Van Helsing - my favorite disaster of a show (open spoilers)

Cafe Society
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Van Helsing - my favorite disaster of a show

OK, so this includes spoilers for the show, but honestly, do you really care? I mean, it’s that Van Helsing show on Syfy.

Van Helsing will always have a special place in my heart. When it began, it was an underdog and kind of hit with me. It was Walking Dead with vampires and a very good imitation. In fact, I would not scoff at you if you told me that the current Van Helsing is better than the current Walking Dead. See, both shows have had major changes, but Walking Dead has become unwatchable while Van Helsing is simply amazing. The behind-the-scenes on Van Helsing must be unbelievable.

Over four seasons, the following has happened:

  1. Kelly Overton(Vanessa Van Helsing) had a baby in real life. OK, so they fabricated a sister named Scarlett Van Helsing who appeared in a chunk of episodes as the primary lead.

  2. Kelly Overton came back, so they killed Scarlett off. I guess that’s the end of that guest spot. I mean, we don’t need TWO Van Helsings, do we? (ha ha, foreshadowing)

  3. Now, in season 4, Kelly Overton has disappeared again. She has not, to my knowledge, had another baby. She just disappeared. What did they do? They fabricated two 20-something DAUGHTERS of her, both who carry the Van Helsing name and gene. They never existed up to this point in the show and WHAM, two daughters! It’s hilarious. WE now have Van Helsing with two Van Helsings who WE NEVER HEARD of before now.

The above sounds like a mess and it is. This show has also:

  1. Killed off or written off every single other lead except for one. Jonathan Scarfe(Axle). He is now the sole thing on the show that has been on it from the beginning.
  2. They built up for years a main villain who they instantly killed. (Sam)
  3. They killed off a main lead for no reason except perhaps not enough money to pay him any more. (Mohammad).
  4. They hyped up Tricia Helfer as Dracula and she has only appeared briefly due to, obviously, some kind of budget limitation
  5. They had Neal McDonough for awhile. Good get, right? Yeah, well he just changed what he looked like because….uh….they ran out of money for Neal McDonough??

So many more disastrous behind the scenes events have happened. It is obvious that this show is desperately trying to keep going with whatever cast they can assemble.

I saw all of this to say this. Van Helsing is still a really great show and in many ways, they are a great example of overcoming adversity to create….well….I won’t say art. But at least they have managed to create a watchable show with almost none of their cast staying put.

If you haven’t seen this show, check it out. It’s an absolute mess and it is like watching a beautiful train wreck. I can’t look away for even a moment.

2

I watch the show on Netflix. I’ve started to become really frustrated by the way that the woman with blood that can turn vampires back into regular people (who, as an added bonus, are immune from being turned back into vampires) doesn’t make use of this power at every opportunity. Coat the edge of your bladed weapons. Find yourself a blowgun and tip every dart with a drop of blood. I vaguely recall her giving some dumbass reason for being hesitant, but she sure spends an enormous amount of time hanging out with people she’s turned back, so I don’t know what the problem is. I think she’s got proof of concept by now. (And yes, I remember her daughter didn’t fare so well, but they went to the trouble of establishing that it wouldn’t work on her because she had been experimented on by the evil doctor, therefore making her the outlier.)

3

I was stuck in a hospital room for way too long, so I watched up to season 2. It started getting a little off-the-rails late in season 2, I thought, then I couldn’t watch it because season 3 had to be broadcast in its entirety before Netflix would offer it. Too much time passed and I lost momentum, and the story. I tried picking it up again, but don’t think I made it 2 whole episodes into season 3. Pity, I enjoyed what they were doing up until the end of s2. Sounds like I’m better off quitting there - I was enjoying what it was too much to appreciate the crazy bouncing around it did afterwards.

I was already unappreciative of the magic blood, and the (lack of) use it was put to, when I stopped watching.

4

Turns out Kelly Overton DID have another baby and that is the deal with both Season 2 and 4. In Season 4(I finished it last night), she never re-appears after she leaves around episode 7 or 8. Even the finale could not get her there.

Have they not heard of filming out of order? I’m stunned they did not have her film 5-10 scenes from late in the season before she left for maternity. Again, this is clearly a show under budget pressure and other logistic pressures.

I really do have a bizarre love for it. I watch it as much to see how they will handle their difficulties behind-the-scenes as I do for the actual show.

Season 1 was clearly the best. Season 3 was back on track because Vanessa returned. Season 2 was bad and Season 4 was almost equally bad.

5

I, too, watched from the beginning and was extremely impressed with the dialogue, acting, and direction—all of which seemed to me to be a big cut above other genre shows. And I suspect a lot of that can be attributed to creator/frequent writer Neil LaBute, who is a well-respected playwright and screenwriter. (In the Company of Men was his first big success, but his name is on a lot of well-regarded projects, and on a few less-successful ones, too.)

