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Vampire Detective korean drama review
Completed
Vampire Detective
0 people found this review helpful
by Otiose
9 days ago
12 of 12 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 5.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 4.0
Rewatch Value 4.0

Concept Underutilized

If you're thinking of watching this series because it's called 'Vampire Detective' and you think the main character is a vampire you're going to be disappointed.

The detective is fine. The crime puzzles ok and the acting holds up. The problem is the scriptwriter doesn't understand the concept of a vampire and why it's interesting. Different stories have different kinds of vampires, but the key is combining a superhuman with a predatory need for human blood that can't suffer sunlight. Super strength vs super lethal weakness. Think Superman and his kryptonite.

This script has none of that. The vampire element could have been dropped completely because it doesn't add anything of interest.

It's tough working as a police detective and not going about by day. I've read a few series in which the main character, a vampire, works as private investigator with normal sidekicks.

One good series by P. N. Elrod is called the Vampire Files set in the 1930's in Chicago. The first book Bloodlist is a mystery. A man wakes up at night on Lake Michigan shoreline with amnesia. He soon realizes two things. He was murdered, and he's now a vampire and he goes about solving his own murder. The vampire in this story has all the powers of the original Dracula of Bram Stoker's character. Neat twist is that the mobster who killed him becomes a close colleague and friend.

Another interesting character that could have been a template for this series' vampire is a book series called Vampire for Hire by J. R. Rain which has a vampire that can go out in the sun with protection and solve cases. The main character accidentally survives an attack by a vampire and slowly becomes one. Her becoming a cold undead vampire causes her husband to divorce her. Complications are that she has two kids to raise.

Another vampire 'detective' book series is by Fred Saberhagen (Saberhagen is better known for his SF Berserker series - stories about sentient machines roving the galaxy killing all biological life - he invented the original concept) in which his main character is the original Dracula who it turns out is not so evil after all. In the first book Dracula in modern times sets the record straight regarding Bram Stoker gross misrepresentation of what happened back then. In this series Dracula has many identities down through the centuries including Sherlock Holmes.

A series called Vampire Detective has immense potential and this one wasted it all.
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