Blade: The Series - TV-14

Creepy vampire show isn't for kids.

TV Rating: TV-14 Network: Spike Cast: Kirk Jones, Nelson Lee, Jill Wagner Genre: Science Fiction
Available on: Download

Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that since this series (which is based on the movies starring Wesley Snipes) is all about hunting down vampires, it can get pretty violent. Even when the hero isn't swinging his sword, shooting his special garlic gun, flinging silver knives, or blasting away with silver bullets, there's an undercurrent of malice. The vampires are portrayed as elegant but amoral and cast a looming sense of malevolence over every scene. Even the hero approaches his work with a sense of grim fatalism and doesn't exactly inspire the same kind of buoyant optimism as other superheroes. It's sometimes gory, more than a little creepy, and just the right kind of show to give little kids very bad dreams.

Families can discuss whether it's worthwhile to trade away your soul and your place among humanity in exchange for superhuman powers, eternal life, and a never-ending need to kill other people. Though the vampires are clearly monsters, they live among people, often as respected members of society, and there are aspects of this existence that might be considered appealing. But the series also makes it very clear that there are some major tradeoffs to the life of a bloodsucker, not the least of which is the complete loss of any sense of right and wrong. What else are the vampires giving up?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Will Wade

BLADE, the half-human, half-vampire hero of this thoughtful action drama, is caught between worlds. He refuses to join the world of vampires, amoral creatures that see people as nothing more than a source of food. But he'll never fit into the world of humans, who are peacefully oblivious to the bloodsuckers living among them.

Indeed, Blade (Kirk "Sticky Fingaz" Jones) has dedicated his life to hunting down and killing vampires, preferably with a well-used samurai sword. But although the show doesn't skimp on action (guns and knives also frequently come into play), it also features well-written characters and a plot line that will keep viewers interested.

The series is based on the Blade movie trilogy (Blade, Blade II, and Blade: Trinity), and it loses little in the translation to the small screen. The show features the same dark mood as the movies and adheres to the main character's unique personal mythology as a lone vampire locked in a perpetual war against his blood-brothers.

Blade is aided in his campaign by Shen (Nelson Lee) -- a human weaponry expert who's always figuring out new ways to convert silver, garlic, and sunlight into vampire-killing gadgets -- and Krista Starr (Jill Wagner), an army veteran who's sworn to avenge her twin brother, who was killed by deviously evil vampire Marcus Van Sciver (Neil Jackson).

Blade isn't for the squeamish, and it's definitely not for younger viewers. There's plenty of blood, a good amount of gore, and lots of fight scenes. But the violence serves to advance the plot and really isn't the main focus of the show -- that honor falls to Blade's constant identity struggle and ongoing mission to save the oblivious humans from the lurking vampire underworld.

Fans of Blade might also enjoy Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Hex, which both feature characters who must hunt down evil residents of the underworld.

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Content		CS	adults	kids
Content
Sexual Content Vampires' need to feed on blood has long been considered one of the great sexual metaphors of horror movies, and that comes through clearly in Blade. There's no onscreen nudity, and little amorous action, but some blood-sucking scenes come off as rather suggestive love scenes.
Violence The title character's mission in life is killing vampires, preferably by decapitating them with some fancy swordplay, so there's no getting around the violence. Guns and knives are also used. That said, when a vampire is killed, it tends to suddenly disappear into a pile of smoking, glowing ash, so there's not actually a lot of blood (which is unusual for a vampire show). The vampires must feed, but most of that occurs offscreen. Some scenes involving needles and macabre medical experiments are rather graphic.
Language Some offensive language (including s--t), and plenty of lines that are stilted and overly dramatic.
Message
	Social Behavior The series is based on the assumption that there is an underworld populated by vampires, who operate by their own rules and have no compunction about feeding on humans. Some corrupt police officers are wise to this, and cooperate with the blood-suckers. The hero operates as a rogue enforcer outside of both worlds; he's feared by the vampires he hunts down mercilessly and wanted by both the good cops, who see him as a murderous psychopath, and by the bad cops, who fear he will interfere with their self-serving schemes.
	Commercialism Very little.
	Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco Blade must regularly endure a painful-looking drug regimen, and some of the human characters occasionally smoke cigarettes and drink, but there's little overindulgence.