As I recall, the mirror thing is in the book. Dracula comes up behind Jonathan when he's shaving and Jonathan is shocked to see that Dracula has no reflection in the mirror. I think the mirror thing also had to do with the fact that vampires supposedly lacked souls, which doesn't really follow logically, but since when were superstitions logical? As for Lucy being more attractive than Mina . . . well, in the book, Lucy was the one who had three suitors competing for her hand in marriage. And the one whom Dracula went after first. Lucy was always the prettier, flashier one. Mina was the smart, sensible one.
Well, back in college I had a really gorgeous theater-major friend who played Mina in an original musical, so maybe that colors my perceptions. Perhaps she was cast in the wrong role? But it was the lead role of the play, so I'm not going to complain. Anyway, even if Mina's not supposed to be as flashy, at least she should be appealing as a person, and De Gouw doesn't really achieve that for me, not from what I've seen so far, anyway.
And they you wonder if inanimate objects like pencils have souls. I mean they clearly always have a reflection, so pencils must have souls. What does a wayward pencil have to do to be damned to hell?
You said you've only seen the first episode. Mina has a nice role -- and some meaty scenes -- in the second.
^I also said I've seen De Gouw in Arrow and was unimpressed. And I freely admit that I don't have enough information to know for certain whether she'll work in the role, and I'll be willing to have my mind changed if I decide to continue watching (something I haven't really felt an urgent need to do so far). But at the moment, I'm unconvinced.
I know who the Huntress is, Guy. I think one-dimensional is baked into the modern incarnation of that character.
Four episodes in, Dracula remains the most sympathetic character here. His plot to neutralize Lady Jayne Wetherby was really quite admirable; I didn't even suss to the endgame until it happened. Meanwhile, the ostensible heroes of the series continue to be either stupid or utter bastards. Why did Mina do what she did in Van Helsing's office? Why would she even suspect that something weird was going on? And how can one root for the Order of the Dragon? They're worse monsters than Dracula. I really like this version of Renfield. He's part sounding board, part mentor, and all capable. The twist with Lucy wasn't unexpected after last week's bacchanal. Mina's obliviousness was almost amusing.
Yeah, I don't see how people could say Dracula is the villain, at this point at least. Sure he's probably more of an anti-hero than full on hero, but he's definitely a lot better than the Order of the Dragon.
Well, Dracula is killing innocent people to drink their blood, so yeah, he's still a villain. This show is basically bad guys vs. bad guys, like a mob drama, say, with a few innocent people like Mina and Jonathan getting drawn into the crossfire.
At least Dracula is a sympathetic villain. There's nothing sympathetic about Browning and the Order of the Dragon.
I don't think we're meant to root for the Order at all. I mean, they're evil oil barons who burn entire families alive and are trying to start a war with the Ottoman Empire. I think the whole idea is to make Dracula look good by comparison, even if he does eat the occasional coat check girl . . . .
exactly. the point they are trying to make, at least it seems this way to me, is despite Dracula being a blood sucking monster the human characters are bigger monsters.
Just caught up with all the episodes. This show has gotten better since the pilot. I'm really liking Lady Jane. Can't wait to see what happens when she finds out the truth about Grayson. There will be hell to pay.
I love how wonderfully deceptive this series' promos are. For two weeks NBC has been teasing that Dracula was going to slice open Jonathan's neck publicly. And when we got to that scene... someone (Mina, maybe?) only dreamed it. (Another misleading promo was for two episodes back, where they kept hinting that Dracula's secret was out and he was going to be hunted -- except it turned out that Dracula's just introduced lieutenant was hunted and killed instead.) The flashbacks to how Dracula met Renfield were nice. And I really hoped Dracula made the Order's torturer suffer for what she'd done. The rest of the episode didn't captivate me in quite the same way, because it was set-up for things that will pay off later -- Dracula's revenge on the Order for their attack on Renfield, the Order's recruitment of Harker, etc. I'm not even sure where Lady Jayne's loyalties lie at this this point, and I wonder if Dracula could actually get her to turn on the Order now that she knows that Renfield was tortured.
Yeah, the show is getting better. I am deeply sick of torture scenes as a story device, but Neve McIntosh's monologue to Renfield beforehand was very well-written and well-acted. And there was some excellent direction and camera composition in the Renfield POV shots in the flashback. I've even warmed somewhat to Jessica DeGouw since the first couple of episodes. I like her better when she's smiling and warm than when she's trying to play a dark, hardened character like Huntress on Arrow. She's not one of the standouts of the cast, but then, neither is Jonathan Rhys Meyers. I saw it as a representation of Dracula's own first impulse of what to do when Jonathan tried to cut in. That kind of fakeout shot is often used to represent the mind's-eye view of a character who wants to inflict violence on someone but keeps that urge in check. It's a way of dramatizing that Dracula was within a hair's breadth of actually killing Jonathan for daring to come between him and Mina.
Yes, that was my interpretation too. That was Dracula visualizing killing Jonathan, not Mina. It was the show's way of letting us know what Dracula was really feeling at that moment, and just how close his murderous impulses are to the surface. (DEXTER pulled this trick occasionally, letting us in on the murderous fantasies behind his placid exterior. And so does BATES MOTEL.) I don't think Mina is quite at the point where she would be worrying/fantasizing about "Grayson" killing Jonathan, sexy bedroom dreams notwithstanding.
Unsurprisingly, there's actually a TV Tropes category for this: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IndulgentFantasySegue