tek's rating: ½

Mina Murray's Journal, on YouTube
facebook; IMDb; Renfield's Tumblr; WebVeeGuide; YouTube

This is a modernized and amusing reimagining of Dracula, but with the Mina Murray and John Harker roles reversed. The series begins with Mina starting her vlog (which she calls a "video journal," because she doesn't like the word "vlog"). So we start out kind of slowly, just getting to know her. (And getting to like her, which is pretty easy.) We also get to know her flatmate and best friend, Lucy West. And we see a bit of Mina's boyfriend, John Harker. It seems obvious that Lucy is jealous of John, and wishes she could be more than friends with Mina. Which isn't out of the question, because one of the first things Mina tells us about herself is that she's bisexual. But that's not of immediate importance to the story. Over the first few episodes, Mina also talks about preparing for a business trip to Romania. Then there are a few episodes where she's in Romania, staying at the home of Count Dracula, though we never actually see him. She's trapped there, but eventually escapes, and later returns home. Later still, she realizes Dracula has arrived in London. I'm not sure why that surprises her, since his coming to London was the whole point of her business trip, but whatevs. Anyway, that's where the first season ends, and I'm not sure if there's going to be a second season. (I first saw this series more than a year after season one ended.) But I certainly hope so, because there's obviously much more of the story left to be told. And I've definitely enjoyed it up to this point. Also, so far the series has been mostly comedy, and some weirdness, but just barely started getting into anything resembling horror towards the end of the season. So it would be nice to see the comedy/horror balance shift, even slightly, if there were a second season.

I should say, there are ten episodes of Mina's Journal, plus three of Lucy's vlog and two of Jack Seward's vlog. (Jack was mentioned in the main series, but only seen in his own vlog.) He's a medical student who is friends with John, and romantically interested in Lucy, though she's not interested in him. It's also because of Jack that the main characters are aware of a psychiatric patient named Renfield, whose role here sounds similar to his role in the novel, except that he has a conspiracy theory website, and he's checked into the hospital voluntarily.

Anyway, I think it's a pretty neat idea having the story told via vlogs, considering the epistolary nature of the original novel. It's also cool to have Mina in the main role, considering she was always a more interesting character than John, in the book. (And I'd say more important to the story, even if she was treated somewhat as a secondary character.) As for John, we don't see much of him in season one, but given that his sleepwalking is alluded to, it seems as if he's partially taking Lucy's place from the novel, more than Mina's. So it would be interesting to see how that plotline would play out if there were a second season. And I guess I don't know what else to say.


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Novel: Dracula
(The following is a list of things I've seen or want to see. There have been countless other things that have adapted or parodied the novel.)

Adaptations: Dracula (1931) * Bram Stoker's Dracula
Other movies: Nosferatu * Taste the Blood of Dracula * Dracula 2000 * The Batman vs. Dracula * Dracula Untold
TV: Buffy vs. Dracula * Dark Prince (2000) * Hellsing * Dracula (2006) * The Librarian 3 * Dracula (2013)
Parodies: Blacula * Dracula: Dead and Loving It * Mina Murray's Journal
Ensembles: Drak Pack * The Monster Squad * Van Helsing * Hotel Transylvania * Penny Dreadful