So I’ve followed the show with great enjoyment over the years, and had some of the same reactions you mention. I hated to see Mohammad go as his character was quite interesting, I thought: a person who had an inner goodness but had done some very bad things (in connection with his sister), and had also been overly-ready to believe that the deaf guy who he’d allied with was similarly good-at-heart. Then, as you mention, the disposal of Sam was shockingly abrupt; his backstory was also compelling, and many viewers must have expected a more nuanced resolution to his subplot!

But overall the show remains more interesting than typical cable fare. LaBute doesn’t write every episode but it appears that he has influenced the show’s producers to try to hire writers of talent. In a recent episode, for example, I found the aftermath of Scab’s killing—what happened to Ivory—to be genuinely surprising and moving. And yet those were characters I hadn’t really thought all that much about over the years (three for Ivory and four for Scab) they’d been part of the show.

The wikipedia article on the show, by the way, confirms that Syfy is springing for a fifth season, which will be “it” unless some other venue offers to pay for the show.

6

I haven’t been particularly bothered by Kelly Overton being out of commission as often as she has been. I actually think it gives the show a golden opportunity to build out the show’s universe a little more and give us richer secondary characters instead of letting them settle for making the show obsessively about Vanessa. Plus, I don’t think that Overton is SO magnetic that the show is crippled without her. She’s fine, but not much more than that.

7

I deliberately avoided reading this thread until I finished Season 4.

I really really want to like this show more than I actually do. I really liked moments in the past, but I think it’s always suffered from poor writing and inconsistent characters and plot issues. Where did Vanessa learn to kick ass so well? As Snooooopy notes: why isn’t she turning back every friggin vamp she comes across?

To me, Season 4 was a complete train wreck. Very disappointing. As some of you’ve noted, it seems to be a show under huge pressure to cut budgets and milk it to the end.

You replace the lead actress with two unknown kids? Within the first couple episodes you kill off most of the other leads that we’ve invested 3 seasons with? I kept fast forwarding through the backstory of the kids to find out when Vanessa was going to reappear.

So sad when they couldn’t even bring her back for a moment in the finale. They showed double’s back rather than even her face from stock footage. My guess is she’s gone as a lead, if she was still involved with the show, you’d think she’d at least allow them to use some stock footage of her for a face shot.

The other part I’m struggling with this the massive “Woke-ness” of the series. Holy shit, the amount of LGBT relationships is mind blowing. Also, I get the feminist leaning, but killing off every major male character but one is too much. Dracula a bisexual female? Enough already.

I love strong female leads, like in Z-Nation where a strong, smart black woman was the lead (which is similar, but much less serious than Van Helsing), but this became too much in Season 4.

And lastly… the final episode plot stupidity is that, out of nowhere, we find out that the entire rest of the USA is fine?? WTF?? The US government has just been watching as the vamps killed everybody in the PNW? They never thought to send a radio message? No one near the presumed border with the rest of the USA even noticed there was a border? Use satellites to find the vamps and napalm them?

Say what you will about TWD, they never threw that kind of BS at their audience.

8

…nothing has made that more blatantly obvious than what happened in Season 5 :smiley: I mean seriously: holy crap.

I’ve been trying to find out exactly what is happening behind the scenes here but nobody on the internet really seems to care :rofl: But Jack appears to now be the central protagonist (which is fine with me, I thought Jack was awesome and is holding her own), Helfer is (currently) the biggest name on the show now, and the only other cast I recognize from the original show is Bathory and Michaela. (Okay, I actually didn’t recognize Bathory, I didn’t even remember who Bathory was, I had to look her up.)

Everyone else is gone. Timey whimey time jump. And I’m not sure we are going to see them again? All those plot threads left hanging at the end of Season 4 are just going to be left hanging? Resolved by changing the timelines? Because that would be awesome, and so totally on point for this disaster of a show :smiley:

Looking up on IMDB they’ve updated from what they were a couple of weeks ago (where all the season 4 cast were listed as appearing). So the only names listed to 2021 (from the old cast) are Jack, Oracle, Bathory, Michaela, Dracula, but also Vanessa and Axel. And the actor who plays Axel directed the first episode of Season 5 so he is still hanging around :smiley: So its likely Vanessa and Axel will turn up again, even if its just in the finale.

But oh boy. The show has completely reinvented itself. Again.

9

I haven’t started it yet. Tell me! This show is beyond spoilers.

10

…I actually don’t really know what is going on :slight_smile: I’ve watched the first two episodes and am enjoying it for what it is, but if you were to ask me what happened plot wise I would struggle beyond “she’s gone back in time because reasons?”

I seriously spent the first episode with my jaw dropped not quite believing that they committed to both making Jack the lead character (and she’s doing really fine!) and to setting the season (so far) in the past.

It really is a different show: the biggest change for me was always this feeling of dread that death was a possibility for any of the characters. But that dread is gone here. The only character we have any investment here is Jack. (and open spoilers they “killed” her at the start of the second episode…but it didn’t stick and she ended up digging herself out of her grave :rofl: :sweat_smile: ) I’m just sticking around because I have to see how it ends.

