According to Deadline Hollywood, NBC has officially cancelled the short lived and uneven Dracula series. The show lasted for 13 episodes and shared the Friday 10pm slot with the much stronger Hannibal this season, and despite slightly higher debut ratings has been axed while Hannibal has the chance to live on for another year. Both are produced under a model that allows for lower licensing fees, making both a low risk investment for the network.
Dracula left off at the end of season one with a lot of unanswered questions and open storylines. Not only had Dracula turned Lucy Westenra into a vampire in revenge for betraying Mina Murray – with Lucy in turn killing her mother in a vampiric bloodlust – but Jonathan Harker and Dr. Van Helsing had teamed up in preparation to destroy Dracula. Meanwhile, Dracula and Mina finally gave into their desires and slept together in the last moments of the final episode. And despite Browning’s demise at the hands of his vampiric children, there still looms the likely threat of the rather lame Order of the Dragon.
Had Dracula gone on to produce another season, there was certainly enough material to keep the stories flowing and the drama churning. However, from a storyline perspective, that was one of the show’s main downfalls. Dracula seemed completely made up of middling B plots that were either overly complicated or overly simplistic – and oddly, sometimes both at the same time. It tried too hard to please everyone, making it a strange hodgepodge of mismatched tones and styles, which in the end pleased no one. It seemed more like a daytime soap opera with high production values than a quality primetime drama. And while the production values were lush and the set and costume design attractive, the manner and actions of the characters were always helplessly modern for what amounted to a Victorian period drama.
Its no mystery from a viewer perspective why the much more consistent, genuine, and intelligent Hannibal won out in the battle of series renewals. The only mystery is why the often misguided network made the entirely right choice for once – at least when it came down to their dramatic line up. Their comedy line up is a totally different matter, of course. I guess you can’t win them all.
Source: Deadline Hollywood