Reginald the Vampire Season 1 Episode 2 Review: The Hunger
Reginald the Vampire Season 1 Episode 2, “The Hunger” serves us another brilliant installment of a new vampire genre.
While Reginald the Vampire Season 1 Episode 1, “Dead Weight,” focuses on Reginald’s creation, “The Hunger” focuses on his adjustment. We’ve seen new vampire tales before, but where Reginald the Vampire is excelling is in balancing the darkness of the vampire tale with some humor.
In “The Hunger” we start to see what makes Reginald unique, even if all the pieces aren’t spelled out. With the subtle reveal of Maurice’s motives and Angela’s world, we start to see the contrast between Reginald and the rest of the vampires.
The bloody vampire sex scene and murder of Mike set up some compelling stakes. If we can be introduced to characters that die even when they’re undead we should fear Angela and her world. She’s not afraid to do what she needs to protect the status quo, but she underestimates Reginald.
Rightfully so, since the series has done everything in its power to present us with a vampire who doesn’t know his value to the community without an obvious Chosen One trope.
With “Dead Weight” outlining exactly how his physique is a problem within the vampire community and “The Hunger” quickly showing how his weight still affects his ability to perform tasks, it looks more and more like Reginald is destined to be a hopeless vampire.
This dichotomy is exactly what makes the series such a delight to watch.
As we get further into both the vampire world and the Slushie Shack, it’s getting easier to love some side characters, and dislike Todd. (And honestly, we can’t even hate Todd much anymore now that he’s a food source for Reginald.)
Ashley and Sarah’s moments with Reginald have a distinct humanity to them that directly opposes Angela’s vampiric world.
Sarah’s concern over Reginald is especially touching, and it makes me want to root for their relationship even more. Mike’s note about the essential things coming back after a glamour gives us something to hope for that this series desperately needs.
Likewise, Claire’s interactions with Reginald also add some depth and emotion to this episode. Even though Claire gives Reginald a hard time she’s there for him when he needs it most and with a solution that Reginald hadn’t even considered.
Their alliance is sure to be useful as Maurice attempts to defeat Angela.
Overall, “The Hunger” gives us some of the comedy from the season premiere with a darker more in-depth look at the vampire community as it stands. It’s sure to be a wild ride as Reginald continues to break the mold.
Stray Thoughts:
- Justice for Mike! He did not deserve to go out like that and I was actually excited to see more of Mike and Maurice’s relationship.
- So, Reginald glamoured another vampire, right? You all saw that?
- It’s hard to tell how a super-smart vampire is going to change things but I am here for it.
- Does anyone else think the secret to glamouring is that “you have to mean it?”
- Angel’s blood is a thing in this show. Can we infer that angels exist? Are we gonna meet one this season?
- The scene where Reginald tries to prey on a jogger and then a Black man in the park are some of the best moments when it came to illustrating how much Reginald was fighting his hunger. They also provided some subtle comedy without being too heavy-handed. (Pun completely intended.)
What did you think of this episode of Reginald the Vampire? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Reginald the Vampire airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on Syfy.
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Lauren Busser
Lauren Busser is an Associate Editor at Tell-Tale TV. She is a writer of fiction and nonfiction whose work has appeared in Bitch Media, Popshot Quarterly, Brain Mill Press Voices, and The Hartford Courant.