Jacob Batalon’s (Spiderman: No Way Home and 50 States of Fright) upcoming Syfy dramedy series, “Reginald The Vampire,” has not just found one but two streaming homes for its release. It is based on the book by Johnny B. Truant, “Fat Vampire,” which was released in September 2012. The 10-episode series will be released for this summer’s viewing pleasure. With the series wrapping up post-production this week, we now know that both Hulu and Amazon will unleash the series when it becomes available to them.
Variety reports that Hulu “has acquired the second-window U.S. rights” to the series, meaning you’ll be able to stream it there eventually after it broadcasts on the Syfy network on television. Meanwhile, Amazon has scooped up the rights for the series in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, so if you live in one of those countries, it will be your streaming destination for “Reginald The Vampire.”
When overweight treadmill salesman Reginald Baskin finally meets a co-worker who doesn’t make fun of him, it’s his own bad luck that tech guy Maurice turns out to be a two-thousand-year-old vampire. This is the start of “Fat Vampire,” in which Reginald wants to report God to the Better Business Bureau because he feels like he was a victim of false advertising. He survived high school, only to realize that people in the real world were not any kinder or less bullying.
Being a fan of everything Fantastic from Nosferatu to Bram Strokers Dracula and even the B-Rated movies of old, I’m always up to dive into some blood-sucking show or movie or book, and this series isn’t just a comedic adventure but is also dramatic at times and even pulls at the heartstrings. I was very excited when I heard of the series release when it was announced last year. There have been a lot of comparisons between this book series and of course the FX series, “What We Do in the Shadows”. This is especially the case when it was announced within the show’s very own take on vampires nowadays.
Being that Reginald is not up to par with all other vampires in the world, he is considered a blight for all Vampire-kind. In the world of “Fat Vampire,” people go through a very rigorous and strenuous training program before they turn into bloodsuckers since they’ll be stuck in whatever body they have for the rest of their unnatural unlife. Reginald is overweight, has no luck with attacking humans on the street, gets mocked when he tries to glamour prey and is never going to meet the high standards of the Vampire Council’s notion of the ideal physique. But with any luck, he may be able to not only survive in his afterlife with a little help from his friends, but he could even discover his own way of making it in this world of immortal bullies on his own terms. We will just have to wait and see how it unfolds.
