Castlevania (TV series)

"Characters’ goals can turn with little more incentive than a twist of dialogue. Trevor is a selfish man and reluctant hero weighed down by his family’s legacy, at least until an old man tells him enough times that he needs to protect people from Dracula’s demons. The show is also full of people getting brutally dismembered, bleeding and vomiting. It never justifies these graphic depictions the way a show like “Game of Thrones”, might use a viscerally violent scene to create a sense of danger. Instead, the violence feels intentionally flashy and sleek."

"Impressively animated fight scenes, brutal violence, and vampiric political intrigue accost monster-hunting trio Trevor, Sypha, and Adrian in Netflix’s take on Konami’s vampire and monster-laden “Castlevania” series."

"The gruesome dirge, where an army of vampire and demon soldiers routinely eviscerate humans with gleeful fervor in the name of Dracula’s sorrow-fueled vendetta against the entire race, is oddly hopeful and tender. For what feels like the first time in the history of “Castlevania,” you want to root for the lord of all vampires. They took his love away, you see, and so the whole of humanity must pay."

"“I think Warren has an instinct for creating that human dimension for a character that makes you want to spend time with them even if what they ultimately do is not something that you’re supportive of,” said Seibert, which is quite obvious here – Dracula commands his armies to kill every human on sight, terrorizing them nightly to punish the entire race for the actions of a select few, murdering women and children in the process. With Dracula’s crusade to eliminate the whole of humanity, shades of the character’s villainous history do indeed shine through. But we’re also shown the immense pain and immeasurable bleakness that he must feel, knowing he’s doomed to an eternity without, quite possibly, the only one he’s ever loved at his side."

"Where the show falters isn’t in the ideas themselves, but how they are executed. For instance the show spends the first episode making Dracula into sympathetic character as opposed to cartoonish vil-lain with no real motivation beyond an unjustified drive to be evil. And yet, the cartoonish villain role still materializes, when it becomes apparent that the season’s true antagonist is the Church. The clergy not only invoke Dracula’s wrath by burning his wife to death as a witch, but then spend the next three episodes actively impeding anyone who might stop Dracula — for no other reason a vague notion of controlling the masses."

"As alluded to in the first two seasons and explicitly shown in the third season, the humans are analogous to animals in the eyes of vampires. There is commentary to be explored about Hector seen as an animal and his treatment being based upon what type of animal he represents: livestock, a beast of burden or a pet. It is refreshing to see men sexually dominated in the same serious way that women have been on screen. Though I am not condoning such actions in real life, conveying gender equality — even in the darkest ways in which film and television do — is important to elicit reactions from the viewer."