 | For Yancy Butler fans.
rating: 4
Husky voiced Yancy Butler is the only reason I bought this series. The first half of the season is intriguing enough and has a compelling yearn to watch the next episode while the second half loses pace and suffers from weaker screenwriting which is probably why it never made it to a second season. Amusing character portrayed by Eric Etebari who is heavily infatuated with the heroine and basically an errand boy for a wealthy industrialist who seeks to control the "ultimate weapon" lends a somewhat comic flavor to the proceedings. But overall it's all about Yancy looking like an absolute fox.
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Excellent Escapist Fantasy Rooted in Contemporary Reality
rating: 5
I saw the series when it initially aired on TNT, and I found it fresh, exciting and captivating. The combination of pure escapist fantasy and cop drama worked well in this incarnation. Yes, it was strange, but strange doesn't mean that it wasn't entertaining. By juxtaposition of an ages-old metaphysical history against Sara Pezzini's attempts to cope with that in the framework of her contemporary physical world, it created a whole new universe for the writers to dabble in. I believe that people who enjoyed "Sliders" "Farscape" and "Quantum Leap" would have enjoyed this show, as well.
All good drama contains conflict, and in this case the conflict was manifest in Sara's efforts to reconcile the mundane and the metaphysical. At first a hard-bitten cynic, we see Sara slowly and begrudgingly grow spiritually and emotionally as she begins to accept and embrace her destiny as the current bearer of the Witchblade.
I was introduced first to the TV series, and then I want back to check out the comic: yet I found the series more accessible. At points during the series you were left wondering along with Sara if she was hallucinating or having visions of events that actually happened--which helped build tension in the storyline.
The important thing is that within the context of that story, it made sense, and helped move the plot forward effectively. It makes no sense to attempt to bring comic-book characters to the big screen, if all you're going to do is regurgitate the comic-book legend exactly as it appeared in print. An effective re-imagining actually takes old characters and makes them fresh and relevant again, as in the re-imagining of the Superboy legend in the Smallville TV series. I've read the Superman and Superboy comics growing up, which were mostly kind of corny. Smallville has taken the development of young Kal-el and made him contemporary and interesting again.
If a film or TV adaptation of a story originally told in graphic novel or comic book format stays true to the spirit and intent of the character, and changes are made to improve the dramatic flow in that direction, then those changes should be embraced as a welcome improvement, and not dismissed offhandedly from the dogmatic perspective of it straying from the comic, or being too different.
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witchblade
rating: 5
excellent tv show, too bad they had to take it off the air. I am extremely glad they put the show on cds.
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Dismal, Humorless, Banal
rating: 1
I was expecting a series more like the humorous and over-the-top (books) Dresden Files, but what I got was a lugubrious, badly acted, horribly written, cheesy series about a humorless warrior woman, a creepy "guardian angel"/trainer, and adversaries so silly and desperately serious I fell off the couch laughing while they spoke their ridiculous lines. "Come not between the dragon and his wrath"--this is the sort of scintillating dialogue you will be subject to. Beware! But hey, the sountrack's good, and that's why I gave it a star. Aaaahhh....
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Finally on DVD
rating: 4
This is an item that I wanted before it even existed: the Witchblade TV series on DVD. I saw it on TV a few years back and loved it. I later discovered the comics that this series is based on but I prefer the TV version, as they are quite different.
The series is structured like a cop drama, but there are a lot of sci/fi and fantasy elements to it. The Witchblade is a magic item with enough of a personality to be subtly controlling events and Sara's destiny.
Yancy Butler plays a convincing tough yet sexy female cop, Sara Pezzini. She does a great job acting, and would reccomend this series on the strength of her personality alone.
I also especially like the dynamic between her and Nottingham (Eric Etebari). Nottingham is a secret favorite of mine, even though he's only a minor character. I'm not sure why he appeals to me so much, but he's the mysterious, cool, and somewhat weird (creepy?) lackey of the "bad guy" Kennith Irons. It's hard to figure out what his motives are, but sometimes totally the amoral assassin, sometimes he seems to be in hopeless unrequited love with Sara. But that's just my take on him...
This is a great series, and I was sad to learn it was cancelled after the second season. (On a side note, it was weird re-watching it and seeing the Twin Towers in the New York skyline...)
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