Castlevania (Netflix)

[School of Everything Else 2021]

One of the best shows on Netflix and one of the finest animated series, very specifically tailored for an adult audience. Castlevania achieves, philosophically speaking, what so many other lesser shows set out to accomplish and find themselves still wanting.

It's surprisingly softly spoken, mostly concerned with establishing and developing characters. It's dark and sad and seductive and consistently funny. It's about power-plays and loneliness. And the soul of humanity is always on trial. 

In this episode we go through the four seasons, covering the major characters in a roughly chronological order. We discuss some of the major story beats, so if you want to watch the show knowing nothing you might want to do that first. Seasons 1 & 2 are 12 episodes altogether and form their own full and dramatic story. Seasons 3 and 4 elaborate upon that, forming a longer second half which gets even richer and more explorative. 

Guest:

Toby Jungius of Through the Wind Door @TJungius