Castlevania

:

Season 3
  • Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Jul 7, 2017
Season #: 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 56 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 40 out of 56
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 56
  3. Negative: 9 out of 56
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User Reviews

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  1. Grub1867
    Mar 17, 2020
    5
    A weaker season than the last, Castlevania struggles to find new direction after last seasons conclusive finale.

    This show began with Dracula swearing bloody vengeance upon humanity. When he was defeated at the end of last season the shows primary arc was concluded. In order to keep it going the producers had to find fresh purpose for their heroes to pursue. Did they succeed?    A weaker season than the last, Castlevania struggles to find new direction after last seasons conclusive finale.

    This show began with Dracula swearing bloody vengeance upon humanity. When he was defeated at the end of last season the shows primary arc was concluded. In order to keep it going the producers had to find fresh purpose for their heroes to pursue.

    Did they succeed?

    Mostly not.

    It's always difficult to maintain the narrative quality of a show after the conclusion of an arc, (especially when you eliminate a strong and interesting Villian such as Dracula) and in Castlevania, the usual trappings are on full display. A meandering pace, weak character motivations and pointless character subplots sully the good will it built up from prior seasons and the good things that the show does in this season.

    We only really encounter the meat of the story--'What's under the priory'?--a few episodes in. The primary drama of your show, its central purpose, should be made apparent in the first half of the first episode! Not after a leisurely stroll through the demon-infested woods.

    When I mention weak character motivations I'm referring primarily to the Japanese siblings that Alucard trained. They betrayed him in the final episode, but for no good reason. He was helping them, and because he didn't show all the secrets of his power to complete strangers the first second they met, they decide that he doesn't really care about them? It's been like a week. If the writers wanted to make it seem as though they were motivated by an intense suspicion, they should have worked harder to establish that distrust in the show.

    In addition to the irrational actions of the Japanese siblings, we also have the tacked on revelation that the judge was a child killer or molester or something? It was unclear. And furthermore, it was purposeless. What was its objective? To show that no one can be trusted? That everyone is evil? Trevor gave that little speech about how they're living in his world now, but it was never established that his world was horrible and depressing. The judges dark secret felt like some hastily added plot point to either provide some edgy depth to a character or to add a surprise twist at the end because every show has to have a twist of some kind. Bleh.

    Speaking of pointless additions, why didn't they just enslave Hector with those rings from the beginning? Was there some condition with the magical rings that needed Hector to have sex with the one he was swearing loyalty to? If you're being forced against your will with a vague pronouncement of loyalty then why does something like that make sense? And that's just the plothole. The plotline was just us waiting while the new vampire queens they introduced talked.

    Both the Hector sex scene and the Alucard one that the show felt the need to animate, were unnecessary. I'm of the opinion that sex scenes, in most cases, don't contribute anything to a show. And in this case, they didn't either. The effect of intercutting the sex and the action scenes wasn't some arousing masterpiece. It was jarring. Having sex scenes doesn't give your animated show HBO cred, mature storytelling does. The show would have been better without them.

    In its obvious desire to imitate Game of Thrones, Castlevania has also adopted one of its poorer habits. Good dialogue is a difficult thing to master. I can't rightfully say how to achieve it. What I can say, is that using **** every other word and talking slowly does not a good dialogue make. It's just lazy.

    Now I've spent most of my word count criticising the show, but there were a few things that it did well. I'll be much briefer because it's easier to criticise than it is to compliment... The show is partly redeemed by its worldbuilding, dope action sequences and commitment to strong character (part of the reason why the Japanese duo was so disappointing).

    The season continued to explore the world of Castlevania, exploring locales and showing us a bit more of what their magic system is capable of.

    The action sequence in the last two episodes was one of the sickest that I've seen in all animation history. Congratulations on the animation department for creating it.

    Lastly, the writers built off the work of prior seasons, continuing to explore the cast of heroes and anti-heroes that we'd been introduced to before, while also working to establish some new ones. I can't say that I enjoyed the Hector Vampire Queen story thread, but I can commend it for trying to distinguish between all the new vampires and what made them unique.

    Overall, a disappointing season, primarily because it's compared to the strength of the last one. Hopefully, the next one will be better.    … Expand
  2. ScienceAdvisor
    Mar 6, 2020
    5
    The same long wait for action that does not really start until episode 9 (of 10), with childish script where adults in charge are fairly moronic, and dialogue that uses far too much copy and paste of itself, episodes after episode. Just like the first two seasons, except this time the stakes are far less impressive and the inconsistency in power levels established over the last few years,The same long wait for action that does not really start until episode 9 (of 10), with childish script where adults in charge are fairly moronic, and dialogue that uses far too much copy and paste of itself, episodes after episode. Just like the first two seasons, except this time the stakes are far less impressive and the inconsistency in power levels established over the last few years, becomes untientionally funny (or cringe-worthy). If you really want to watch, you can skip straight to episode seven without really missing much. That tells you all you need to know.… Expand
  3. Daermon
    May 6, 2020
    5
    Slow starting, no Dracula, no party. Isaac storys and the whole charchter is full boring. Hector and Alucard storys is just ok. Not good, but not terrible.
    Trevor and Sypha storys is fine. Nothing extra, just fine.
  4. COP1985
    May 3, 2020
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Season Three is when all the cracks from season two start showing. If I had to give one particular reason for it is that now that Dracula is dead it feels like the series lost its focus and doesn't know what to do. Season three feels more like filler before the main event and it suffers greatly from it.

