Reviewed by Anne Wollenberg
Stars Philip Glenister, Zoe Tapper, Christian Cooke, Paul Vigrass,
Saskia Wickham | Written by Johnny Capps, Julian Murphy & Peter Tabern
UK certification 12 | UK RRP £19.99 | DVD Region 2 | Runtime 264 minutes | Directed by Tom Harper and others
Overlooking the fact that one of its episodes is called The Whole Enchilada, you’ve got to admit that Demons looks good on paper. It’s a new entry into a crowded genre, and it’s got big shoes to fill. But hey, it has Philip Glenister in it, which has to be a good thing, right? Wrong.
Life on Mars fans look away now, or forever have your faith shattered. This isn’t Philip Glenister doing what he does best and sinking his teeth into a great character. Nope. This is Philip Glenister with a really stupid accent, acting out a rubbish script. If you’re expecting a British Buffy, then think again. Glenister is Rupert Galvin, godfather to Luke Rutherford (Christian Cooke), who’s getting on with being a teenager when Galvin shows up and tells him he’s the last living member of the Van Helsing family and he needs to learn to smite spooky beasties. It’s kind of like a Giles and Buffy scenario, except the accents are the other way round. And if Luke is mankind’s last hope, well, then we’re all doomed.
Surely Philip Glenister, Life on Mars’ show-stealer, can save the day? Sadly not – and the accent really doesn’t help. At the press launch, Glenister said Rupert was originally written as a Texan and then they said he could play him as English, but he wanted to have the challenge of playing an American. Sadly, he’s failed it. It seems he’s trying to channel Humphrey Bogart’s Philip Marlowe, given he sounds like he’s trying to be all hard-boiled and noir, but it doesn’t work. That said, Glenister isn’t the worst thing in this series, but he is perhaps the biggest disappointment simply because anyone who’s seen him in action will have high hopes. What would have been great is if Gene Hunt had turned into a vampire-smiter-mentor, with his lines penned by the Life on Mars writers, but sadly that’s not the case.
There are a lot of supernatural demon/vampire/monster/ghoul-bashing series out there – Supernatural, for one, Buffy, Doctor Who and Reaper to name but a few. In other words, there’s enough to stop you ever getting bored enough to watch this tripe.
EXTRAS There aren’t any. Lazy? A silent acknowledgement that the show is rubbish and thus doesn’t warrant any? We’ll never know.