Spike TV hopes to sink its teeth into the elusive male audience at 9 p.m. Wednesday when it airs the two-hour premiere of its first original scripted series, “Blade: The Series.”
Based on the Marvel superhero, the drama features Kirk “Sticky” Jones as an immortal warrior engaged in a battle with a vampire underworld seeking to destroy the human race. David S. Goyer, who wrote the screenplays for the successful “Blade” movie trilogy, is producing the series.
Goyer, who also wrote the premiere with comic-book author Geoff Johns, said the series will be different than the “Blade” films that starred Wesley Snipes.
“I realized that in order to do it for TV, we had to do something that TV could do better than the features,” he said. “One of the things that the fans always seemed to be really interested in were all the inner workings and machinations of the vampire world. So we tried to come up with an idea that would allow us to explore that more. So what the series is, in a weird way, is kind of like a wise guy with vampires.”
Pancho Mansfield, executive vice president of original programming at Spike, said “Blade” is a great franchise for the network.
“It has its own brand, its own following,” he said. “There isn’t anything like ‘Blade’ on. This is a bit grittier and darker than most things on television.”
In the pike for Spike
“Blade” is just the first of several new action series coming to Spike TV. Here are some of the thrillers currently in development:
– “Amped,” a drama about a mysterious outbreak in L.A.
– “The Kill Pit,” a thriller about a bank robbery gone awry.
– “Afro Samurai,” an animated series about a black samurai produced and voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.
TATER’S TAKE
“Blade: The Series”
9 P.M. SPIKE TV
“Blade: The Series” bites. I’m not sure how Kirk “Sticky” Jones (above), as the comics hero Blade, dulls a leather-wearing, sword-wielding vampire slayer. He just doesn’t glare with the same charisma Wesley Snipes did in the films. The show isn’t completely toothless, however. The vamp now is camped in Detroit, the hometown of the bloodsucking clan led by new nemesis Marcus van Sciver (Neil Jackson), a European hottie with plenty of charisma. Other new characters could lead to more thrilling episodes, so give “Blade” a chance if you liked the movies. But true fans might feel like putting a stake through the TV screen.
