Netflix Pick: Dracula

Dracula is known all over the world as the book that made vampires hip. Written by Bram Stoker in 1897, the novel follows the Count as he moves from Transylvania to England.

There have been many iterations of the story, including the 1931 classic starring Bela Lugosi, but this one is different.

Netflix and BBC's Dracula takes place in 1897 (kinda) and features more gore and blood than before. Dracula, played by Claes Bang, starts as an old man but as he feasts he gets younger. Dracula can also pick up skills and information from the people he drinks.

The mini-series is written by Stephen Moffat and Mark Gatiss, who are known for BBC's Sherlock series, tried to make this good. Hopes were high when the trailer was released and while it is very action-packed and has twists and turns, it's not as good as you might hope for.

The first episode was exciting and different. It was interesting to see Harker explore the castle to try to escape. The effects of some of the creatures were lacking. At one point there is a (SPOILER) baby vampire (SPOILER) that looks like a Spirit Halloween decoration. I'm pretty sure I saw it in the store last Halloween. It suffers from what a lot of recent horror movies suffer from, showing the CGI horror for too long.

By the end of episode one you get excited to see where it can go but episode two ends in a way that makes you question if you want to even continue to episode three. For the sake of the review I did, I went on to episode three for you. And the answer is don't do it.

The acting is fantastic and Bang is a great Count Dracula but other than that this version of Dracula tried a little too hard to be cool and sexy and it falls flat by the end of the season. Moffat and Gatiss have a knack for making a great first episode then losing steam by the last one.

Dracula is one of those things you throw on in the background and only look at once in a while. It's hard to watch which is really sad. Maybe season two will be better? We can hope.