Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 52%
Directed By: Steve Shill
Written By: Cole Haddon
Starring: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jessica De Gouw, Thomas Kretschmann and Nonso Anozie
Network: NBC

Synopsis:It’s the late 19th century, and the mysterious Dracula has arrived in London, posing as an American entrepreneur who wants to bring modern science to Victorian society. He’s especially interested in the new technology of electricity, which promises to brighten the night – useful for someone who avoids the sun. But he has another reason for his travels: he hopes to take revenge on those who cursed him with immortality centuries earlier. Everything seems to be going according to plan… until he becomes infatuated with a woman who appears to be a reincarnation of his dead wife. (Source)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1jVcmDH43Y
The Good:
One word sums up NBC’s new DRACULA series and that word is: Fuckery. Everything about this show just screams fuckery and what is great about DRACULA is that it seems to know that it is a nonstop fuckery train and accepts it. From the nonsense of Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Dracula masquerading as an American business man complete with hilariously awful accent to Dracula’s master plan of providing free energy to the world as a means of crippling the finances of his enemies who rely on oil to make all of their money to flipping the whole Dracula/Van helping dynamic on its head by making the two men partners instead of mortal enemies. It is just a wonderful mess of a show.
and Rhys-Meyers wobbly American accent aside, he does a nice job as Dracula. he gets all the beats of the character right from the longing for his lost true love to his thrust for blood. and the chemistry between him and Nonso Anozie’s Renfield is one of the highlights of the show. This Renfield is no bug eating, slovenly maniacal man-servant. Instead he is an erudite “Guy Friday” who serves as a sounding board and confidant far more than I have ever seen the character in all the incarnations of Dracula I have read/watched.
But the absolute best thing about this show is Victoria Smurfit as Lady Jane one of the members of the Order of the Dragon who it turns out are sworn enemies of a certain blood drinker. Lady Jane is a regular old haughty society maven by day but by night she is a butt-kicking vampire hunter complete with her own dojo where she practices kung-fu while teasing a vampire chick she has caged up down there. She also has the hots for Dracula despite who he is and even went so far as to let him finger bang her at the opera. How shocking!!! Lady Jane is like a turn of the century version of Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Bad:
The two actors playing Mina Murray and Jonathan Harker are so dishpan dull. I really don’t expect much from these two character because they are usually the weakest links in every retelling of the Dracula lore but in the hands of Jessica De Gouw and Oliver Jackson-Cohen these reliably bland characters reach unseen depths of blandness.

The Ugly:
That overly slow motion reliant rooftop fight done in full Matrix choreography style was like having a cold bucket of water thrown in your face while you slept. It came out of nowhere and made not a lick of sense.

Final Verdict: An over-the-top and wholly ridiculous redux of the venerable Dracula tale that embraces all of the silliness that is put onscreen with great fervor but avoids descending into the realm of camp. As a viewer one can only smile appreciatively and hope that the rest of the series has as much of this go for broke spirit as the pilot has shown.
And at the very least the show has seen fit to get the teeth right on the vampires so that they don’t end up looking silly (and yes that is a shot at TRUE BLOOD).

Rating: B