Blood Drive

Network: Syfy.
Episodes: 13 (hour).
Seasons: One.

TV show dates: June 14, 2017 — September 6, 2017.
Series status: Cancelled.

Performers include: Alan Ritchson, Christina Ochoa, Thomas Dominique, Colin Cunningham, Marama Corlett, Darren Kent, Andrew Morgado, Dorien Holdren, Sean Cameron Michael, and Kyle Brand.

TV show description:
A gory, dystopian sci-fi drama in the “grindhouse” tradition, the Blood Drive TV show centers on Arthur Bailey (Ritchson), one of the last upright cops in Los Angeles. Now that water and oil are in short supply, and climate change has driven the temperature to 115 degrees in the shade, its a whole new, horrid world.

With crime at an unimaginable all-time high, only the most deplorable offenders are brought to justice. Arthur — a street-smart yet squeaky clean member of a decidedly corrupt force — is one of the few remaining good men in the world.

Arthur is forced to enter the Blood Drive, an underground, cross-country death race in cars which run on blood. He partners with a sweet looking “femme fatale” Grace D’Argento (Ochoa) who will do anything — kill anyone — to win. Grace is in the race for the cash prize, so she can save her sister and change their lives.

Once a kind-hearted woman, Grace has, for her sister’s sake, embraced the grizzly routine of grinding up humans and feeding them into her blood engine. Now a “stone cold killer,” Grace is amused by Arthur’s “Boy Scout” ways and frequently calls him “Ken Doll.”

Blood Drive mastermind Julian Slink (Cunningham) is evil incarnate. A natural showman who craves the limelight, Slink never shies away from sinking his competition, even if he must kill them to shine.

A synthetic creation of Heart Industries, Aki (Corlett) is a cool, competent killer, just as she has been programmed to be.

When Arthur enters Blood Drive, his partner Christopher (Dominique) embarks on an investigation into his disappearance. Arthur had always helped Chris avoid the murky depths of the corrupt LAPD. Now in search of his missing partner, Chris is shocked by the insanity he’s facing. One question remains: will it corrupt him, too?

Series Finale:
Episode #13 — “Finish Line”
Recap courtesy of Syfy:

Here it is, team. The season one finale of Blood Drive. The actual one this time, not just the show-within-a-show. Turns out that most people are living in fracking tubes underground in both New York and LA, while Grace, Arthur and Slink arrive at Heart Enterprises to end it once and for all. When they arrive, they find that Karma is alive and has killed a bunch of the employees. Also, it turns out the building has a complicated time-warpy security system. Nevertheless, their plan is to blow the place up with tiny weird bombs.

From the boardroom upstairs, Karma is in control of the entire building, and while Arthur is fine to ignore her insanity Grace is worried about her sister, even though she knows she’s evil. While Slink goes off to find and blow up the central beam that would bring down the whole building, Arthur and Grace decide they’re going to go after Karma and try to save her. The team splits up again and Slink gives them an ultimatum, because he’s nuts: they have 30 minutes to find her, convince her to be better, and get out before the building blows up.

When Grace and Arthur catch up to Karma, we’re treated to a flashback in which Grace has bangs. It becomes pretty clear that an abusive dad raised the girls and one night stole they his car. (The red car, duh.) They were good buds. Helpful sisters. And they decided to steal the car and just keep driving. Now, Karma is nuts and she pulls out some insane Heart Enterprises gun and shoots Arthur with it. It’s unclear if he’s dead or not. Grace tries to reason with her, using her emotions and fists, but Karma is having none of it. She blasts Grace with the same gun, and now it’s clear what that does. It just transports them somewhere else.

Meanwhile, Christopher has had a lot of modifications and Aki knows that if they’re going to run off together, she has to go for supplies. That’s when Christopher sits up with one mission — he needs to kill Arthur. When he catches up to Arthur, the two have an insane fight that ends up with Christopher run through by a pipe.

Slink uses a stolen security card to gain access to the main beam that’ll bring the building down. But also it turns out she killed all his other robot clones. So if he dies – this time he dies for good. Aki finds Slink putting tiny blue bombs on the main beam that can bring down the whole building. She severs his spinal cord and he tells her that she only has about 10 minutes to find Christopher and get out before the building blows up. But he’s dead, team. And Aki is furious.

As Grace and Arthur try to get to Slink and the beam with all the bombs on it, they realize they’re too late. Karma has locked them in and escaped through the blood gate. But Arthur has one more trick up his sleeve and blows the door open. Slink gives Grace and Arthur five more minutes to get out of the building. He likes them but loves drama even more. They race out of the building and almost make it – until Karma comes out of nowhere and stabs Grace.

Arthur punches Karma in the face, steals her blood-gate technology, and then just as they’re about to die…again…Julian Slink saves them…again…and then monologues like crazy. The building is going to blow. Aki is furious about his death. Slink keeps monologuing until he finally blows up the building, killing himself in the process. Grace still can’t leave her sister, and so she tells Arthur she loves him and pushes him through the blood gate. The building blows and we find Arthur, naked, on the other side of the blood gate — on an island that’s called Blood Rock Prison for the Criminally Insane. What?!

First aired: September 6, 2017

What do you think? Did you enjoy the Blood Drive TV series? Should it have been cancelled or renewed for season two on Syfy? Sound off, in the comments.