This review may contain spoilers
Bored and Disappointed
I had no expectations going into this show. That being said, what the hell happened?
First off, the little things. The speed effects & CGI were bad, and the OST was way too loud at times. Also, was that last scene filmed in front of a green screen?
The first couple of episodes were alright, but by episode 5, I found myself doomscrolling while the show played in the background, and I started watching it at x2 speed just to get through it.
I lost count of the number of times I wanted to DNF this series, but I didn't because of Neo. Then they kill him unnecessarily. They could have saved him if they wanted to. Why was Mark trying to heal him while he was still impaled? If it was too late for healing once you pulled him off, turn him. And you can try to argue that they needed permission because they can't die afterward—bullshit. 1. I'm sure Tonkla would have chosen to live & 2. I'm sure taking their head off or piercing the heart, even without having "golden blood," would kill them. I thought about dropping the show after he was killed by Nakan (whom I was hoping to see him have a romance with), but at that point, there were only 3 episodes left, so I pushed through it.
The plot was also way too predictable. I should not have known that Thara was after Golden Bloods for her own personal gain, episode 1. That twist doesn't even get revealed until episode 10. Was anyone really surprised by this? Nakan wanting to take her down because she killed someone he loved was also not a surprise at all. The biggest surprise was that they actually killed Tonkla because he was the only good character in the whole show, and killing him off was just a stupid decision. They should have just gone with a enemies to lovers throp and at least tried to save their sinking ship a little instead of letting it capsize.
The world-building was very surface-level and made everything feel fake. The lore of vampires is very properly explained, but we have no idea what normal vampire abilities are because they are all treated as expendable. Not even the important ones are that impressive tbh. The Mortal Instruments did a better job building up its vampire world in its first book, and they are barely a part of it. To me, this was just lazy writing. Every in the fantasy genre needs rules; this series took the pre-established rules we know and threw them out the window and replaced them with nothing. That didn't make the vampires feel powerful and impossible to kill; it just left me as a viewer feeling like no one wanted to put any effort into building the world or writing it into the script, so they just gave us nothing.
I've liked Gawin in the few things I've seen him in, but with this series, I didn't care for it. I believe that is largely down to the directions he was given and the script giving him very little to work with.
Besides Tonkla, because he was just a good self-sacrificing person, I didn't care about any of the characters, not even Dome, and I love AJ. I spent more time questioning Tong's IQ and common sense than I should have had to, and everyone else was just uninteresting. Mark was interesting as he slowly became more human, but not enough to draw any interest in me. I do wonder why Thara was so inhuman since she's drained multiple Golden Bloods. Wouldn't that have made her more human and feel some kind of guilt? Did something happen? Is it because of how old she is? How old is she really? Who was the first vampire, and how did it happen? These small things could have built the world up a little, but too little, too late.
NC scenes were probably the best part of the series, but it wasn't enough to save the series. No matter how many they try to shove in there in the end. It felt like there was one or two in every episode after they "did it" for the first time.
Lastly, the sleeping beauty moment in the last episode? Please never do that again. Or if you are going to, make it make sense and don't have ass it.
First off, the little things. The speed effects & CGI were bad, and the OST was way too loud at times. Also, was that last scene filmed in front of a green screen?
The first couple of episodes were alright, but by episode 5, I found myself doomscrolling while the show played in the background, and I started watching it at x2 speed just to get through it.
I lost count of the number of times I wanted to DNF this series, but I didn't because of Neo. Then they kill him unnecessarily. They could have saved him if they wanted to. Why was Mark trying to heal him while he was still impaled? If it was too late for healing once you pulled him off, turn him. And you can try to argue that they needed permission because they can't die afterward—bullshit. 1. I'm sure Tonkla would have chosen to live & 2. I'm sure taking their head off or piercing the heart, even without having "golden blood," would kill them. I thought about dropping the show after he was killed by Nakan (whom I was hoping to see him have a romance with), but at that point, there were only 3 episodes left, so I pushed through it.
The plot was also way too predictable. I should not have known that Thara was after Golden Bloods for her own personal gain, episode 1. That twist doesn't even get revealed until episode 10. Was anyone really surprised by this? Nakan wanting to take her down because she killed someone he loved was also not a surprise at all. The biggest surprise was that they actually killed Tonkla because he was the only good character in the whole show, and killing him off was just a stupid decision. They should have just gone with a enemies to lovers throp and at least tried to save their sinking ship a little instead of letting it capsize.
The world-building was very surface-level and made everything feel fake. The lore of vampires is very properly explained, but we have no idea what normal vampire abilities are because they are all treated as expendable. Not even the important ones are that impressive tbh. The Mortal Instruments did a better job building up its vampire world in its first book, and they are barely a part of it. To me, this was just lazy writing. Every in the fantasy genre needs rules; this series took the pre-established rules we know and threw them out the window and replaced them with nothing. That didn't make the vampires feel powerful and impossible to kill; it just left me as a viewer feeling like no one wanted to put any effort into building the world or writing it into the script, so they just gave us nothing.
I've liked Gawin in the few things I've seen him in, but with this series, I didn't care for it. I believe that is largely down to the directions he was given and the script giving him very little to work with.
Besides Tonkla, because he was just a good self-sacrificing person, I didn't care about any of the characters, not even Dome, and I love AJ. I spent more time questioning Tong's IQ and common sense than I should have had to, and everyone else was just uninteresting. Mark was interesting as he slowly became more human, but not enough to draw any interest in me. I do wonder why Thara was so inhuman since she's drained multiple Golden Bloods. Wouldn't that have made her more human and feel some kind of guilt? Did something happen? Is it because of how old she is? How old is she really? Who was the first vampire, and how did it happen? These small things could have built the world up a little, but too little, too late.
NC scenes were probably the best part of the series, but it wasn't enough to save the series. No matter how many they try to shove in there in the end. It felt like there was one or two in every episode after they "did it" for the first time.
Lastly, the sleeping beauty moment in the last episode? Please never do that again. Or if you are going to, make it make sense and don't have ass it.
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