As Episode 1 of "Let the Right One In" (2022 release; 10 episodes of about an hour each) opens, we are introduced to Mark as he is on a train, with a large box next to him, later revealed as containing his young-looking vampire daughter Ellie. Mark and Ellie are returning to New York for reasons unknown. Neighboring their apartment is a single mom and her 11 or 12 yo son. AS it happens, the mom is a police detective and at the start of a grizzly investigation into a suspicious death,,, At this point we are 10 minutes into Episode 1. Couple of comments: you may recall that on 2008 a brilliant Swedish film "Let the Right One In" (based on the Swedish novel of the same name) was released, which in turn led to the 2010 Hollywood remake "Let Me In", quite good but not the sensation that was the Swedish original (and it bombed at the US box office). Now a decade+ Andrew Hinderaker ("Away") brings us this TV series, "inspired" by the Swedish novel. Based solely on the opening episode (the only one available at this time), I can't help but wonder what the point of it is. The premise is of course the same as before: a man and his vampire daughter who looks like a 12 yo girl but in reality we don't know how old she really is, try to survive the best they can (the opening episode is tellingly titled "Anything For Blood"), while in a parallel story the vampire girl befriends the neighboring boy. If you've seen the original Swedish movie or even the Hollywood remake, chances are that you will ponder one thought: "why this TV series?". That certainly is my sense at this point. It's not that Episode 1 was "bad" but it feels unnecessary. I'll certainly give it a couple of additional episodes before making up my mind whether to stick with it or whether to bail. I'm not sure why IMDb has this listed as Episode 1 premiering on October 9. I saw Episode 1 three days ago (October 6) when it started streaming on Showtime. Future episodes will be released on a weekly basis. If you are curious about the latest re-imagining of one of the best and most original vampire stories in the last 20 years, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion. UPDATE I've now seen the next 2 episodes. And I've upgraded my rating to 7 stars, even to my own surprise. Really liking the flow of this mini-series.

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