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Since a request for information has been made without fear of spoilers I won’t html this:

SPOILERS for Season 5 plot so far: Vanessa (or actually just her back, so undoubtedly a double) magically sends Jack back in time to the origin point of Dracula, who was originally a very nice lady married to Lord Kim Coates (whose overacting is not nearly as entertaining as I suspect he thinks it is).

So Jack kills the nice lady. But Michaela with her…dark arts? vampirish arts? something…brought the nice lady back to life, but not really life because her heart doesn’t beat or anything, but she’s not a vampire. Just a nice lady without a pulse whose husband locks her up in a tower.

So Michaela gets her out with no dramatic struggle of any kind, puts her in the middle of a big pentagram, and sends The Dark One into the nice lady’s body. And now she’s Dracula (the nice lady played by Tricia Helfer, not Michaela).

And that brings us up to date.

…I’m also annoyed by the show, which I really liked in season 1 and for a couple of seasons more. But as noted, this is being done on a shoestring budget. No actors from previous seasons except those willing to work for minimum wage (one assumes).

As for the ‘everybody’s gay’ aspect of the season 4 and season 5 storytelling: I’d guess offhand that the showrunners are trying to pick up viewers from another low-budget fantasy/sci-fi series that ended about the time the VH season 4 was being planned: Orphan Black. That show had a massive gay fanbase, by many accounts, and the VH folks would probably like to attract them.

12

…open spoilers episode 4.

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And we are back to the future and most of our regulars are back, and its clear they are going to close out storylines now with the story of a couple of characters looking like its ended. I wish they had made it clearer earlier that the entire season wasn’t going to be set back in time (of course in hindsight that should have been obvious) and I probably would have enjoyed it more. But it was great to see Axel and Julius and Doc again.

The start credits now lists the present-day cast with Jack nowhere to be seen. Its the first time I’ve seen a show where the cast list completely (except for a couple of names) between episodes in the same season.

No sign of Vanessa: but I’m pretty sure we will get a cameo in the final episode.

13

I agree. And as you say, they seem to be closing out storylines for characters as they go (as they did with Flesh, last season).

It appears we may have seen the last of Doc, as they gave her a happy ending.

Will we see some elaboration on the implication made in episode 3, that the baby born to the Tricia Helfer character who became Dracula, is the first Van Helsing? If so, do the Van Helsings have unusual abilities because the woman chosen to become Dracula had unusual abilities (if she did?) And if Dracula is the first vampire due to being possessed by “The Dark One,” why is that? What is TDO and why does being possessed by TDO turn a person into a vampire, instead of into a demon or some other supernatural entity?

It’s all rather muddy, and I wish they’d make a pass at offering an explanation. But in any case, I’m glad to see Axel and Julius again.

14

…I’ve got a list of television characters who I absolutely HATED when they started on a show but by the end of it turned into one of my absolute favourites. Sawyer from Lost was one of them, Deke from Agents of SHIELD another. And Julius fits the bill here. I never liked him from the start, and when they turned him I kinda rolled my eyes and hoped the character would die. But gosh: I just think he is AWESOME now :smiley: And I loved Axel from the start: so having those two back together just feels right.

15

Julius being a nice guy once he is no longer a vampire is a great reveal. Also great for the actor who often plays tough bad guys.

16

I agree with both of you.

This may be Aleks Paunovic’s greatest role, so far: he’s gotten to be Evil, Kind, and also the Comic Relief (and has done them all well). The character as written is a nice departure from the usual eyebrow-arching Big Bad (in the first season) or generic Team Member (in later seasons). And that’s in line with a lot of what we saw in the first couple of seasons of this show: some fresh takes on often-tired tropes.

I have some hope that the showrunners will have put some solid effort into writing these characters’ final words and actions. Certainly there’s been time for such effort.

17

I love it for one HUGE reason: Christopher Heyerdahl. I always love him, but I love him double hard in this.

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It WAS a great role for him, and he made the most of it.

All the characters and the writing for them in the first season (and a bit later) were top-drawer, I thought. There was a level of originality, particularly in the Sam-and-Mohamad storylines, that we don’t see much on basic cable.

19

I just got finished with the show. I thought it was, you know, good enough. I did like how, in later seasons, the Van Helsings made a point of using their bites in the offense-minded manner I always hoped they would. I guess somebody decided that a spinoff centered on former evil vampire Ivory might be a promising idea, given how they rolled out the red carpet for a “lone warrior roams the world” kind of deal for her during the last moments of the series finale. I haven’t noticed anything happening on that front, though.

20

That could be a successful show, given the Van Helsing-production-team history of keeping budgets very, very low.

I’m on record as being a fan of VH, though more so the first couple of seasons (when the character interactions were emphasized over the ‘supernatural history’ aspect of the show). I’d certainly give a spin-off a try.