‘Blade: The Series’ premiered on Spike TV last night, and I checked it out. At first I thought this show was going to be just another crime drama with vampires as hour number one of the pilot kind of, well, sucked. There was not a whole hell of a lot of Blade in the ‘Blade: The Series’ for the first half of the show. The second hour picked up the pace, however, and really seemed to set the tone of the show. I’d say this show has potential to turn into something good, but it’s still a far cry from the gritty basic cable fare FX is putting out. This show isn’t as gritty; it’s just dirty.

I’m still not sold on Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones as the Dhampir. He looks good as an action hero, but I think there is more depth to the character of Blade than what we see on the surface. I know that’s what they are going to explore in the show as this is going to be a more character driven series, but the jury is still out on whether he can pull off a wider range. He was not in the show much initially, as this pilot seemed to set up the characters of Krista (Jill Wagner) and Marcus Van Scriver (Neil Jackson). I was so ready to hate this show when I thought they were setting her up as the new “companion” of Blade, so when they turned her into a vampire and went the full nine with it I was impressed. The fact that Krista the vampire is a far more interesting character than Krista the Iraq-vet helped a lot.

Krista investigated the murder of her brother, Zack. He was a kid who I thought was just another vampire-poser. You know, the kind that hangs out in goth clubs bitching to girls whom could care less about how alone he is in the world. “I travel the knife edge of life, wandering the streets of decay with nothing by my side except my internal torment.” Does this kind of guy think these speeches will get him laid? “The intensity of my angst is only meaningful to me. . .me and my darkness.” Riiiiight. Turns out Zack was actually a plant working for Blade. Yeah, working to get a hole put in his head. Oh, and what’s with that? Centuries old vampires resorting to simple firearms to take out spies? Bullshit. Show some panache.

Other observations:

* Is it common practice for hookers in Detroit to readily hop in the cars of on-duty cops? Even the pimps seem to see them as solid customers.

* The vampire scientists use Alienware computers so they can play WoW in between serum renderings.

* More feux-vampire exchanges: “The blood of the innocent lamb feeds the hollow shell of the husk that was my soul. I will drink the bane of the crimson moon until my thirst is sated.” “So you wanted half-dozen raspberry filled?” “And 6 custards, yes.”

This season of ‘Blade: The Series’ is actually worth checking out. I know they are going to be finding their way for the first few episodes, but the pilot didn’t set the bar that high. It was interesting enough that I’d check it out again next week. I doubt it has the same kind of staying power of other vampire shows like ‘Buffy’ or even ‘Angel’, but that’s because David Goyer is no Joss Whedon. Still, I was ready to hate this show as being brainless Spike TV fare, so I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out.