Vampiress TV Review: Van Helsing (TV show)

Van Helsing is a television series produced in Canada which has aired since 2016 on the SyFy channel and is based on a graphic novel of the same name.

It falls into the same premise as the other more famous graphic novel turned TV show the Walking Dead in which it takes place in a post Apocalyptic United States where vampires (instead of zombies) have taken over and a small group of survivors try not to get captured or turned.

The main character of the series is a female named Vanessa (Kelly Overton)

She's pretty much Sarah Conner from Terminator 2.  Bad ass woman who goes around beating up and shooting things while leading a resistance and wanting to protect her kid.  In the beginning we don't know much about her other than she woke up from a coma with both the military and the vampires looking to retrieve her and she has a daughter that's missing but when she wakes up she discovers that she's basically a reverse vampire.  That means she has all the powers of a vampire but none of the weaknesses.  She doesn't need human blood to live like a tradition vampire but drinking blood boosts all her powers similar to Popeye eating spinach.  Also if she bites a vampire they become human again.

As for vampires in this series they fall into two categories, ferals and non ferels.  It's explained that once a vampire is turned if they feed on animal blood they pretty much lose all humanity basically attacking anything that moves (basically this series version of the Walking Dead zombies).  If they feed on human blood within a certain time of turning they just become a more evil and aggressive version of themselves with blood lust.   The non feral vampires barely get any screen time as the series mostly revolves around Vanessa and the survivors she is with.  As season 1 progresses we are introduced to a few that includes a very attractive vamp named Rebecca.

We eventually learn that it is Rebecca who has Vanessa's daughter Dylan who has been turned and she's been raising her as her own.

Dylan being a young girl via the unwritten rule of all vampire film and TV is way more powerful and dangerous than any other vampire as she's been enhanced by the vampires scientists to be immune to sunlight and she's barely controllable with the temperament of a feral but the intelligence of a non feral.

The vampires of the series minus the special cases above have all the regular storybook weaknesses. They've gotten around the sunlight problem through polluting the air to where sunlight doesn't get through and the vampires in the series do not have fangs with them basically just looking like walking corpses.

 The first season of the series honestly is pretty hard to watch as the series starts out extremely slow with the characters backstories being explained throughout the series very vaguely.  In fact I would say that the first half of the season is pretty much skipable and you won't be worse for wear.  The end of season 1 and beyond on the other hand is a very enjoyable action series that I would recommend.