“Vampire Academy” Review – Peacock Series Is a Convoluted Bore

Each of the first four episodes of Vampire Academy, the new YA series from creators Julie Plec and Marguerite MacIntyre, opens with a quick sequence outlining the three principal roles that characters occupy. The first are the Moroi, vampires (some royal, some not) who have magical Elemental powers, but are basically powerless to defend themselves. Then there’s the Strigoi, who are Moroi that have turned evil and adhere to characteristics that audiences traditionally associate with vampires such as bloodlust and aggression. Finally, there are Dhampir guardians – half Moroi/half Dhampir who have sworn to protect the Moroi from the Strigoi.

If that primer is confusing, Vampire Academy only gets more convoluted from here. The 10-episode Peacock adaptation of Richelle Mead’s bestselling fantasy romance series is overstuffed, overcomplicated and often nonsensical, especially in its first half.

We open at a party that introduces Lissa Dragomir (Daniela Nieves), a Royal Moroi, and her best friend Rose Hathaway (Sisi Stringer, Mortal Kombat), an aspiring Dhampir, as well as Lissa’s older brother, Andre (Jason Diaz), who is tapped to be the next king after Queen Moira (Nikol Kollars) steps down. En route home, the Dragomir limousine crashes and everyone except Lissa and Rose are killed (reminder: vampires are super easy to kill in this world).

At this point, the narrative jumps ahead 3 months as Lissa’s new guardian, Victor Dashkov (J. August Richards) reintroduces her to life at St. Vladimir’s Academy, which is located in an unnamed town far away from the human world and protected from Strigoi by magical wards.

The main crux of the story centers around Rose and Lissa’s friendship as they become key figures in their respective groups. Lissa is being considered to take over Andre’s role as a future ruler but there are political factions working against her, including Andre’s secret lover, Tatania Vogel (Anita-Joy Uwajeh), who is ruthless and cutthroat. Rose, meanwhile, is attempting to rise in the ranks of her Dhampir training group to ensure that she will be assigned to protect Lissa. The two girls also share a unique connection since the accident wherein Rose’s vision is overtaken by Lissa whenever the latter becomes emotional.

Because it’s YA, there are also boys circling about. Rose has a past with fellow Dhampir cadet Mason (Andrew Liner), but older trainer Dmitri Belikov (Kieron Moore) catches her eye immediately upon arrival. As for Lissa, she’s being encouraged to marry “good on paper/terrible in person” Jesse Zeklos (Joseph Ollman), but her real connection is with outcast Christian Ozera (Andre Dae Kim), whose parents turned Strigoi. That latter part is complicated further because Christian’s parents may be responsible for a series of escalating attacks that threaten the safety of the entire Dominion. The fact that this barely scratches the surface of what is going on only goes to show how overstuffed and overcomplicated the plotting of the series is.

This is the second time Vampire Academy has been adapted. The first was the 2014 YA horror comedy directed by Mark Waters and starring a young Zoey Deutsch. The film wisely dumped most of the mythology of the books in order to streamline the narrative. It didn’t work: the film was critically derided, denounced by fans of the original text, and wound up being a huge commercial failure. Still, the comedy injected both levity and fun into the film, qualities that are sorely lacking in the TV series, which is far too self-serious and (the worst fate of all) boring.

Vampire Academy’s biggest problem is that it is simply trying to do too much with too little. What little world-building exists is undercooked or poorly explained, particularly the political structure of the world, its relationship with the human world and even something as basic as geography. Take the latter: although the series was filmed in Spain and characters have a mix of Russian and European surnames, St. Vladimir’s is visually represented as a collection of castles in the middle of…somewhere?

The lack of clarity about basic aspects of the world is not only confusing but frustrating. It takes ages to realize that an attack that opens episode three is occurring at a different school and a Royal Tour in episode 6 briefly shifts the action to Lisbon but when Meredith (Rhian Blundell), Rose’s fellow Dhampir, is injured, she’s brought back to St. Vladimir as though they were only a few minutes away. It’s especially grating because the series constantly introduces new elements, seemingly as a way to justify a rotating series of parties, challenges, and spectacles.

General audiences are apt to be turned off by the never-ending onslaught of characters, subplots and rules that are introduced and discarded on a whim. By comparison, Mead’s audience will have an easier time negotiating the lore, and viewers who are familiar with Plec’s work on The Vampire Diaries and The Originals will likely find Vampire Academy more palatable. Not only does the Peacock show share a similar visual aesthetic, including a uniformly attractive cast, those other works also had a penchant for trotting out special events like balls, contests, and/or magical rituals. If nothing else, these events provide ample opportunity for the costume department to break out a collection of opulent, vaguely Victorian Steampunk gowns and tuxedos.

The diverse cast is uniformly solid, particularly the two leads. Stringer has good romantic chemistry with Moore, though the same can’t be said of Nieves and Dae Kim, which is a problem when Lissa and Christian are meant to be the star-crossed lovers whose love could save the Dominion. Queer audiences are treated to two (admittedly chaste) pairings courtesy of Victor and his husband, as well as Meredith and Victor’s adopted daughter Mia (Mia McKenna-Bruce), whose demeanor is noticeably softened from the books. Still, the fact that Lissa and Rose have clear romantic potential that goes untapped is a missed opportunity.

Full confession: the series gets stronger and more enjoyable in the back half, particularly a pair of episodes that put Rose and her fellow Dhampir cadets to the test against Strigoi in the field. Vampire Academy is at its best when it keeps the narrative simple and focused on Rose and Lissa. When the show strays into adult politics, that’s when it becomes less engaging and convoluted. Considering that there are six books in the series, there is plenty more story to tell, but in this first season, it already seems as though Plec and MacIntyre have bitten off more than they can chew.

Or should we say suck?

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Episodes 1-4 of Vampire Academy debut September 15 on Peacock, with subsequent episodes dropping every Thursday.

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