I miss Sherlock.
Sherlock was one of those rare shows that I discovered by chance one night in college and just had to watch the entire series in as little time as possible. I binged as much as I could in the lead-up to Series 4 and have been a massive fan ever since, despite the undercooked quality of that final (?) series. I’ve never been a big Doctor Who fan, so this was my first exposure to Steven Moffat as a creator and while I can easily see how he’s a polarizing showrunner, I tend to think he has more hits than misses thanks to his time on Sherlock.
We’ve known for a while that he was working on an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s seminal novel Dracula for BBC One and Netflix, but now we can see what the show will look like thanks to its first trailer. There are plenty of quick cuts to various Gothic imagery, but what stands out for me is just how deliciously unsettling everything is. A fly walks on an eye, a corpse crawls out of a box, delicious, pulsating veins are shown, and in the most disturbing moment of them all, Dracula nearly pries off his own fingernail. That’s a whole lot of nope for me, but damn it do I want more.
While Dracula is meant to be an adaptation of the original novel, I wouldn’t be surprised if Moffat and his frequent collaborator Mark Gatiss add their own spins to the story, much as they did with Sherlock. The series will consist of three episodes and will most likely be billed as a single series with little room for additional content. Each episode will be approximately 90 minutes long, making this a series that will hopefully fully explore and pay tribute to the original story successfully.
Dracula will release this winter on BBC One and Netflix.
