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I had heard quite a bit of negativity regarding this show back before I watched Season 1, but it came highly recommended from @deblovesbeccy and I was curious about the show myself, so I checked it out. It definitely started differently to how I was expecting, and there were characters I found annoying (or downright hated), but I still managed to quite enjoy the first season.
So Season 2 started off where we left off, with Rebecca revealing to Vanessa that her daughter, Dylan, was alive...well, technically she was a vampire.
What really bummed me out was that Vanessa burned Rebecca’s pretty face (which she bragged about later), and then, just when I was wondering if that was the end of Rebecca, she managed to crawl her way to Dmitri, only to get stabbed in the back by Antonasia –
that was apparently the end of Rebecca...and what a disappointing end for her it was. I enjoyed her so much more than all the other vampires. She was not only hot, but was actually interesting (unlike Dmitri – whose name seems to be missing an ‘i’, and who I found dull as dishwater. Both him and his accent grated and I wished we could’ve kept Rebecca and ditched him instead).
So then I thought, “Well, at least we’ve got Antonasia as our resident ‘hot female vamp'."...
But then
she got offed by the mysterious masked vampire hunter. So then I just thought “WHY are you killing all the attractive female vampires and leaving us with these godawful male vamps, show?!”
And, yes, I realise it might sound a bit ‘shallow’ to be showing concern over the lack of ‘attractive’ female characters – but, hey, sometimes they’re what keeps you watching/gets you through a show when everything else gets rather dull or annoying.
Thankfully, we still had Kelly Overton/Vanessa and her abs – which are nothing to be sneezed at.
And the masked vampire killer wound up being Missy Peregrym...so that helped too. Also, her character (Scarlett) proved to be quite adept at kicking butt. She actually kicked a LOT of butt, plus she was a bit more ‘wisecracking’ than Vanessa. She got quite a few amusing lines/moments and pointed out things that probably audience members were thinking (I know she mentioned some stuff
I’d thought about).
What was weird was how she almost seemed to become the show’s new ‘lead’, as Vanessa was oddly missing from a few episodes.
It’s only after having finished Season 2 and looking up the reason for her absence that I had my suspicions confirmed – Kelly Overton was pregnant this season. I figured that must’ve been the case, as I couldn’t recall any other show suddenly ditching their lead for a few episodes in a row and essentially ‘replacing’ them with a guest star (or, in Missy’s case, ‘Special Guest Star’ – as she was credited). I may be one of the few who actually
likes Vanessa and has no problem with Kelly Overton’s portrayal of her, so therefore I missed her when she wasn’t in episodes (and WHY did they include her name in the credits of episodes she wasn’t even in? That was just false advertising. It’s my belief that if a ‘regular’ in a show isn’t actually in an episode, then their name shouldn’t appear. The exception to the rule is if there’s some opening credits sequence to a show. They’re not likely going to change that back and forth. But
Van Helsing doesn’t have that. You get a ‘teaser’, then usually whatever sound/noise/voice is going when the title card comes up, you still hear it for the amount of time that the title card is displayed…which is not exactly a ‘short’ amount of time either. It seems to linger).
Anyway, getting back on topic...I
like Vanessa. I think she kicks butt and I like that she’s not really trying to be some ‘noble hero’. She’s killing vamps who get in her way and keep her from her goals.
Her main goal, obviously, was to get Dylan back. It should’ve been obvious that whatever time they got to spend ‘happy’ wouldn’t last…which, sure enough, turned out to be the case. They got a bit of a happy moment throwing snowballs with Julius (who, by the way, I was not expecting to turn into a human again and become one of the more ‘likeable’ human characters on the show. That was a nice surprise), then Dylan burned up in the sun and turned to ash. Vanessa’s anguish was certainly palpable, especially when she let loose with that primal scream everyone else felt. Speaking of screaming – there seemed to be a lot of that on this show. Vampires, humans, etc – almost every episode there seemed to be yelling/screaming and I personally got a bit sick of it after a while (especially from the vamps).
