Blood Drive Finale Review: The End Of A Crazy, Sexy, Bloody Ride

"Blood Drive" exists in a post apocalyptic 1999 universe where a chasm (known as the "Scar") forms due to widespread fracking. The mysterious Heart Corporation exploits whatever comes out of the Scar for their own nefarious purposes. Heart controls all aspects of life and runs a cross country race for the entertainment of the masses. It's a two week affair that starts in LA. The only catches are: 1. All the cars run on human blood; 2. Drivers have a kill switch implanted so they cant escape; and 3. The loser of each leg dies in some spectacular fashion. We meet lots of interesting participants including: the Gentleman, the Scholar, Rib Bone, and killer couple Cliff and Domi.

Our heroes (if we can call them that) are Grace (she's looking for her missing sister) and Arthur (a cop who is determined to any law breakers to justice). They are teamed together because, let's face it, they're both super hot. The Master of Mayhem for this bloodbath is someone called Julian Slink. He is a very mysterious character. We're not sure who/what he is or if he's even human. Great character! Slink (portrayed by Colin Cunningham) is the best part of this show. He is delightfully evil and has the best costumes.

Grace and Arthur manage to survive long enough to look for Grace's sister Karma. They thought she was at Kane Hill Hospital but no dice. Grace is later told by the Amazon sisters that Karma if dead. We get a major shocker when Blood Drive TV producer Old Man Heart turns out to be Karma in disguise. Karma has gone a little cray, cray during her time away. Or perhaps she was always bonkers. Instead of tearfully reuniting with Grace, she's hell bent on killing her.

The last two episodes of the season were dedicated to "The Primo" (crowning Arthur/Barbie as the race winner and then killing him) and "Finish Line" (Arthur, Grace and Slink try to destroy Heart Enterprises). There's lots of fighting. Christopher (who is now a robot) tries to kill Arthur. It looks like everyone will die until Grace pushes Arthur though some sort of wormhole/blood transport. These apparently connect all the Heart properties. Heart Enterprises HQ explodes in spectacular fashion. A butt naked Arthur crawls out of the ocean in some tropical location. The sign says "Blood Rock Prison For The Criminally Insane". Uh oh.

Points To Ponder:

A significant amount of time was spent on Christopher and Aki (fembot who became human after some mind blowing sex with Chris) during the season. But in the end, their story went basically nowhere. Why would cyborg Chris want to kill Arthur all of a sudden? Yes I know Arthur killed a copy of him during "The Primo" but still. I was hoping these two love birds would have a happy ending...but nope.
What's up with that soul reclamator? Apparently Grace regenerated after being killed because she has no soul. I have no idea how it works.
What exactly is Julian Slink? He always seemed to have mysterious powers. We later learn there are some 3000 of him and they run Blood Drives around the world. Interesting.
Were Grace, Karma, Slink, Christopher, and Aki really killed during the building explosion?

Grade: 4 1/2 Monsters (out of 5). "Blood Drive" is a thrilling addition to the grindhouse genre. Everything is completely over the top. I'm still surprises at what got past the SyFy censors. One of the great things about "BD" is it never takes itself too seriously. Viewers are happily along for whatever crazy situations the characters end up in-- be it a western, a kung fu episode, hillbilly cannibals or mutant monsters.

All in all I really enjoyed "Blood Drive". Huge kudos for it's portrayal of crazy killer characters, massive amounts of blood and male nudity. It's refreshing to see some man butts on the screen instead of the continual female objectification we're used to. My only criticism is the pacing seemed off in the final two episodes. The show would have faired better with fewer episodes.

I was hoping "Blood Drive" would get a season 2 but alas, it is not meant to be. SyFy just announced the cancellation. Fans (known as #Bleeders) are petitioning NetFlix, Amazon, anyone else to pick it up. I hope they succeed because there's lots more fun stories to be told here.