"Penny Dreadful" Season 1, Episode 2, Showtime/Sky

Highlights

• Billie Piper's articulate Irish prostitute (Brona Croft)  meeting Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney). The Victorian version of a sex tape.
• The Madame Kali's kick ass seance (the glorious Helen McCrory* from "Peaky Blinders"). Eva Green's tour de force with heavy duty cussing. I haven't heard the c- word used with such abandon in a costume drama.
• Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle's (Simon Russell Beale) theatrical hair and beard. He has some great lines, too. 
• The touching scene with Dr Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway) introducing "Mr Proteus" (Alex Price) to the outside world.
• The final unexpected scene. Hello Rory Kinnear (the creature). I'll miss the gentle Mr Proteus.
• So much plot (in two episodes we have had: vampires, jaded sharpshooters, wise prostitutes, debauched Dorian Gray, seances, reanimators, the ancient Book of the Dead and the threat of the apocalypse  - and they are all linked. Credit goes to creator/writer John Logan ("Skyfall")  This was the problem with NBC's "Dracula" (now cancelled), not enough plot.

* Damian Lewis's other half

"Fleming; The Man Who Would Be Bond" BBC America, 4 part miniseries, review

Well, the title says it all. This is enjoyable codswallop. Much like the films. The fun is to try and spot the links with the movies/novels e.g. martinis, exotic locales, playing chemin de fer with abandon, starains of Monty Norman's original James Bond theme in the score, the red leather door on the boss's office, Miss Moneypenny/Monday character in naval intelligence ("Why Monday, I don't know what I'd do without you!" exclaims Fleming). But it really is incredibly cheesy and surprisingly dull and predictable in parts. The first scene lost me with the too modern-cut red bikini worn by Ann Fleming (1952?).
This fluffy mini-series looks great, is mercifully short (each of the 4 episodes only 42 minutes) and Dominic Cooper (Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) is suave but far too good looking for the hawk-nosed author/bon vivant.
Episode 3 features the phrase "licence to kill" as well as a heavy dose of sado-masochism.
Clunky dialogue: "this bloody war" "You're playing with fire"... and exclamations like, "Surely the Germans won't take Paris!" I can imagine "The Guardian" reviews now....
I rather enjoyed the final episode, though. Fleming anticipating the Cold War, his shenanigans in the Tambach fortress (blurring the lines between fact and fantasy), the exploding pens/micro cameras and Ken Adam inspired set in the opening scene. Later I spotted the fabulous glass ceiling in the German lab, last used in NBC's "Dracula".

If you want a more accurate tale full of booze and bitchery, seek out the docu-drama "Ian Fleming: Bondmaker" (2005). In this version the Flemings fought constantly. Ann Fleming had an affair with the then Labour Party leader.
The 1956 film of  "The Man Who Never Was" is also recommended (see Episode 3).

"Dracula" Episode 10, finale, NBC TV series, 2013, spoilers

"Dracula" went out with a bang, literally. Bye bye to wireless electricity.
 Lots to like in the final episode (with possibly no Season 2 due to low ratings). The creator, Cole Haddon, was the writer for this finale. Although Harker and Van Helsing (love his nifty crucifixes) seem to be geared up for a vampire hunt in the last scene (shades of  the final scene of 1979 version of "Salem's Lot".
Van Helsing goes postal - mayhem in his lab, knifing good one Renfield (I'll miss that big dude) and a creepy revenge scene (kids putting the bite on daddy in the cellar). As Nigel Powers told Austin, "Never trust the Dutch, son."
The Italian seer was underused (loved his cool specs). The Jane/Grayson fist fight could have been much longer (a la "Banshee" fight scenes).
It's been a fun (and sumptuous to look at) ride - Victorian melodrama, bodice-ripping, dismemberment, blood lust, steampunk, a spot of lesbianism, secret societies, revenge and eternal love.

"Dracula" NBC Episode 5 "The Devil's Waltz" review

5 great things about Episode 5:

• Van Helsing's glorious steam punk laboratory with wondrous glass ceiling, walls of dials and levers, pipes, pumps and bubbling vessels. "I don't have the equipment!" he complains. Huh? It's the size of a few cricket pitches.
• "Downton Abbey" meets the Spanish Inquisition with a demented nanny character torturing Renfield before his boss flies in.
• The fight scene in the "Wild, Wild West" inspired train car complete with henchmen flying through the air and a decapitation courtesy of Grayson.
• The continuing use of atmospheric Bulgarian locations to replicate London.This is the best looking network show for 2013.
• The back story with Renfield - loyal employee and lawyer - a huge improvement on the insect devouring slave in Bram Stoker's original tale.

"Dracula" NBC TV Series 1, Episode 2 "A Whiff of Sulphur", review

Look, I know it's cheesy and the accents are a worry, but I haven't had so much fun since "Orphan Black".
The idea of having Dracula and Van Helsing forming an alliance (can I say, potential bromance?) is delicious. Jonathan Harker being seduced (not as in the book, by the brides of Dracula) but the promise of property and position, is inspired.
We have Renfield - not a mindless slave but a strong, black dude with a sardonic sense of humour. Opium fiend-twins occult "seers" pursuing Drac through London (Prague?) alleyways courtesy of a magic mirror.
Loved Drac's horseless carriage also.
Had a problem with modern phrases like "having some agenda..."
The coolest opening title credits since "Elementary" plus atmospheric lighting (diffuse light, fog, candles, gaslight, you name it) plus a bit of soft core porn and a visit to a Victorian gay bar. What's not to like?
Well done NBC (and Carnival... I saw Gareth Neame in the credits, movie heritage there, his grandad, Ronald directed "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972). But I digress...

"Dracula" NBC TV series Episode 1

Don't you love a bit of steampunk?
Sorely missing from US network television. Remember CBS's "The Wild Wild West" (1965)? Yes, we have had steampunk movies with horror fiction connections ("Van Helsing", "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" - triumphs of art direction and production design but hated by critics). Yes, this new retelling of the Bram Stoker novel is all over the shop, but so what?
We have had myriad silly retellings of  "Dracula" (from Dracula's Dog to "Blacula"). Just sit back and enjoy the ride. I think the "LA Times" critic nailed it.
It looks great, as is a prerequisite for steampunk opuses. The Prague locales are sumptuous. The lush budget shows on screen. It comes up with some wild connections (a Jack the Ripper cover up, a cartel of energy industrialists battling Dracula and Jonathan Hawker as his PR man). The casting of Jonathan Rhys Meyers ("The Tudors") is perfect.
A few times during the show I did find myself saying: "What the ....?" (e.g. the light bulb bit) or "Where is this going?"
But just sit back and enjoy it. It's network TV that is not a crap sitcom, police, reality/talent/cooking shows.