Castlevania (Netflix series)

[kitsunebi]

Hmm...Hoping this is decent.  I see Warren Ellis is involved as writer.  If you don't know who he is, you obviously don't read comics.

 

[AgentsGamePower]

Look decent. The NES intro and it looks like Belmont there with the whip, that gives me hope. I was afraid this show would be based off the last few third person Castlevania games which I really didn't play much of because, well, they were not Castlevania.

[kitsunebi]

The NES intro is recycled from a Netflix Hack Day event from a couple of years ago. 

 

 

As for the series, again, the only thing that makes me optimistic is Warren Ellis.  He can sometimes do hack work, but when he's on point, he's an excellent writer.

This isn't the first time he worked on Castlevania, either.  He worked on a script to an animated adaptation of Castlevania III back in 2007.  There's an interesting article about it here:

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/02/09/first-time-warren-ellis-wrote-castlevania-animation-ten-years-ago/

Though the project ultimately went unproduced, reading this article (essentially a reprint of a long article Ellis himself wrote about his involvement), will give you a good idea of what you might be able to expect from his Netflix series, as well.

[kitsunebi]

I just watched all 4 episodes of the first season of Castlevania.  And !!!  It was actually good!

The 4 episodes essentially play out like a single movie, the first part in a larger story. I'm not going to discuss the plot or anything because spoilers suck, but I will say that I'm glad the series has already been renewed for a second season (and the second season will be twice as long at 8 episodes.)

[te72]

We watched the whole 4 episodes on accident one night. I mentioned to Megan, "hey, mind if we watch this tonight?" to which she sighed, and said, "ugh, sure, I guess."

 

She ended up rather enjoying it, even laughing on more than a few occasions. The episodes are short, the show has good pacing, and introduces the world and characters nicely. Very easy to watch it all in one sitting, even if like us, you do so on accident. Reminds me of when I was getting into anime in the late 90's. Fans of Vampire Hunter D and Hellsing won't be disappointed. I'll leave it at that, up to you to watch it.

 

Any idea on when the second season will be available?

[kitsunebi]

Give it time.  The first season just premiered 3 weeks ago.

It really is more like a movie than a "season," so I think all in one sitting is the correct way to watch.

[te72]

I'm not a patient TV consumer. I actually prefer to wait until a show has finished to even start watching. I can only imagine what folks that started with season 1 of Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones had to go through, waiting a year between new episodes... Wait, no, I know what it is like, have been waiting for Walking Dead every year for 6 years now... ugh.

 

Frankly, I lose interest.

[kitsunebi]

4 minutes ago, te72 said:

I'm not a patient TV consumer. I actually prefer to wait until a show has finished to even start watching. I can only imagine what folks that started with season 1 of Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones had to go through, waiting a year between new episodes... Wait, no, I know what it is like, have been waiting for Walking Dead every year for 6 years now... ugh.

 

Frankly, I lose interest.

I think the world will come around soon enough.  Places like Netflix are already producing top quality shows where the entire season is available from day one.  The only reason to stretch it out to one episode per week is to try to capitalize profits from advertising revenue.  As more and more people watch programs via streaming services as opposed to network broadcasting, things will change.

[RetroDefense]

I'm glad it turned out so well.  Yeah, this first season played out more like an OVA rather than something episodic.  Didn't make it any less entertaining though - definitely recommended for Castlevania fans.

 

[te72]

I don't mean one episode per week, I actually don't mind that so much. Just not a fan of not being able to watch a show at my own pace. I know, logistics and all makes for the situation we have with TV now, but being able to watch an entire show, start to finish on your schedule... it's pretty awesome.

 

The good news is, there are a LOT of really good series to watch in a compressed time frame, and seemingly more come out every year. Best example of a show best watched quickly? The X-Files. It makes next to no sense, long term, when you watch it for YEARS. Now, take the same show, and watch it over the course of a few months... and suddenly, it's really a solid show.