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Blade: The Series -- An early look
While I'm not a huge comic book reader, I've been a big fan of the Blade character since the first movie with Wesley Snipes. The detail behind the vampire's history and lore almost puts to shame even what Anne Rice has written (yeah, I know I'll be attacked viciously in my sleep for that comment). Blade brought vampires to the 20th/21st century way of thinking.
When I heard a Blade series was in the works, I was both skeptical and excited. Excited because there would be a real chance to tell more of the story of Blade, but skeptical because, well, Spike TV was going to air it. Luckily, and thankfully, they've pleasantly surprised me.
Some of you may recognize the character of Krista Starr being played by Jill Wagner, the incredible hotness featured in many Mercury commercials, who has also taken part as a "field agent" on Punk'd. Blade is played by Sticky Fingas (I know!), who's been seen in The Shield and Over There. Sticky (do people really call him Sticky? "Hey, Sticky!" Does that work?) sometimes feels like he might be over-acting the part, but I agree with what Ryan said to me -- who else would you use to fill Snipes's shoes?
The pilot episode starts out rather weak, and until about an hour in (of the two-hour premiere), I was getting pretty disappointed. I'm a bit afraid that people coming to check this show out may give up before an hour into it, as this series airs at 10PM ET. That means you need to stick it out through 11PM or else risk calling it a failure and heading to bed. Trust me, it starts out bland, but the second half makes up for it. At least I was thrown for a loop, one I just did not see coming at all (NOTE: I noticed there's a very slight spoiler on Spike's page for the series, one that gives this loop away, but you'll have to hunt for it to find it and it's very subtle).
The episode caps off very nicely, and it definitely has me wanting to stick with the show. The copy I saw was unpolished, missing some visual and sound effects here and there. With that in mind, I'm pleasantly surprised that Spike was able to land this series and see that it was done right. I'm hoping they can continue surprising me every week.
Oh, and speaking of surprises, Randy Quaid makes a cameo in this episode, strange since he's not trying to provide comic relief this time. Whether or not his appearance makes a positive impression on everyone remains to be seen.
Blade: The Series premieres this Wednesday at 10PM ET on Spike.
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