Every TV season, networks bring out a new crop of shows, in hopes that they'll be the next biggest hit. Pilot Talk is devoted to figuring out whether these shows are worth your time based on the first episode.
Dracula (NBC, Fridays at 10:00 PM)
For a show called Dracula, this one spends much of its first half being light on, well, vampires. Although there's a bit more of what you'd expect in the second half, this show seems like it's much more concerned with being a period drama, which would be completely fine if that period drama wasn't so dull. Of all the spins to put on Dracula, making it about petroleum is an odd choice. Looking at the pilot, you can't help but think the show doesn't really know what it wants to be. It's caught between being a refined historical tale and tapping into its trashier impulses. When it indulges in the latter is where Dracula truly shines, and there some sequences in the middle of the episode that are creepy, confident, and backed by a surprisingly excellent score. Unfortunately, there are far too few of these kinds of scenes, and the rest is just rather bland. Apparently, Dracula was awoken from his eternal slumber to put us in one.
Grade: C+
Well folks, that's the end of Pilot Talk 2013. There's still Almost Human, but Fox decided to start that one so late that I might not even review it at all. Overall, this has been an experience that was educational (in that it taught me a bit more about what I like and don't like in my television shows) and excruciating (because there were some real stinkers). I'd like to say I'm going to do this again next fall, but this might've been my last opportunity to do something like this, seeing as next year I'll be out of college and probably won't have as much time on my hands. At the very least, I'll be reviewing the midseason pilots, so that's something. Until then, let's take a look at the breakdown of grades that I gave:
A's: 1
B's: 9
C's: 8
D's: 3
F's: 2
Good show
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