Sunday, July 9, 2017

TV Review: Castlevania

                             The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me

Hello Enthusiasts,

Today I am going to be reviewing the new Netflix animated series, Castlevania. As always, there will be Spoilers Below. 

This show follows Trevor Belmont, the last member of the Belmont family. The Belmonts, by this point, had been excommunicated from the church and are generally disliked across the land due to their dealings with the supernatural. And when Dracula unleashes an army of demons on the country for revenge on the people who burned his wife at the stake, many blame those who are not in good favor with the church (the irony being that the church burned his wife for "witchcraft"). Now, Trevor Belmont will need to work to destroy Dracula and stop the terror being unleashed on the people.

So the show has several things going for it. I really liked the animation, it was fast and set a perfect atmosphere for this type of show. The use of shadows is flawless and it does not shy away from gore at all. The designs of the demons are simple, but they are done well. A lot of the designs and concepts are taken directly from the NES game of the same name, including Dracula's castle. Basically, this show knocks it out of the park when it comes to the animation, themes, and designs. The dialogue can be a little repetitive as a lot of people say the same things to Trevor and he usually has the same responses, but never feels forced.

Where the show ends up lacking is its pacing and length. We don't really meet Trevor until the second episode, we are fully introduced to both of his companions in the fight against Dracula in the forth episode, and season one is only four episoded long. It literally ends with Trevor's second companion (not giving that away here) agreeing to join him in his fight. And it's not like each episode is long like a season of Sherlock or something, this is a four episode season where each episode is 30 minutes in length. I wasn't genuinely interested until episode three, so I essentially got two episodes of a good show here. Having the first two episodes be a slow build up is fine if there are fifteen or twenty episodes, but not when you're starting out with just four.

Overall, I would say this show is worth your time to watch, especially consodering that you'll only need to invest two hours to finish the season. Luckily this show has been given the greenlight for a scond season, because I like where it was going. If you haven't seen it when the new season is close to release, maybe wait until that's out to binge the whole thing, but I am glad I saw what little there is now.

I give Netflix's Castlevania a 7.5 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast

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