Netflix Sci-Fi Horror Series Gives Vampires A New Spin

V Wars is an American science fiction horror TV show based on the anthology series of the same name and a comic book written by the aforementioned artist. It follows the story of Dr. Luther Swann—portrayed by Somerhalder—and his best friend as they face an evolving crisis of a deadly outbreak that shatters the society and coalesces it into two opposing factions.

The outbreak is caused by an ancient biological infection that turns humans into vampires, and its release from the Arctic ice was facilitated by climate change.

As the disease spreads, it pits normal humans against a growing number of vampires, and Doctor Swann races against time to understand what exactly is going on and how to find a cure, while his friend, who has become infected in the meantime, becomes the leader of the vampire faction. We won’t dive any further into the plot and the narrative to avoid spoilers, but V Wars has been successful at Netflix, with a respectable score on the Tomatometer and a fantastic 96 percent audience score.

What makes V Wars different from other vampire content is its approach to vampirism. The series doesn’t brand vampirism as a curse of unknown or divine origin but as a disease caused by a pathogen that probably has a cure just waiting to be developed. Another interesting bit is that the pathogen is released from the ice, suggesting that it has lain dormant for quite some time and that it probably infected some early humans, which gave birth to all the folklore surrounding the vampires.

But what makes it almost believable is the fact that the pathogen in V Wars was released by the melting of the ice caps. The release of dangerous pathogens that could have devastating consequences on humanity is something the scientific community has been warning us about for the past decade, so this narrative device does hold some credence.

Apart from that, V Wars is everything you’d expect from a vampire series that isn’t The Twilight Saga—it’s a really great B-movie that has been stretched out to a series length.

V Wars ended up polarizing the critics, with the series earning mixed reviews that only barely leaned towards the positive end of the scale. According to Ian Somerhalder, the series had a difficult start because of the writing team and the fact that the first cut of the series wasn’t actually watchable, resulting in a complete rebuild that we have on our Netflix accounts today.

Unfortunately, the lack of performance deprived us of Season 2. For those interested in watching a good series about vampires, V Wars Season 1 (and only) is currently available to watch on Netflix.