(UNDATED) Ten minutes into “Blade: The Series,” the titular hero has buried an ax in a vampire’s knee, cut the monster’s throat and released a huge gout of blood.
The leap from cinema to television evidently hasn’t diminished Blade’s love of killing the undead. Blade still tools around decaying cities on his motorcycle. Still wears leather, a huge sword and shades.
Just don’t look for Wesley Snipes when “Blade: The Series” premieres at 10 p.m. EDT Wednesday on cable channel Spike TV. Snipes starred in three “Blade” movies, starting in 1998, based on a Marvel comics book. Television’s Blade, starring rapper/actor Kirk “Sticky” Jones, puts the vampire hunter in Detroit and gives him new allies and enemies. This is the first scripted original series for Spike TV, which no doubt hopes to replicate the success of other cable series such as HBO’s “The Sopranos” and the FX channel’s “Rescue Me.”
“Blade: The Series” will air 11 one-hour episodes weekly starting Wednesday. Episodes repeat at 11 p.m. Wednesday, 2 a.m. Sunday and 10 p.m. Monday.
The show starts off assuming viewers know who Blade is. If you’re clueless, there’s a clumsy info dump: Blade’s mother was bitten by a vampire while he was in utero. Blade has all the strengths of a vampire but can tolerate sunlight and lives off a “synthetic serum” that controls his thirst for blood. He’s sworn to avenge his mother’s death by exterminating vampires.
The first episode introduces Krista (Jill Wagner), who discovers that her twin brother was killed by vampires. She learns about ash, a drug that temporarily gives humans the powers and blood-thirst of vampires, and runs afoul of Marcus Van Sciver (Neil Jackson), the leader of a vampire clan.
Marcus offers to “turn” Krista into a vampire, which should be a highly emotionally charged plot point – immortality on the one hand, losing one’s soul on the other.
But Krista – either through bad acting or bad writing – doesn’t seem particularly horrified or happy at the prospect of becoming a vampire. We have no idea which way her moral compass points.
Executive producer David Goyer, who wrote the “Blade” films, said via e-mail that the writers are creating a mythology that will manifest in short-term goals for each season and long-range goals for the series. The Blade-Marcus conflict will lead to revelations about higher powers guiding the vampire race.
“Blade’s ultimate goal is to bring about the extinction of the vampires before they can implement a “final solution’ for the human race,” Goyer wrote.
“Blade: The Series” already has a terrific signature look. Vampires die in a cool fiery burst, and the shadowy, crumbling cityscapes are scary all by themselves. There are lots of gunfights, knife fights and martial-arts smack-downs.
Among the cast, Jones and Jackson seem to have the best handles on their characters. Jones has kept Snipes’ monosyllabic intensity. It works, but it will be interesting to see if Jones makes the role his own as time goes on.
Nelson Lee is Blade’s techie buddy Shen, and Jessica Gower plays Chase, Marcus’ sexy righthand vampire. Wagner, Lee and Gower must be praying that the writers grant their characters some personalities fast.
Fans of the movies will recognize their old friend in “Blade: The Series.” But they’ll welcome him only as long as Blade has something fresh to say.
PH END WASHINGTON
(Julie E. Washington is an entertainment writer for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. She can be contacted at jwashington(at)plaind.com.)
AP-NY-06-27-06 1351EDT
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