Castlevania Season 1 Review

Castlevania Season 1 Review

Medium: Television

Release date: Four episode full season released 7/7/2017

Review date: 6/30/2024

Score: 5/10

“Castlevania” Season 1 is one of the most confusing seasons of television I have ever seen, confusing not in the plot sense, but in the release and, for lack of a better word, content sense. There are four episodes this season running a little over 20 minutes each, and it feels like nothing. At first I wondered if the show was just a 90 minute film cut up and made into episodes, but no - the season is just four 20 minute episodes. The important plot of Season 1 is that humans and the Church kill Dracula's human wife, accusing her of being a witch, which in turn causes him to unleash a blight of demons all over Wallachia, making life miserable for the humans. There is a family of super badass monster killers called the Belmonts that used to be around but they got excommunicated because the Church is bad and evil (get used to hearing that). Trevor Belmont of the Belmonts shows up in some town in Wallachia, saves the Romani stand-in people referred to as the "Speakers," who also know magic and who are getting menaced by the local crowds being riled up by the local Church, goes and lectures the local bishop about how actually it is the Church who are the bad guys for killing Dracula's wife which is leading to the demons and not the Romani stand-in the Speakers, with Trevor eventually going on to team up with the Speaker magician chick Sypha he rescued earlier, where through a series of hilarious hijinks, mishaps, and coincidences, they end up in the underground recovery chamber/crypt of Dracula's son Alucard, who after a fight with Trevor full of banter and witty sparring, joins up with Sypha and Trevor on a quest to defeat Dracula and save the world. The story in its parts is fine, but in total feels like a waste of a season. The “Dracula's wife dead Church bad” stuff gets squared away pretty neatly in episode one, but then the remaining three episodes feel a bit like a slog to get to the conclusion of "vampire hunting power throuple." The season is both short and feels like it wastes time, astonishingly. The show has a very juvenile idea of cool and depth, so in combat Trevor is an unstoppable dervish against all foes except Alucard, who Trevor still manages to fight to the appearance of a draw. He is cool and badass in the most basic and boring of ways. Likewise the criticism against religion, which would be interesting and justifiable based on the story's setup, feels immature and simple, a real basic "the Church who say they are the Good Guys are actually the Bad Guys" kind of thing with not a lot of actual commentary. This can probably be seen best, ironically, in the show's liberal use of Christian imagery, architecture, and language, but refusal in saying "Jesus" or "Catholic," or any other distinct Christian word other than "Church." The show wants to criticize religion, but apparently can't even bring itself to name the actual religion it wants to criticize, a religion that played a key role in the life of the real life person the actual villain of the series is based on - it feels anemic at best. I think the season could have been just the first episode and the last episode, honestly. Don’t get me wrong, the art and animation in those episodes can be nice at times, but it feels like everything in between the series setup and the uniting of the main characters feels superfluous plot wise. I like the show's concept, horror tone, and well animated monster fights with a little bit of fun banter and characters, and what we get this season is an easy enough watch that I'm going to check out Season Two, but I can't help but feel that “Castlevania” Season One, in isolation, is a bit of a disappointment. It feels like a season designed to be watched all in one go, the substance of each individual episode not being as important as the substance of the entire season, only this season didn't have much substance either, so it’s lose-lose. Definitely feels like the classic Netflix show criticism that the first season exists only to set up the much more interesting second season, what with the show's completed party of heroes now being primed to hunt some vampires and demons at the premiere of the, of course, following season. But being easy to watch does not mean good, and I ultimately leave Season One of “Castlevania” a bit disappointed.