I was happy to see Susan return (albeit briefly and as a hallucination). I thought Vanessa worked best when she was with her in Season 1.
It’s a shame the show offed her. I did like the small amount of time we got to spend with Vanessa as she and Axel reunited. I’m sure everyone was hating her for not turning him back, but given what had just happened to Dylan, her hesitation to turn Axel back (only for him to die) was understandable. However, in the end she
did turn him back and after a brief period of thinking it hadn’t worked (where they buried him and everything), he came back.
I was glad to see Axel returned to normal and interacting with Vanessa again (his spit-take when learning of Scarlett being Vanessa’s sister was a particularly good/funny moment, I thought). Meanwhile, the opposite of ‘good’/’interesting’ was all the time wasted on Vamp Axel and Doc wandering around, him needing to feed, her coming close to being fed on but
not actually ending up so – every time I thought I was going to be rid of her annoying presence, she lingered on. I grew to hate her character in Season 1 because she proved selfish and all about self-preservation over those who helped her. She left Axel to die/become a vamp – I didn’t blame him for his anger towards her (or anyone else’s, for that matter). She claimed to be trying to mend her ways, but she persisted in being annoying. Hell, even the kid – Callie – was less annoying than her (and usually I hate kid character sin shows/movies). The fact that Doc talked down to Callie, who was actually fairly bright, showed just how much of a jerk she was. And I didn’t even care that we learned her name. It mattered nothing to me. I was glad to see Axel acting hostile towards her in the last couple of episodes, as I was right there with him (and whoever I was who asked her how she hadn’t been bitten yet – the answer? Plot armour. The writers obviously want her alive, so remains so...despite the fact she should’ve died many times over by now). She is what keeps me from fully enjoying the show. As long as she’s around, I’ll keep spending every episode hoping she’ll get offed.
Meanwhile, other characters in the show weren’t so bad. Mohamad could be annoying at times and make some bad choices, but he was at least more likeable than Doc. I actually liked the girl he interacted with in the episode which focused on him towards the end of the season (her name was Cara)...but, of course, she
died - which was disappointing. Christopher Heyerdahl is someone I’ve seen in a few things, but I mainly remember him as the most effective version of the demon Alistair on
Supernatural. He brings the creepy, that’s for sure. And his character of Sam here certainly utilized the actor’s ability to perform creepy well, but eventually it got a bit old and rather annoying. I could only take so much of his voice and way of speaking when playing Vamp Sam. His scenes just became mainly about him torturing poor people and I wanted him offed. His last episode he hanged himself and Mohamad was vamped (though somehow I doubt that’s the end of either of them).
The fact that I didn’t even know the character of Flesh was called ‘Flesh’ (good on whoever wondered WTF kind of name that was in one of the last episodes this season, as I totally agreed) shows I never really cared for his character. Nor did I care about ‘Lucky’, the woman he got involved with (btw, Lucky is a name befitting a dog, not a person. Speaking of, I was SO worried for that dog that was introduced in one of the last episodes this season). I wasn’t sad to see the end of them. I'm hoping it is indeed the end. WHY can’t this show off the characters I want to see gone and keep the ones I actually
like?? Hell, I would’ve liked to see the character of Jesse become a main part of the gang. She was preferable to quite a few other characters (plus, at least she sent out maps to help people find their way. She was actually nice and helpful, unlike certain others). Plus, Jessie Fraser...
Thankfully, Dmitri met his end in the season’s last episode, it appeared. Head-crushingly gruesome (very fitting). It was also very odd to have a season final of a show that featured its lead as nothing but a mere cameo at the end, though Vanessa getting bitten by the Elder and the red eyes raises questions for next season.
I hope we get a lot more Vanessa kicking butt and sisterly scenes between her and Scarlett in Season 3.
Anyway, like with last season, this one felt a bit ‘uneven’ at times, but there’s still enough to enjoy and keep me watching.