Witchblade

I liked Witchblade as a TV series and I was disappointed when it was canceled. If this were released on DVD, I'd gladly shell out a few bucks to acquire it for my collection. There are far too few strong female characters on TV. Plus, Yancy Butler was freaking hot.

Now I do know that it departed from the story line from the comics but I also understand that sometimes that's necessary to make the show accessible to non-comicbook nerds. It was a little frustrating how they reset the entire story line after the end of season 1 but I've been asked to believe far more ridiculous plot points on other more well respected shows.

In addition to the wonderfully detailed plots and excellent characters, Witchblade was a triumph in technical performance. The sets were consistently excellent. The crew took chances (and succeeded) with different styles of lighting and camera angles. Time lapse photography and stop action were used to good effect, and yet they did not jar the viewer. The soundtrack was recognized with award nominations, and rightly so. The dialog was extraordinarily well written, and stayed fresh throughout the series. Editing was tight and crisp; there were very few lags in tempo and yet was not too fast either. One of the best production teams in years! Witchblade is a real treat to watch!

Perhaps one would appreciate the series more if one was familiar with the mythological history that invigorates its story. I enjoyed the series tremendously for this reason, and because it presented a vital alternative to the usual fare. A different story with all the same tropes of the genre would have been unexciting. Also, the series tries to cross two genres (fantasy and cop dramas) that probably don't cross well in the American cultural consciousness. The people that enjoy high fantasy and ancient mythology (to put these two together) likely aren't the same people who enjoy gritty cop dramas. That is, the audience is not sufficiently large to justify the show's continued existence.

Likewise, though for different reasons, I attribute the demise of Farscape. It was innovative in ways that a large audience did not sufficiently appreciate, though I would have thought that its audience was sufficiently large for continued production. Again, the danger of breaking conformance to cultural consciousness.

Let's be real; this show is nothing spectacular. BUT there is a lot to appreciate in this series. The environments, sets and overall aestehtics of the show looks great. It really captures that dark early 00's vibe. Nancy Butler does a good job portraying her character and makes her very empathetic. The early episodes are really strong imo, it's just too bad that it doesn't keep up that momentum.

The movie that premiered last year for this show was decent enough. I did not expect it to live up to stature of the comic book, but it did live up to my expectations.

However, the first episode of the series did not keep my attention. I found myself channel surfing off and on throughout the show. My expectation for the show was that it would start to develop the characters and start giving more clues as to what the Witchblade can do and its purpose.

The show also employs some of the freeze frame techniques popularized in "The Matrix". But, where the that movie creates fluid action with this technique, Witchblade seemed to use it heavy-handedly making the action scene boring and idiotic. Besides that it also used the same scene in the movie, where Sara phases in and out of the suit of armor. If I wanted to watch the same action sequences reused I could have just as well rented a "Sailor Moon" video.

In the end, if this is all the Witchblade can do then this show is not going to last past its first multi-episode commitment with TNT. Until then I can only hope it gets better than what I saw in the first episode.