(S01E04) A big chunk of Blade's past is revealed when the daywalker gets captured by survivors of a street gang that had rescued him as a homeless kid years before. Blade then spends the entire episode chained-up, getting the bejesus beat out of him. Turns out the gang - now called the Bad Bloods - is where Blade got his signature look. His tats are gang tats.

Blade repaid his adopted bro's by turning them all into vampires. Not nice -- but remember he was just a kid. The ganstas don't let him forget that, and keep calling him "little one" which has to hurt at least as much as does the beating he takes. Also, seems getting turned by Blade makes you persona-non-grata in the undead community - so these dudes have been hunted into near-extinction by Chthon and the other vampire Houses. Now the Bloods want to trade Blade to Marcus in exchange for peace in our time. Great! Just what I needed, another faction to try and keep track of. But it's a pretty cool wrinkle added to Blade's history, and anyway, the gang looks to be history itself after tonight.

Meanwhile, Krista, for her half of the episode, is still pained, conflicted, and smoking hot.

(S01E03) For those who forgot to tune-in or record Blade The Series opposite the second half of Nightmares & Dreamscapes, or were perhaps still digesting the Project Runway premiere (don't lie, you know who you are): SpikeTV's resident daywalker Blade (Kirk Jones) and newbie hemoglobin-addict Krista (Jill Wagner) had to fight their separate battles this week. In order to find out more about the Aurora vaccine, Blade hunts down an ex-guinea pig one used by head Detroit-vamp Marcus's -- a sort of tweeker dude called Sands, while smashing progressively harder barriers (hotel room drywall, then brick wall, then big iron door) in the process.

Blade: The Series, which we've mentioned a few times in the past, is finally in production for Spike TV with a premiere set for July 5 (but don't forget the "real" two-hour premiere on June 28). Confusing enough for you? Okay, good. The new series will be based on the comic book about a half-man half-vampire who battles evil creatures of the night. The two-hour "kick off" will focus on Blade's new partnership with a human woman mired in the world of vampires as she investigates the death of her twin brother. Ooh, sounds dramatic and suspenseful and all that stuff. Okay, so I'm not big into the whole "vampire" thing, but what about the rest of you? Anyone excited about this?

 

I'm not one of the many people who worship at the altar of Joss Whedon, though it's only because I never really watched any of his programs much. The only exception is Angel, which I caught later on DVD. I thought Angel  was a dark and compelling show, but nothing could prepare me for Cherub, the vampire with bunny slippers. You see, Cherub is a vampire who was given a pair of cursed bunny slippers, and now he wallows in his own remorse. He must never fall in love with Muffy, the Vampire Chiropractor, for if he experiences a moment of perfect back adjustment he'll become Cherubus and do unspeakably evil things, like making prank phone calls to Ashley Judd.

Cherub is a Web-only program created by Caution Zero Network. You can watch the trailer here. The series begins on February 10.