After watching episode one ("Help Me") of Van Helsing during its first season
on SYFY last year, I felt about as much for the series as I did for the long
defunct Painkiller
Jane.
I mean, who can really enjoy a series where the main character, Jane Vasco,
could be beaten, shot, and broken into bits, and then heal herself as if
nothing ever happened. I found it to be
a terrible show, and thankfully, Painkiller Jane lasted only one season.
However, with episode one of Van Helsing, I thought,
okay, here is another series where the female protagonist is so vicious that
the story does not appear to have any connection to its origin story of
Dracula, nor that of the character of Abram Van Helsing. The latter supposedly is
Vanessa Van Helsing great-great-grandfather in this series.
In truth, I liked the beginning of "Help
Me", but it was the battle scene that nearly kept me from watching the
entire first season. After the vampires had stormed a government research facility,
Vanessa is awaken after a three-year death-like sleep. She is deemed neither
dead nor alive. In the in suing battle her desperation to survive is so intent
that she viciously bites a vampire that is attempting to bite her. That bite
turn me off like a candle suddenly blown out in a cold wintry wind. After watching that I vowed not the watch any
more of the series.
I tried to be true to that vow, but like my many
failed new year resolutions, there were factors about the series that stayed
with me. The main one was that the vampire that Vanessa bit somehow reversed
back into a human. This was a new and unexpected twist in the vampire lore that
stayed with me, and this summer I sat down and streamed the entire first season
of the series.
It was a good decision. By the end of season one, I
was hooked, and like most fans of the series I am now wondering how Vanessa is
going to deal with her vampire daughter.
This is where we viewers are now. At the start of season two of Van Helsing,
which is premièring tonight at 9/8c on SYFY, will Vanessa regain her lost
daughter? Will she be able to turn Dylan into a human again? Just how strong is
Dylan's bond with the vampires? What is
Dylan's relationship with Dmitri, the leader of the vampires?
Moreover, the main question is why is Vanessa able
to reverse the vampires back into humans? Did great, great grandpa, Van
Helsing, as a scientist, do something horrendous to enhance his heirs, and thus
ensure the safety of humanity?
It is for this ability alone the Vanessa is number
one on the vampires kill list. They see her as a tremendous threat to their
centauries old way of life or non-life,
and their fear of her runs unbound.
Created by Neil LaBute
Starring
Kelly Overton
Jonathan Scarfe
Christopher Heyerdahl
David Cubitt
Vincent Gale
Rukiya Bernard
Trezzo Mahoro
Tim Guinee