You will, we hope, understand implicitly what it means when we say Hulu and Disney+’s new German import series City Of Blood is the kind of vampire show where nobody says “vampire” in the trailer—instead letting the understanding that you’re watching A Very Serious Show that just happens to be about immortal bloodsuckers soak in via osmosis. Still, credit where it’s due: A whole city of blood sounds like it’d end up being exceptionally sticky, and the show’s new trailer depicts Dracula-infested Berlin as a place where you wouldn’t necessarily want to sit down anywhere while wearing a new pair of white pants.
Based off Reinhard Kleist and Tobias O. Meissner’s graphic novel Berlinoir, the series stars Lea Drinda and Soma Pysall as two sisters who (per its logline) “Uncover a terrifying truth: Vampires control Berlin.” (We have to assume that the giant climate-controlled dome over the city, which apparently also blocks the vamp-frying parts of sunlight, may have been a major clue.) The show clearly isn’t too worried about making its metaphors subtle, either, as the sisters must apparently “deal blood” to make ends meet, while we see high-powered one percenter types with copious amounts of The Sanguine Stuff dripping down their chins. (Meanwhile, the marketing copy for the show reads like it comes from its own alternate universe, one where audiences have never seen a single episode of The Walking Dead or literally any other socially conscious monster show ever made, asking: “Who is the greater monster, human or vampire?”) (It’s the vampires!)
City Of Blood feels like a weird placement for Disney+, presumably as a symptom of the streamer’s ongoing efforts to merge itself with Hulu. (It’ll end up sitting on the service alongside shows like FX’s The Strain. Also Bluey, but that’s obviously unrelated.) The series is set to debut on both Disney+ and Hulu on September 16.
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