I have been obsessed with vampires for almost my entire life. The obsession goes all the way back to when I was 6 years old and pretended to be the daughter of Count Dracula, who happened to fall in love with a man on a cruise ship, and then have to leave him by turning into a beanie baby vampire bat. I used to watch soap operas with my mom and I think I mostly stole that plot from something we watched together. I have read and watched anything I could find with vampires in them and when I heard that Syfy would be releasing a show titled Van Helsing I was exceptionally excited.

I missed the original release of the first episode, but was able to watch the first and second episodes this weekend when Syfy officially debuted the series. Now I will say I am a bit of a vampire snob. I like certain versions of vampires more than others and I acknowledge that sometimes I just get very picky. When I watched the first episode of Van Helsing I was a bit underwhelmed. The show appeared to be like The Walking Dead with vampires inserted in the place of zombies. What vampires we did see acted more like speedy shamblers, they even had limited talking abilities. I also have a touch of post apocalypse fatigue, so when I saw that the world was falling apart I thought, “Okay, you can deal with this, not ideal, but okay.” When the pilot ended I took a break and then went on to episode two, trying to keep myself focused on the positives. I did like Vanessa and I did want to know how she got to this booby trapped hospital.

The second episode was set in 2016, which means that the main plot of the show is set in 2019, and I was really enjoying it. We got to see what led to the rise in vampire activity and we finally met vampires who were more in control of their faculties. These new vampires were more like the kind I was hoping for. We saw their plot begin to evolve a bit and I am really looking forward to seeing just what they are trying to do now that they know someone is able to revert their kind. Vanessa’s character was given a bit more depth, though I am a bit worried about her daughter’s life skills. When her mom was attacked instead of calling the police she just sat and cried. I know this sounds a bit cold, but Dylan seemed old enough to think call for help as she was consoling her mother, instead of just sitting with her and watching her die. I suppose it doesn’t matter though because we already know that her mother can’t be dead, she is the title character after all. I am really excited about the doctor’s character. In the extended promo for the season it showed her being changed back into a human and I really think she will be able to get a lot accomplished with Vanessa awake.

I am planning on watching the rest of Van Helsing, especially now that I know there are vampires who aren’t just roaming through the streets eating people. I am optimistic about this series and look forward to watching the characters develop. Share your Van Helsing thoughts with us in the comments or on Twitter, @thenerdygirlexp. You can find me on Twitter, @kleffnotes, on my blog, kleffnotes.wordpress.com, on my kleffnotes YouTube channel, I run The Nerdy Girl Express Snapchat, thenerdygirlexp, and I post recipes on the iZombie Support Group site.