From Warner Home Video:
In this adaptation of the Top Cow comic book, Witchblade is the story of a New York detective, Sara "Pez" Pezzini, whose search for justice brings her into contact with the Witchblade, an ancient, intelligent, living weapon so powerful it can battle Earth's darkest evil forces. Week in and week out, "Pez" employs her skills as a police detective to fight crime. She finds she must employ the Witchblade to combat a much greater and frighteningly organized conspiracy of evil that threatens the very soul of humanity. As Sara tries to keep the secret of the Witchblade, do her job and have a personal life, she finds that her most formidable adversary may be the Witchblade itself.
Comments:
Witchblade was the first original series programming from the TNT cable network that wasful success. Unfortunately, the off-camera personal problems of star Yancy Butler probably was the biggest reason that the show was cancelled after only two seasons. That said, Witchblade was not the type of show that would appeal broad demographic because it could be cryptic at times and slotted as science fiction. Like Crusade, it had been greenlit by TNT during a period of transition where the network was attempting to rebrand itself. During the transition, it eventually decided to move away from its successful wrestling programming along with the other genre-based shows that had previously been greenlit. The personal problems of the show's star were probably all the excuse the network executives needed to cancel what was a successful show.
As far as the show itself, it is interesting. Being one of the first series produced by a basic cable network, the production budget was cheaper than major network programming. As a result, special effects to support the abilities of the Witchblade are few and far between and instead trick lighting is constantly used. The lower budget also could explain acting and writing that are a bit inconsistent. Even so, it holds up just fine against much of the more recent genre offerings from the SciFi Channel. Witchblade follows an overall story arc in the guise of Sara's understanding of the Witchblade although each episode can mostly stand on its own. The show does like to wander into cryptic territory at times, but is far less confusing than HBO's Carnivale, which ran around the same time, also lasted two seasons and had an ongoing story arc.
Witchblade Complete Series DVD includes:
— The backdoor pilot movie and all 23 episodes
— Gabriel Bowman's philosophical insights on selected episodes
— "Wielding the Blade" featurette
— "Bringing the Blade to Life" featurette
— Original casting sessions for Yancy Butler, Anthony Cistaro, David Chokachi, Eric Etebari, and Will Yun Lee Buy the Witchblade Complete Series DVD Now!
