Channel Surfing: Vampires vs. Indians?

Welcome back to another episode of "Channel Surfing", my weekly blog post about the current gamut of comic-book based television shows. I'll once again be reviewing the new episode of Blade, as well as talk a little bit about the new AMC documentary/reality show: "Comic Book Men". So let's get the show on the road!

Reviewed:

1) Blade, Episode 5: Island Lights

2) Special: Comic Book Men

In this episode of the Blade anime, the team explores an island in the Philippines where Deacon Frost was reported to be seen. The bulk of this episode is definitely exposition. The first half consists of new revelations involving Frost's company and motives, as well as talking of a mysterious Vampire high council.

The second half goes from introducing more useless and uninteresting characters of a dubious native stereotype; which are promptly killed off by the way, and then ending with an admittedly cool fight scene. I said last time that Ep. 4 was the best episode so far, and yet this one manages to trump it. Its still bogged down by cheesy writing and lazy animation however. Multiple times all movement comes to a stop and action lines are drawn over still images. The animators were shameless in their cost cutting endeavors.

I still don't think the show will ever live up the glory of the live-action movies, or even be on the level of some of the recent Marvel shows like Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Spectacular Spider-Man; but at the very least it is noticeably improving with each episode.

Moving along, I want to talk a little about the new show that premiered this week after The Walking Dead on AMC. Comic Book Men is a documentary/reality show based on the people who run Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, a famous comic store in New Jersey. While I think the idea is sound, much of the episode involved people trying to sell merchandise to the store. This is obviously a play at trying to grab onto the popularity of Pawn Stars, and it's not what I believe the focus of the show should be.

Misgivings aside, I did find it to be really enjoyable and I urge other people to watch it if they want to learn more about the dying industry of comic shops. I really wish they would focus more on what it takes to actually run the store, but either way I'll be watching this show, and you should too.