DVD for BLADE:The Series(2008).
© New Line

Mania Grade: B-
Title: Blade The Series
Rating: Unrated
Starring: Kirk Jones, Jill Wagner, Neil Jackson, Nelson Lee
Written By: David S. Goyer
Directed By: Various
Distributor: New Line Home Entertainment
Original Year of Release: 2008
Extras: "Turning Blade" Documentary, Audio commentary on pilot episode

Buy it now!

Related Links

1

BLADE: The Series

After getting mostly negative reviews from critics and most fans, Blade the Series ended after just 12 episodes. New Line Home Entertainment is now bringing the complete series to fans in a four disc DVD set which includes the two-part pilot episode. These episodes are extended and unrated so even if you saw them during their initial TV run, there will be new stuff to see. More gore, profanity, as well as a bit of nudity. Was the series really that bad? Not really, there are actually some pretty good things to be found in the series. 

Set in Detroit (and as a native, it’s so nice to see my city once again portrayed as being strewn with garbage and abandoned cars) Blade faces off against the House of Cthon, one of several houses or clans of vampires. Leading the house of Chthon is Marcus Van Scriver (Neil Jackson) a rather dapper, gentlemanly vampire. In the pilot episode, former soldier Krista Starr (Jill Wagner) returns home from the service but the homecoming is bittersweet. Her brother is murdered and she intends to find out who killed him. This leads Jill to the discovery that her brother was a lackey and wannabe vampire. Eventually murdered by Marcus for getting a little too curious. Jill also discovers there’s a new street drug called “Ash” made from dead vampires that gives normal humans the powers of a vampire for a couple of hours.

Jill’s investigations lead to her discovering the existence of vampires and meeting Blade. She’ll try to kill Marcus but is captured and bitten by Marcus. Blade keeps her from turning full vamp by having her take the same drugs that he takes. Jill works from the inside with Blade on the outside to bring down Marcus and the House of Chthon. 

Let’s start with the good…the series does have a lot of action and it’s certainly never boring. The fight choreography is well done and Blade comes up with some very clever ways to kill the enemy vampires. Jill Wagner, perhaps best known for her frequent Lincoln Mercury commercials, is quite good as Krista Starr. She’s more than just a pretty face. I also really enjoyed Bill Mondy as Detective Boone, a dirty cop who eventually is turned into a vampire himself. He’s just wickedly fun to watch! There’s also a great rivalry between Krista and fellow female vamp, Chase (Jessica Gower) who becomes jealous of Marcus’ attraction to Jill.

Where Blade suffers is with the main character himself. Wesley Snipes may not have the most range as an actor but compared to Sticky Fingaz he’s Robert De Niro. Sticky scowls his way through the entire series, hissing his lines and trying to be intimidating. His dialog comes off as wooden and forced, partly because of the clichéd scripting and partly because of his own lack of skill as an actor. Now for all that the directors and producers claims that they love Sticky, they seemed to realize his limitations. Sticky is not onscreen all the time and you go through long stretches in each episode without seeing him. 

The other weakness of the series is making it all about Blade Vs. Marcus Van Scriver and his henchman. I think I’d have preferred to see Blade traveling about, city-to-city, eliminating vampires along the way without him having a Lex Luthor-type archenemy. It simplifies the series much too much. The series had it’s limitations but probably deserved a longer run.

Extras

Not a lot. There is a solid documentary “Turning Blade” about the development of the show and the differences between the series and the films. There are also two commentary tracks on the pilot episode, one from Director Peter O’ Fallon and the other from writers David Goyer and Geoff Johns.