Other than the great Christopher Heyerdahl the acting in this show is very sub-par. The female lead, all the youth/child actors and Johansson stand out as especially bad in this. The fight scenes are done poorly, the blood/gore effects and CGI are below average compared to other modern shows in this genre. The writing is not bad but pretty thin with not very involved story lines other than murder/revenge/rescue plots. Skip this one unless you're a huge vampire fan who wants to see every film and series in the genre.

I enjoy all sorts of shows, I knew I was not getting an 1800´s elegant and dark Van Helsing story, and also aware it did not have the best actors, so I watched it without any high expectations and oh men!! this was nonsense still, most of the time people are just spitting, breathing heavily close to each other and screaming for bloody anything... to be honest, at the end I was screaming at the scenes for being so damn silly character construction has no logic, not sure which vampires are worst, twinkeling ones or this zombie/vampire.

Is it the hairbrained decisions that keep leading to dumb scenarios? The poor acting and dialogue that feels straining lay forced or cliche at times? That the story seems to be written without a destination in mind? I can't put my finger on it. Just watched till s2e1 and the constant facepalming and cringing is too much. I have been waiting for the show to get going, 1 season later, that hasn't yet happened.

I watched season 1 and 2 (unfortunately for me perhaps) and I think I can only tolerate this show by skipping over half the scenes. There are some good qualities to the show, some good characters/acting, some good plot/story lines but you also have to sit through some pretty bad acting/characters, extremely awful fight scenes that look like it was some high school kid that choreographed the scenes and also sit through some bad plot points. Dmitri is just garbage. Awful character and the actor isn't any better. Looks like he came out of some B rated 1980's tv horror show. His bald henceman is absolutely unbearable. As soon as I see that guys face I have to skip to the next scene. Half the story lines or side plots really don't make any sense and aren't productive to furthering the story along. We don't need to know the back story of all the minor characters that come along!!The first half of season two is just full of melodrama with most of the characters breaking down and whining about their feelings or this or that. Just suck it up and move on!It has the potential of being a pretty decent show but the writing needs to be improved. The overacting with the actors playing most of the vampires needs to be brought down by about 2000 notches. The stunt coordinator or whoever is doing the fight scenes needs to be fired and replaced with someone who is competent. Save the melodrama for the daytime soaps and give your main characters a backbone. If you're a die hard fan of Van Helsing type crap you might be able to sit through this, otherwise move on to something that's worth your time.The Axle and Julius characters are decent and a nod to the actors playing them. Without those two I would have quit two episodes into season 2.