    Since the season is divided between four main stories, I'll discuss each of them separately, from worst to best (in my opinion) and what I thought of them. I do that because they never join at any point in the story, feeling more like 4 different series mixed together than a whole one. Season 2 had that to some extent, but all the stories converged to Dracula's Castle for the finale, which doesn't happen here.

    Another side note is that unlike some, I don't have a problem with sex scenes happening in a show aimed at adults, as long as they serve some purpose or advance the story. Both of the two sex scenes of this season felt jarring as they had no logical reason for existing and for some reason the showrunners decided to place them at the serie's climax. It was annoying to see Trevor, Sypha and Isaac's finales (filled with great action and stakes) being cut by Hector and Alucard having sex. Seriously, if you ever want to put a sex scene in a story, don't mix it with cuts from actions scenes. It will onlymake the audience cringe.

    Hector: Somehow the series manages to turn Hector from the badass vengeful guy from the games into a poor excuse of a character. The main problem with him is that his story serves nothing to the main plot. He does nothing aside from staying in prison while interacting with a vampire that is so clearly manipulating him I thought he must be an imbecile not to realize it. The way he becomes the vampire sisters' slave is laughable at best, not to mention none of the sisters, who are being set as the main antagonists for next season by the way, do anything at all in this season aside from fooling around and show cringy lesbian romance (are they blood sisters or not, because if they are, add a dose of incest to the mix). Overall, Hector felt like a waste of time and braincells.

    Alucard: My poor boy suffers from the same problems Hector did, with somewhat better results. He does nothing significant the whole season, but that is mitigated by how likeable the show makes the Japanese siblings he trains. He is shown to be quite lonely, so it was nice seeing him interacting with them. My problem is in how pretty much all of a sudden the siblings betray and try to kill Alucard for a stupid reason such as "you won't share your secrets with us". There was little to no foreshadow they would even consider such a thing, so the plot twist loses much of its impact as a result. However, I'll say that the way Alucard murders them and later impales their corpses much in the same way Dracula did is quite good, showing him slowly becoming like Dracula, which would make him the antagonist of a future season.

    Trevor/Sypha: To a lesser extent, it feels like they do nothing important for the overall narrative, at least until the final revelation that Dracula is in Hell and can be brought back. Of course, the two of them stop him from being brought back, but the implication is there and the writers would be fools not to use it later in the story. Trevor and Sypha's interactions are quite good and I felt they had great chemistry together. My only issues are the feeling they do nothing important for most of it and the wasted potential of both the judge and Germain.

    Isaac: By far the best storyline in the season, Isaac felt like the only truly active protagonist of the bunch, with his actions dictating the plot. While Hector, Alucard and Trevor/Sypha all allow events to come at them so they could react, Isaac goes after his goal: Avenging Dracula from Camilla and Hector's betrayal. Not only that, but he also grows as a person too: He starts as someone barely caring for human life, but with the encounters with others during the season, he starts to change his views on people in subtle ways. He still doesn't mind murdering people, but it feels like he is more mindful of doing it by the end of the season. Not only that, he gets the most epic finale of all of them and is shaping to be one of the major forces in the future, with an army of night creatures at his bidding ready to storm into Camilla and her sisters' lands. The only reason I'm excited for season four is to see what the future has in store for him.    … Expand
  5. Desomeso
    Sep 11, 2022
    4
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This season is pretty weak, especially comparing it tot he previous 2.
    The audio equipment is terrible and some of the voice acting is **** as well, though some is pretty good but kinda ruined by the audio equipment where every touch of the lips and saliva in the actor's mouth can be heard.
    The conclusion of interactions between some characters is pointless and the sex scenes and logic of it is written for teens who don't care who you get to it as long as every character **** each other.
    Imagine if you and your brother or sister just go to your teacher and decided to have a threesome with him/her because they live alone and are on minimum wage, as a reward for teaching you stuff.
    Town guard offer no resistance to anything and are on a single strike as if they aren't motivated to protect the town when getting stabbed once.
    Isaac talking to a random monster - what is this? It says it doesn't remember much and proceeds to tell it's whole story :D wtf? If some monsters regain memories then they have motives to not follow the forgemaster, why do they follow him?
    Some conversations that are treated as deep are pretty shallow.
    Idk what that whole deal with the pet collar was or dog collar - probably some of the writers though it would either be sexy or make Hector like that vampire or something.
    The 4 vamps with the "plan" that relies on one single element which is unstable and hostile. Cool plan.
    Is this written by teens or is it for teens who don't rly care about plot. If you don't care about the plot it would be pretty good    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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No score yet - based on 1 Critic Review

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Collider
    Reviewed by: Dave Trumbore
    Mar 2, 2020
    100
    The team behind Castlevania Season 3 absolutely knocked it out of the park with this batch of episodes. They deliver the action, the intrigue, and the food for thought that elevates the source material into what’s easily one of the best video game adaptations ever made.
    Read full review