I've enjoyed the first two episodes, but the 2nd episode last weekend had about 30 minutes of filler material it seemed... I think this would have been a better mini-series rather than a longer season. Everything must be dragged out to elongate the story of course. I agree with you Michael C, the whole child custody battle, and not spending enough time with your kid sub-plot is completely boring, and the show comes to a screeching halt with this material.
You would think that the producers would really want to knock the socks off the viewers for the 2nd installment, but it seemed to fall a little flat to me... But the "good" stuff was pretty good actually.
I like the idea of going back to an ugly, non-romanticized type vampire (nothing against Barnabas of course), and I do like Del Toro. We'll see if it gets any better, as I haven't watched the third installment yet.