Van Helsing Episodes 1-3 Reviews: Does It Have Teeth? (Season Premiere)

"Van Helsing" joins SyFy's Friday night lineup. It airs right after "Z Nation". This is not the Abraham Van Helsing we're familiar with. Instead it's his granddaughter Vanessa Van Helsing. Thanks to a cataclysmic volcano explosion, vampires (who are closer to "World War Z" infected than "Twilight" twinks) emerge from the shadows and take over the world. This event is known as "The Rising".

In the premiere we see a comatose woman (Vanessa) being guarded by a Marine (Axel). It's 2019 and she's been unconscious for three years. There's also a doctor locked in a cell. She was bitten and is now a vamp. Axel cant bring himself to kill Doc so keeps her alive with his own blood.

Against his (and my) better judgement, Alex lets a group of survivors into the hospital. None of them can be trusted. There's Ted (Alex's seargant who was MIA for a while), Sam (a deaf guy with a baseball bat), Mohammed (a young kid who understands Sam), John (whose wife is still outside) and a few nondescript women (sorry I dont know your names). A vamp also shows up and fangs Vanessa in the neck. Instead of killing her, Flesh reverts back to his human self. It seems her blood has magical powers. Duh, duh, duh. The future of humanity rests on her shoulders... no pressure there.

In a flashbacks we learn what happened to Vanessa pre-Rising. She was violently attacked in her own home. Her daughter Dylan (who is currently missing) witnesses the whole scene. Is she magical as well?

There's also some vampire royalty named Dimitri, Rebecca and Julius. They're none to happy to hear about Vanessa's special "skills". Dimitri sends various vamps after her. Will they all turn human like Flesh (whose human name is Phil)? New show tag line: Vanessa Van Helsing, solving civilization's end one vamp at a time.

Grade: 3 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). The jury is still out on "Van Helsing". Episode 1 bored me but the next two episodes picked up. There's nothing novel in what we're seeing thus far. "VH" seems a rehash of every apocalyptic/disaster show that's come before it. The acting, dialogue, and fight sequences are at time hokey. I'm glad there's a female lead (since we have way too few) but is there enough to keep me coming back for 13 episodes? I'll report back if it does.