Blade: The Series

Review

Common Sense Media says

Creepy vampire show isn't for kids.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

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What parents need to know

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.

  • Positive messages0
    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.
  • Violence4
    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.
  • Sex3
    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.
  • Language3
    Some offensive language (including s--t), and plenty of lines that are stilted and overly dramatic.
  • Consumerism0
    Very little.
  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking3
    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.
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What's the story?

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. 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).

Is it any good?

 

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.

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What families can talk about

Families can talk about 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?

This review was written by Will Wade
Adult
April 9, 2008
AGE
 
Wow
Okay, so I've watched the DVD version and the TV version and I will say first that the DVD has full-frontal nudity and the use of f*ck all over it. That being said, the version shown on TV is no different than a TV-MA show, meaning that the nudity is cut around and not shown and f-bombs have been replaced with words such as "frick" but other words such as "sh*t" and "a**hole" are said without being censored.
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Adult
April 9, 2008
AGE
 
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This review was written by Will Wade
TV rating:TV-14
Network:Spike
Cast:Jill Wagner, Kirk Jones, Nelson Lee
Genre:Science Fiction
This review was written by Will Wade
 

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ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
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BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
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NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.
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