Blood and Bone China Ep.4 “Devil in the Potteries” | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Victorian Vampire Web Series

4 Swirlies

“Their souls were stolen! Stolen away by the very devil himself.”

Whoa! Blood and Bone China pulls this one outta nowhere.

I’ve been a little hard on this series, but this episode, while it still has some rough areas, really makes good on the suspense and atmosphere of a good Victorian horror tale.

To get them out of the way, a few complaints. The lighting was set up to give you that pre-electricity feel, making the scenes on the dark side. The design of the rooms in the mansion were quite ornate and I had a had time making out all the details. I was also confused by the geography of it all, where did Anna go after being propositioned so forwardly? Each location she was in looked like the one before, until she ended up in some hidden tunnel. And the one drawer that she opened had some kind of clue? Way too convenient.

There’s also the matter of the invitation. They had to lie to get inside (in the previous episode) but then the first thing someone says to him is “You’re the new doctor. What’s your name?” It didn’t seem to track, story wise.

There were small things like that that nagged at me, but overall I really enjoyed this episode. Lots of new faces, lots of mystery and suspense. It kept me guessing the whole time. Were all these people vampires? What was going to happen with Anna? And that creepy kid isn’t going to be just a creepy kid, is it? The opening song is still awesome, and the wardrobe is the real star of the series.

I know that some shows need time to get up to speed, especially serialized shows, but I don’t think that’s what happened here. I think that this is the first episode with any real jeopardy, any real stakes or story. It is also the first time we see a vampire since the teaser of episode 1. I hope they can sustain the tension, and we get into some vampire fighting, otherwise I’m worried that the series will return to the type of episode that led up to this one.

From YouTube Description:

Watch Chapter 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUY3KKwyDyI

http://www.bloodandbonechina.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bloodandbonechina
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bloodbonechina

Chapter 4 - ‘The Devil In The Potteries’
The fourth episode of the 12 part Victorian Vampire web series, ‘Blood and Bone China’. Filmed and set in Stoke-on-Trent.

Theme music by Birthrite: http://www.birthrite.eu

http://www.chrisstonefilms.com
http://www.stokeyourfires.co.uk
http://www.themonstercompany.co.uk

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Blood and Bone China Ep.3 “Anna of the Six Towns” | A Web Series Review on the Watch List

A Victorian Vampire Web Series

2 Swirlies

“More and more people have gone missing recently. Nothing’s ever found.”

[NOTE: When I first posted this I totally forgot to put in the video! Talk about bone headed. Sorry, Blood and Bone China guys! I have added the video, and I'll repost so that people can see it!]

Here in the third episode, we meet another main character. But we haven’t seen ourselves a vampire since the hints of them in the teaser. This episode is chock full of exposition, but very short on story. I did notice that episode 4, the next one, is the last episode for now. Although their website says the next episode will launch on April 17th. And I did see on twitter a few days back that they were looking for extras to be vampires. So that sounds hopeful.

As always, the costumes are the best part.

From YouTube Description:

Watch Chapter 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFhCYboZNbo

http://www.chrisstonefilms.com
http://www.stokeyourfires.co.uk

- If you like what we do, please subscribe! You’ll get every web series episode sent right to your inbox! -

More from the web series Blood and Bone China

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Blood and Bone China Ep.2 – ‘The Enigmatic Mister Pyre’ | A Web Series on The Watch List

Chapter 3 will be available at 6pm GMT 20th March 2011.

http://www.chrisstonefilms.com
http://www.stokeyourfires.co.uk

3 Swirlies

“You must come with me and finish your brother’s work. That was his last request.”

Stronger than the first episode, this still-new web series almost works. Almost.

It starts with a long scene where the characters are talking about stuff that we, the audience, already know from having seen the first episode. Then, there’s a long sequence of them arriving at the brother’s house.

There are lots of great stuff in this series, my problem is that the individual elements don’t really work together. Fpr example, during the last part of this episode, the music is scary and dramatic, but the acting and camera undermine the tone. But still, like I said, an improvement over the first episode. Maybe it’ll keep getting better? If so, the creators may have a great little series on their hands.

Blood and Bone China Ep.1 “The Man in Black”

Chapter 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0I3sEaaV8xI

http://www.bloodandbonechina.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bloodandbonechina
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/bloodbonechina

Theme music by Birthrite: http://www.birthrite.eu

3 Swirlies

Can’t see the video? Click here to watch!

Here at The Watch List, we try not to poach web series from other web series blogs. But we also like to keep an eye on what they’re up to. So when I saw that Slebisodes posted this new web series, the description of it hooked me so much that I had to check it out. So, thanks Slebisodes!

First of all, it looks great. The period elements are well done, the costumed and props are great. I love a good Victorian horror piece, so I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately, the best I can say about the actual episode is that… it’s fine.

The episode suffers from a bit of pilot-itis, which refers to a first episode that spends more time telling you stuff instead of letting the characters be characters, but they mostly get around that by making the first half of the episode a (slightly overlong) life and death chase scene and making sure that episode two is posted at almost the same time as this first one. Smart, that last bit.

While the creators obviously put a lot of effort into the period elements, and the lighting and camera, the final effort feels technically competent (except the sound, one of my pet peeves is lack of polished sound recording and editing) but somewhat flat. The writing feels like an after-thought, as in “We’re gonna do this cool period vampire show! Okay… er… what happens in it?” And the dramatic reveal at the end isn’t much of a surprise to the audience.

It has the tone and feel of an afternoon soap opera. Like I said, it’s not bad. Just… fine. As we always try to do with new series, we’ll make sure to check out at least the second episode before we make up our minds whether we like it or not.