Should 'Demons' be smited for good?

Jumping onto the British cult bandwagon reinvigorated by a certain Time Lord, Demons launched on ITV1 in the New Year armed with a talented cast and propelled by a prominent promotional campaign. Almost six million viewers tuned in for the premiere, a decent figure, yet barely a month later the show is languishing just above the three million mark and weighed down under a barrage of vociferous criticism. But is Demons really that lousy and should it be saved from a slaying smiting?

The short answer is yes and no. The series was a major disappointment, utterly failed to provide compelling plots or characters and lacked the sense of fun and adventure that has made Doctor Who, Primeval and Merlin into successes. Brace yourselves, as here comes the longer answer...

A portion of the distinctly underwhelmed response towards the ailing show can be attributed to heightened expectations. The decision to change the name from 'The Last Van Helsing' to 'Demons' was a bad move, as it suggested that the battle against evil critters would be far more prominent than it turned out to be. Instead, the formulaic 'villain of the week' plots were threadbare until the predictable climactic confrontation, and the origins of Luke and his family were frequently foregrounded. In fact, Demons' inability to be engaging was all to do with poor Luke.

From the start, viewers were expected to be interested in the family history of a character they had barely met, let alone grown to like. Spending much of the opening episode with his top off might have led to some swooning, but the smooth torso wasn't matched by a suitably appealing personality. Throughout the season Luke's behaviour was often unbelievably idiotic in order to drive forward the plot, such as the unconvincingly quick yearning for the blonde shapeshifter or the speed with which he turns against Rupert Galvin in the season finale.

Nonetheless, Christian Cooke's ability as an actor shouldn't be questioned, as his portrayal of the ill-fated UNIT soldier Ross Jenkins in the last season of Doctor Who was sublime and highly sympathetic. In Demons, it didn't help that many of his scenes were dragged down by the pointless and frustrating presence of Ruby. Was her entire character simply created as an excuse to feature a certain Kaiser Chiefs song in the (admittedly impressive) soundtrack? An attempt to instil a 'will they-won't they' style romantic frisson between the pair fell totally flat, although the characters (like the audience) barely seemed to care.

The prospect of Philip Glenister, in any guise, roaming around London destroying evil demons was mouthwatering on paper. In execution though, it was dreadful. The American accent adopted to play Rupert Galvin was initially the focus of much derision, but as the series wore on the real issue became apparent - the quality of the words, not the way they're pronounced. Dreadfully corny Americanisms were regularly slipped in, with lines like "Ruby, nobody likes a smaaart aaaass" in the fourth episode.

As for Zoe Tapper, so good in Survivors, she really needs a chat with her agent. For Mina was excess luggage for much of the time, sometimes being used to conjure up a 'scary' flashback in a desperate bid to stop the viewers from nodding off. The character only really came to life towards the end of the series, when her vampirish nature was unleashed.

Arguably the biggest waste was London itself - a city full of creepy locations and sinister backstreets and crypts. Yet apart from some night time jaunts early on in the season, this potential facet was grossly untapped. This, along with dreadfully directed action sequences, contributed towards the lack of visual flair in the show. At least special effects house The Mill managed to give us the occasional bit of eye candy, with the transformation of the luscious Alice from blonde seducer to killer demon a particular highlight.

The villains faced by the lacklustre 'smiters' were pretty dreadful on the whole. Mackenzie Crook gave it his best shot as the amusingly attired and coiffured Gladiolas Thrip in the first and last episodes, but it was all style and no substance. What does anyone remember about the supposed Rat King apart from the fact he had whiskers and set bombs with a 40-minute countdown to allow the characters time to escape? The motivations of the bad guys were equally flimsy, usually boiling down to some past, unseen act committed by Galvin or Luke's father. Like we care.

It's somewhat amusing that a show revolving around the quashing of half-lifes has zero life of its own. With any sense, ITV will ensure Demons remains sealed in a crypt never to be unleashed on the unsuspecting public again.

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