When did vampires turn into action heroes? Can we blame/credit Wesley Snipes? In the last few years, vampires have gone from suave, caped creatures of the night to fast-moving killers in movies like 30 Days of Night, Underworld, and the Blade trilogy. The funny thing, try as they may, these new, modern vampires aren't really turning into big hits. The last Blade movie helped to effectively end the mainstream career of Wesley Snipes and the spin-off series couldn't make it past season one on Spike TV. Now, the entire series that aired in the summer of 2006 is being released in a box set from New Line that should end the Blade legend for at least a few years. (Maybe Chris Nolan can make Blade Begins in a decade or so.) Blade is still a great hero and the premiere of the Spike series was promising (the highest rated in the network's history), but the show kind of fell apart after a few episodes. After watching season one, it's clear to see why the ratings dipped enough to warrant its cancellation. Not only did the series take a while to get going, but it was clearly an expensive project for a network like Spike TV. But now fans can have over nine hours of Blade on DVD in the first (and possibly final) season set.

In the world of Blade, there are 12 vampire houses that work together to keep their species safe and the House of Chthon is the most influential of them all. Blade (played in the series by Kirk "Sticky" Jones) hunts them all and is forced to deal with the class war between the Purebloods (born vamps) and the Turnbloods (made vamps). Chthon plans to take full control with a vaccine that will cure the few weaknesses of bloodsuckers, like garlic, sunlight, etc. Meanwhile, a determined cop investigates the body count, inching closer to the world of Blade and the other creatures of the night.

Despite its flaws (the most notable being that it takes at least half a season for Jones to settle into his role), Blade is a reasonably entertaining series. What makes it more interesting on DVD is that each episode is fleshed out into unrated installments, with significantly more violence and even the occasional shots of nudity. This is the way Blade should be seen and perhaps that's why it didn't work on Spike. The show should have been unrated all along. Given the strong Blade fan base, rumors have circulated for some time that Spike (or another network) might actually reconsider the cancellation. If they could find a way to air it in all its uncensored glory or move it to pay cable to pull it off, Blade could still be a hit.

Huge DVD sales would probably help the cause for a Blade comeback on TV, but New Line hasn't done the series many favors in the special features department. The show itself looks and sounds great (the dark scenes, of which there are plenty, are particularly well-defined), but New Line gives viewers no special features to speak of that weren't previously available. The first two episodes were already released uncensored with a few special features on a single-disc and that release has been imported wholesale to the series set. The remaining episodes haven't been given any extras, which is a shame. You know the hardcore Blade fans will already have the extras from the single-disc edition and will essentially be double-dipped with no new bonuses, other than the unrated footage in the previously unavailable episodes. If Blade fans get their way and the series pulls a miraculous return from the grave, maybe they'll finally get the special features they deserve on season two.