Blade TV Recap
Episode 1
Wednesday June 28
The first episode picks up with Blade moving to Detroit after the events of Blade Trinity. Some of what he gained in the movie was lost. He no longer has the inhalers, and must use serum again. Evidentially much of the research was lost. Blade has a new location, and a new car.
We are also introduced to Krista. An ex army sergeant who's brother was killed by vampires. She is frustrated by the fact that the police don't seem interested in her brother's murder...he is just another gang banger who happened to get himself killed.
Her investigation turns up some strange things, including the existence of vampires. She runs across Blade during her attempt to find truth, and ends up deciding to try to work with him.
As the show moves on, we discover that Blade is investigating something that the vampires seem to be up to. He is not sure what is going on, so he sends Krista in undercover to investigate. Unfortunately, the Vampire that Krista is investigating (Marcus Van Scriver) is expecting her. She not only fails to place a tracking device on him as Blade requested, she gets herself captured.
Blade of course tries to rescue her, but by the time he gets to her she has already been turned into a vampire. Not only has she turned, she has already killed as well. She killed and fed on a dirty cop that refused to help her track down her brother's killer. Blade is able to inject her with some of his serum in order to "clear her head" but he has more worrisome things to concern himself with.
One of the vampires he fights simply refuses to die. He tries all the usual methods, but this vampire has the same immunities that Blade has. It turns out that the vampires have been working on a vaccine to turn themselves into daywalkers...and they have finally figured it out. Blade is barely able to escape...and he is sufficiently concerned by the fact that he has run across a vampire that he can't kill.
The next night, he runs across Krista at her brother's grave. He tells her that her brother was trying to help him bring down the Vampires, and that is why he was killed. He gives her some of his serum, and tells her that it will keep her head clear, and keep her from having to feed on blood. He then recruits her to do the job that her brother was doing, trying to figure out what exactly the Vampires are up to...and to help Blade put a stop to it.
Wow, it was quite an episode. I was honestly worried that it would be too cheesy, or wouldn't work on spike TV. While Kirk Jones is no Wesley Snipes, he does try. I think at times he tries a bit to hard to be Snipes...when he really needs to make the character of Blade his own. Of course, that is likely to come with time. The rest of the cast had their ups and downs, but overall, for a pilot I thought it went very well. It usually takes actors a few episodes to work out kinks in their characters before things really start to flow.
Overall, I thought the writing was very good...and really got sucked into the show. They were able to introduce us to the characters, and really tell an interesting story. Since show did well in the ratings (for spike), we are likely to see a lot more of Blade...giving the actors the chance to really fall into a groove.