It's been said that good artists borrow, and great artists steal. By that token Johnny Capps, Julian Murphy, and Peter Tabern should be Mozarts of the mini-series. Sadly, this is not the case. In Demons, the three have created a show as staggeringly derivative as it is bland.
Luke the Demon Slayer
The show concerns Luke Rutherford (Christian Cooke), a high school student in Britain. After an impish, monkey-looking bit of CGI attacks and kills an administrator at Luke's school, we are introduced to Rupert Galvin (Philip Glenister), a mysterious American who seems to have some knowledge about the creature. Rupert then visits Luke and his mother (Saskia Wickham), where it's revealed that Rupert is a friend of the Rutherford family and is, in fact, godfather to the boy (his real father is dead). It turns out that Luke is actually the last descendant of Abraham Van Helsing, a bona fide warrior (and inspiration for the character in Bram Stoker's Dracula) who belonged to a secret group of demon-fighters dedicated to protecting humanity from all "non-human" kind. Rupert is part of this group, as was Luke's father. As the last Van Helsing, Luke must now take up the battle that is his birthright.
To recap, this is a high school student who has suddenly inherited a demon-fighting legacy against his will, trained by a seasoned older demon-fighter from across the Atlantic. Throw in a research library, Luke's hapless potential love interest Ruby (Holly Grainger), and Mina Harker (Zoe Tapper), another Stoker namesake with born super-powers, and Demons is just a gender-reversed Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Glenister's watcher-esque character is named Rupert Gavin, in a witless homage to...Rupert Giles, Buffy's watcher. When a show is this much of a carbon copy, acknowledging where the source material is stolen from doesn't make it any better; it merely highlights the theft.
An Alternate Reality
But let's say Buffy never existed, or more realistically, that some viewers have never seen it. Even without being an offensive rip-off, Demons just isn't that good. Christian Cooke as Luke comes off more like a pouty underwear model than a high school student, with about as much personality. Zoe Tapper, as blind psychic concert pianist Mina (yes, really), puts on a faux world-weariness and wisdom that she's not old enough to pull off. Glenister, while apparently talented, still seems like he's phoning in his performance. The script also calls for him to repeatedly and annoyingly refer to every type of demon either as "freaks" or by designated number types, claiming that the demon warriors choose not to dignify their enemies with names. While the creators would probably like this choice to denote that demon fighting is an old business, it just comes off as lazy writing.
Pathetic Prosthetic
The pilot also guest stars Mackenzie Crook, another talented actor, probably best known as Gareth from the original British version of The Office. Crook seems fully aware of how ridiculous he looks as the villainous demon Gladiolus Thrip. His bird-themed makeup is ludicrously bad, complete with a haphazard prosthetic beak-nose thing that's not even blended in with the rest of his face. And why does one type of demon bullet work on him while another one doesn't? Who knows? And really, at this point, who cares? The writers don't seem to, so why should the audience?
In Case You Couldn't Tell By Now
Demons wants desperately to be a new Buffy. It wants to be campy. It wants to be funny. It fails on all counts. The height of wit on this show is Rupert telling Luke to use the Force. Seriously.
As a public service announcement, be warned that Demons airs Saturday nights at 9pm on BBC America.
Dan Kaufman - Dan is an actor/writer/teacher with a passion for all kinds of geek interests. He has been cultivating this passion for over 30 years, to ...
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