It came as no surprise to me that somewhere down the road, someone would think to turn the "Blade" franchise into a TV series. After all, the movie series that starred Wesley Snipes as Marvel Comics' half-human half-vampire anti-hero turned a tidy profit (even if the second and third movies dropped way down in quality). Also, these past few years have seen a resurgence in supernaturally oriented TV shows. There was also the fact that Snipes was so unhappy with the third movie that he no longer cared to be involved, why not turn to TV? So David Goyer, the comic book writer turned screenwriter and director pushed forward and in 2006 "Blade: The Series" was born. Stepping in for Snipes was rap star / actor (are you ready for this?)… Sticky Fingaz. Fortunately his real name is Kirk Jones, but that's just not as memorable, you know? So, Goyer ordered Sticky Fingaz up from Mr. Jim's Pizza and asked him to play "Blade." While I'm not a big Wesley Snipes fan, I have to admit that he did bring a lot of presence to the character. Sticky did an alright job, but he wasn't quite as believable in the role.

I'm sure a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that I've only seen the Pilot episode of "Blade the Series", which is about to be released by New Line on DVD. The series was cancelled pretty early on, so I never got to see any more episodes. Speaking of the DVD, New Line's release is titled "Blade: House of Chthon" and boasts to be an unrated extended version of the Pilot. And that is exactly what it is, there's a little more blood, a little nudity and they amped up the action a bit. It plays more like a movie that the original cut did, but it still feels like it was made for TV.

I kind of wish that New Line had decided instead to release the 'Complete Series' in one DVD set, instead of just the Pilot. I've heard from some of my friends that the show improved pretty quickly over the few episodes that did air, as well as Sticky's performance. I'd really like to check that out and see if it's true. No doubt a DVD set is on the horizon so I'll definitely be keeping my eyes out for it.

This Pilot episode, "House of Chthon", introduces us to the new characters that will inhabit Blade's world. First up is Krista Starr (Jill Wagner), a war vet who goes up against the head of a vampire cult (Neil Jackson) who is responsible for the death of her twin brother. She doesn't know that he's a vampire at first, but soon finds out that she is a bit out of her league. The eventual team-up between Blade and Krista forms the relational crux of the series. We also meet Shen (Nelson Lee), Blades sidekick (for lack of a better term) and the guy who builds all the cool vamp killing gadgets. Shen is basically the comic relief of "House of Chthon" and is admittedly the most memorable of the characters.

The DVD offers up a pretty good transfer, again not perfect, but acceptable. As for special features, New Line decided to go with two separate commentaries. The first is by director Peter O'Fallon, the second by writers Goyer and Geoff Johns. Both are actually fairly interesting, but the team up of Goyer and Johns is by far a lot more enjoyable. There is also a very well produced making of featurette (it runs over an hour) that delved deeper into the behind the scenes aspects of the series than I expected.

Overall I was actually pretty impressed by the transition to TV. There was certainly a lot of budget thrown into the special effects, at least in terms of explosions and the like. The Pilot was great, but certainly watchable. I had to disassociate it completely from the movies, however. Again, I just wish that this had been a DVD set with more episodes so that I could really critique it based on all of what was produced and not just this first episode.

Directed by: Peter O'Fallon
Starring: Sticky Fingaz, Jill Wagner, Neil Jackson,
Extras: Documentary Featurette, Commentaries by Director Peter O'Fallon and Writers David Goyer and Geoff Jones
Specifications: Widescreen (1.78:1), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, Dolby Digital Stereo
Studio: New Line
Release Date: 9/18/2007
Region 1
MPAA Rating: Unrated
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We'll give Blade: House of Chthon a C+.