Your Daily Dracula – Julian Bleach, Heirs of the Night (2019-20)

Your Daily Dracula – Julian Bleach, Heirs of the Night (2019-20)

Is Julian Bleach the only actor to have played Dracula and Davros?  Possibly.  His take on the Count is fairly standard ‘charismatic antagonist’ stuff – after a spell as a Stoker-like white-haired old git, he rejuvenates halfway through season one into someone who looks and sounds like they could be fronting a goth metal band … long hair top hat, polished nails, stubble, occasional fangs, yellow contacts, raspy voice.  He’s okay, but this show isn’t about the adult characters any more than Dracula: The Series was.

Based on Die Erben der Nacht, a German YA novel by Ulrike Schweikert, this multi-national production (Norway, Germany, Belgium, Latvia, etc – created by Swede Maria von Heland and Dutch Diederick Van Rooijen) feels like thrown-together elements of Harry Potter, Twilight and Vampire: The Masquerade.  An opening narration sets out a backstory so complex it’s handy to have the reminder every episode … ages ago, Dracula wasn’t so bad but the tragic loss of his wife Elizabetha (Monic Hendrickx) prompted him to make a deal with the Devil.  At the same time, his tears and Elizabetha’s blood melded to form thirteen rubies which granted specific super-powers (mind-reading, weather control, command of beasts, invisibility, etc) to the thirteen vampire clans (Dracas, Lycana, Nosferas, etc) who were whittled down to six in lengthy wars.  These are basically Marvel’s infinity gems and collecting the set entitles the winner to untie a magic knot in a hidden vault which will either turn all humankind into vampire minions or turn all vampires human again depending on how the untier feels at the time.

Meanwhile, the heirs – vampire teens – of all the clans have to go to school together on a ship, so there’s time for rivalry, friendship, betrayal, foul-up, going against elders’ wishes, etc.  Alisa von Vamalia (Anastasia Martin) is ‘the chosen one’, picked to head up the good guys’ untying team (unlike most vampires, she has a beating heart) – but as expected her rise to superheroinedom isn’t easy.  Besides having the fate of the world resting on her, she can’t choose between blond vampire prince Lars (Ulrik William Graesli) or dark human son-of-a-vampire-hunter Nicu (Lance West), who both fall for her.  Alisa’s best friend Ivy (Aisling Sharkey) is only posing as an heir but is really a shadow (you’ll need to take notes to keep up) and is bullied by Lars’ cousins Inger (Ines Hoysaeter Asserson) and Fanny (Mina Dale – whose parents presumably hoped she be on a vampire show eventually).  Inger actually has a crush on Ivy, providing another teen romance element – and Ivy’s life as best friend/sidekick is complicated when she is gifted with powers of prophecy, some mystic tattoos and control over plants which evoke another mixed-up redhead called Ivy from DC Comics.  Oh, and the clan elders are all still at each other’s throats – only allying because of the threat of Dracula, though at least one of them is secretly on his team.

Nicu’s mother (Christina Chong) is high up in ‘les masques rouges’, a fanatic vampire-hating group, but gets turned into a vampire for series two, becoming Dracula’s shadow (mind-controlled get).  Turning up late in Abraham Van Helsing (Benja Bruijning), also a half-human/half-vampire and longtime Dracula nemesis – which doesn’t mean he’s not a treacherous troublemaker out to get the rubies for himself and gain ultimate power bwah hah hah.  The series went out in the UK on CBBC and is resolutely non-scary and non-bloody – lots of hissing and fang-baring, relatively few casualties.  It’s a derivative telenovela-type show, but I burned through both series quite quickly because the episodes are all packed with incident and detail.  It has nice locations, especially a stretch when we visit the home of the Norwegian Dracas clan and the sun-phobic vampires are dazzled by the Aurora Borealis.