Dracula - Episode 2 - Recap - A Whiff of Sulfur

Dracula - Episode 2 - Recap - A Whiff of Sulfur

So. Here we are in episode 2 of NBC's Dracula adaptation. The premise here is that the newly-awakened Dracula is hanging around late-1800s London peddling cool science stuff in the guise of an American businessman named Alexander Grayson. He's got some dudes who know he's a spooky dracula. They're hunting him, obvs. Nothing he's doing seems particularly evil... I guess aside from murdering people to eat their blood. Oh well.

The episode starts with some questions to be answered. We get back to Dracula's awakening, last seen briefly at the start of the first episode. Abraham Van Helsing reveals his motivation for awakening Mr. Tepes: He wants to destroy an ancient group called The Order of the Dragon. This Order killed Vlad's family and Van Helsing's, so they're teaming up! This is an interesting dynamic considering their usually adversarial relationship. Meanwhile, the vampire hunters are closing in on Drac. He's... not very careful with the whole murder thing. He probably needs to not just straight-up eat all of someone's blood in like... the middle of the road.

Dracula is pretty obsessed with this lady, Mina, who looks just like his dead wife. Unlucky for him, Mina is engaged to a reporter called Jonathan Harker. As a scheme to get Mina closer, Drac is set to hire Harker on as a public relations executive. Mina is all about this idea, seeing it as a great opportunity for Jonathan. One night, Dracula has his horse-drawn carriage stop to pick up Mina. Wuh oh! That can't end well, can it? Well actually it is fine. Dracula is just super deadset on getting Harker involved with his business for some reason. Harker is (sensibly) quite suspicious. I wish this show was clearer on the motivations of the characters!

There was a lot in the episode that just seemed like filler. I'm not sure why any of the characters are doing the things they do. The actors are doing an okay job, and the costumes are all still gorgeous, but trying to follow the plot is an exercise. Hopefully it'll get better later in the season, but I suspect that it will not. Usually, shows hit a point in the season where they wrote/filmed the currently airing episodes after the first episode or two have already aired. I think the production schedule on this show might be such that they filmed it all ahead of time, since it was a complete season order right off the bat and not a pilot/pickup like how most shows are. Still, if you want to see Jonathan Rhys Meyers wearing cool suits, this is certainly the show to be watching. Check out the preview below!