Netflix's Castlevania Season 4 Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Note: this is a spoiler-free review of the fourth and final season of Castlevania, which debuts on Netflix on Friday, May 14. If you need a refresher on where the series left off, check out IGN's Castlevania: Season 3 review. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Castlevania has long since established itself as one of Netflix's best original series and the uncontested champion of video game adaptations (low bar though that might be). Even so, there's certainly reason for concern heading into the show's fourth and final season. Can Castlevania tie up its many loose ends and deliver a fitting conclusion over the course of ten episodes? Have the recent scandals surrounding series creator/writer Warren Ellis forced a premature end? Fortunately, all those fears are quickly put to rest in Season 4. Castlevania ends its run with a dramatic, enthralling final season that more than lives up to expectations. The series really seems to have entered its Game of Thrones phase in Season 4. Not only is this bleak, blood-soaked, monster-ridden fantasy realm a dead-ringer for Westeros at times, the series has also increasingly come to emphasize the idea of warring factions and houses jockeying for power in a land beset by chaos. Apart from Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage) and Sypha Belnades (Alejandra Reynoso), none of the show's surviving characters neatly fit into the hero or villain camp. Season 4 shows these different factions making their big power plays and slowly, deliberately begins drawing these scattered characters together into the grand finale. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=9abe3791-945f-4944-8c7e-0f0b04d21d4b"] Indeed, that's always been one of Castlevania's greatest strengths - crafting nuanced, three-dimensional characters with clear goals and motivations. Even with a character like vengeful vampire queen Carmilla (Jaime Murray), the series takes great pains to explore why she commits her unspeakable atrocities and why she feels justified in turning Europe into a massive human cattle pen. The show also continues to get great mileage out of ex-Forgemaster Isaac (Adetokumboh M'Cormack), who finds himself unwittingly evolving from conqueror to something more. Season 4 may be the show's most thematically resonant. It's heavily focused on the question of whether beings - human, vampire or otherwise - can overcome their base natures and build a better future. That question fuels pretty much every major character arc in these final ten episodes, whether it's Alucard (James Callis) battling his darker vampire side or Lenore (Jessica Brown Findlay) wrestling with the irrelevance of diplomacy in all-out war. Season 4 also hinges heavily on Saint Germain (Bill Nighy), a character who becomes even more fascinating and morally ambiguous following his return from the Infinite Corridor. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=netflixs-castlevania-season-4-first-look-images&captions=true"] Rushed pacing is one thing Castlevania doesn't share with the final season of Game of Thrones. Ten half-hour episodes might not seem like enough time to properly explore these many threads and do justice to every character, but somehow the series manages just fine. There's a clear sense of focus to the narrative as plotlines converge and the series gradually sheds weight leading into the grand climax. Watching Season 4, there's no sense anything was rushed or compressed in order to give Castlevania a premature ending in response to the Ellis scandal. The series reaches such a natural conclusion in the final two episodes that it would seem ending the series here was always the plan. There's also a nice blend of action-heavy episodes and more character-driven fare, complete with two of those obligatory, nonstop slaughter-fests the series has become known for. That's not to say the show is without a handful of stumbles in its march to the finish line. One early episode features a lengthy flashback detailing a returning character's recent history. That flashback winds up revealing too much about their motivations, ultimately robbing the show of a bit of added drama and a better reveal down the road. It's also disappointing to see some characters basically shuffled off the table in the latter half of the season. Their stories may be wrapped up by that point, but it would still have been nice to see a bit more focus on the entire cast in the final episodes. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Malcolm%20McDowell%20is%20impeccably%20cast%20as%20the%20bumbling%2C%20self-important%20vampire%20Varney"] Somehow, the series even finds room to introduce several new faces alongside all the returning favorites. Malcolm McDowell is impeccably cast as the bumbling, self-important vampire Varney, while a barely recognizable Titus Welliver shines as his righthand man, the hulking Slavic vampire Ratko. Marsha Thomason's Greta quickly becomes an entertaining and even necessary foil to Alucard, one who pokes fun at his never-ending parade of misery while also reawakening the hero within. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/the-biggest-streaming-movies-and-shows-of-may-2021"] As usual, the voice cast is impressive all-around, with Nighy, Reynoso, and M'Cormack also among the standouts in Season 4. Some episodes do seem to suffer from sound mixing issues, where the dialogue is overly muted. Presumably some, if not all, of the cast recorded their lines remotely during the pandemic, so that may be the culprit here. Regardless, the voice cast remains another strength of the series. The same goes for the impressive visuals courtesy of Powerhouse Animation and director Sam Deats. The battle scenes rival anything else we've seen from the series in terms of scope and energy. The penultimate episode particularly stands out in that regard. There's a real thrill seeing multiple characters unleash the full extent of their powers in a battle sequence that just keeps building and building. Picture The Raid: Redemption with vampires, ogres, and magic daggers. But the series also succeeds in those quieter, character-driven moments and those occasional bursts of pure psychedelia. Castlevania offers a very well-rounded package, visually and otherwise. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Regardless%20of%20who%20lives%20or%20dies%20in%20the%20end%2C%20all%20the%20major%20characters%20are%20given%20definitive%2C%20emotionally%20satisfying%20endings."] Again, the series reaches a fitting conclusion by the final episode. Regardless of who lives or dies in the end, all the major characters are given definitive, emotionally satisfying endings. The finale's focus on tying up loose ends is actually pretty refreshing in a franchise so focused on a constant stream of sequels and Dracula's never-ending, revolving door of death and resurrection. Fans may decry the fact that Season 4 isn't very direct about setting up the previously announced spinoff series, but there's a lot to be said for just picking a clear endpoint and leaving the future to sort itself out. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=netflix-spotlight-may-2021&captions=true"]

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