Did you know Dracula had his own TV show in 1990? This is the Halloween season, so let’s watch it!

Dracula the Series keeps rockin’ right along, so it’s appropriate that episode eight, “A Little Nightmare Music” is all about music.

Cemetery plot: Sophie befriends a visiting countess, a wealthy patron of the arts. The countess also strikes a business deal with Lucard (a.k.a. Dracula) while in town. Surprise twist: The countess is a fellow vampire. Sophie goes rogue, arming herself and breaking into Lucard’s castle on her own. Chris, Max, and Uncle Gustav go after her. In the ensuing struggle, Lucard defeats the countess but lets her go, while the others manage to rescue Sophie.

Gal pals.

King of the vampires: Lucard and the countess aren’t aware that each other is a vampire and are surprised to learn it. The countess wants to take over Lucard’s business empire, not knowing Lucard is the one and only Drac.

Blood brothers: In this week’s B-story, we learn teenage Chris plays rock music as well as always talking about it. He gets a gig at a local dive, and then must overcome his stage fright. (This is amusing because the actor who plays Chris, Joe Roncetti, went on to become a successful musician.)

Take those old records off the shelf…

The new Mina: We learn that Sophie is a music student, although she prefers classical to rock and roll. She’s carrying what looks to me like a violin case, but we don’t see her play. She says she hopes to travel the world someday, playing with all the world’s greatest orchestras.

The stake master: Uncle Gustav kept the polaroid photos that Max took of Lucard a few episodes back, in case he needs “evidence” that Lucard is a vampire.

Tanz der Vampire.

Slayer’s handbook: The countess has lightning powers, which seems to physically hurt Lucard. We’re not told what these powers are or whether all vampires have them, she just flinging lightning bolts out her hands. Not to be outdone, Lucard demonstrates teleportation-like powers, disappearing in a cloud of smoke and then instantly reappearing on the other side of the room.

“Hey, that hurt!”

Killer quotes: Sophie: “You’ll never guess who came to my rehearsal.” Max: “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?”

Trivia time: Dracula the Series was co-created by Glenn Davis and William Laurin. These two have co-created a whole assortment of forgotten-but-interesting TV series over the years, including the John Woo-inspired Once a Thief, the sci-fi actioner Mann and Machine, the FBI drama 1-800-Missing, the Miami-based crime drama South Beach, and sports agent comedy Power Play. They’re still at it, currently co-producing Aftermath on SyFy.

I got my eye on you.

Bite me: Aside from a neat vampire vs. vampire fight, not a lot happens in this episode. We get a little character development for Chris and Sophie, but mostly it’s like they said, “do a music episode” and then were done.

Next: Didn’t see that coming.

****

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