining episodes as they're released.

It's not that bad and has some great ideas. I felt the villains lines could have been chopped, so much of it is redundant and frankly boring. Not bad acting just a badly written part for the villain. The exposition could have been handled differently to create more suspense.

Production isn't the worst I've seen, but not the best either. I'm guessing the budget wasn't huge. Cinematography is nicely done.

The music routine but not awful.

The actress playing Caroline stands out, as does the Romany characters. Abe is played in a strange way, as a hippie. I'm not sure I believe he's been around for nearly 200 years. He knows too much and explains too much. That isn't the actors fault, it's a fault in the script.

There are many unresolved plot points and too many introduced through exposition. We are told the villain is evil but again it's not convincing. We are introduced to too many artifacts without long explanations of its importance. Mystical powers arrive from no where. Tension is missing because exposition is prominent.

There's potential here, just a shame it isn't realised.

I've seen a lot of horrible television shows in my time, this was not one of them. It also wasn't great either. The show is obviously low budget as seen with the CGI quality but I don't believe that it necessarily takes away from the story. The acting was decent and the story was interesting enough to keep me watching for all 6 episodes. I liked the ambient soundtrack as well and thought the filming sites were well chosen. It honestly gives me 1990s through early 2000s vibes. Overall, this was not a horrible watch if you're looking for something to pass the time and are a fan of supernatural TV shows.