TV Rewind: Alan Ritchson Faces an Apocalyptic Race to the Death in SYFY’s Underseen, Gonzo Blood Drive

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our TV Rewind column! The Paste writers are diving into the streaming catalogue to discuss some of our favorite classic series as well as great shows we’re watching for the first time. Come relive your TV past with us, or discover what should be your next binge watch below:

Before he was the hulking, unstoppable Jack Reacher on Prime Video’s massive hit original series Reacher, Alan Ritchson was best known for his comedy skills as Thad Castle in Spike TV’s raunchy football comedy Blue Mountain State.

After Blue Mountain State ended, Ritchson landed two meaty roles that would establish his action and hero bona fides to foretell his Reacher role to come: the gritty superhero Hank Hall (aka Hawk) in DC Universe’s Titans, and do-gooder cop Arthur Bailey in SYFY’s short-lived 2016 thriller Blood Drive. If you’re a fan of superhero fare, there’s a chance you may have caught Ritchson’s (excellent) performance in Titans, especially after the series made the jump from the niche streamer DC Universe to the more mainline Max umbrella for its third and fourth seasons.

But, more than likely, you missed Ritchson’s pre-Reacher days wearing a badge on Blood Drive. And if you did miss it, you missed one of the craziest shows to ever grace basic cable. 

Blood Drive ran for one brief, 13-episode season from June to September in the summer of 2017 on SYFY. The premise was a simple one: a bunch of shady, weird, and dangerous characters take part in the “Blood Drive,” a race across the wasteland of the destroyed sci-fi “future” of an alternate 1999. Why’s it called the Blood Drive? Because the cars literally run on human blood, and whoever comes in last in each leg of the race becomes (literal) fuel for the fire to keep the cars running on the next day’s race.

As far as tone is concerned, Blood Drive is basically Death Race meets Twisted Metal meets Mad Max meets exploitation flicks of the 1970s and 1980s, all thrown into a grindhouse blender. It might’ve run on basic cable, but don’t let that fool you, the show was as bloody, violent, hilarious, weird, and bonkers as a premise that gonzo would indicate.

Though young Ritchson took the top billing, the supporting cast around him was incredibly solid. After being caught trying to infiltrate the illegal race, Ritchson’s cop Arthur finds himself partnered with one of the drivers named Grace, played by Christina Ochoa (Animal Kingdom, A Million Little Things). The Death Race itself is run by master of ceremonies Julian Slink, played by the terrifyingly charming, mustache-twirling veteran character actor Colin Cunningham (Stargate SG-1, Falling Skies).

The series itself takes full advantage of its post-apocalyptic, grindhouse-style premise, with episodes sending the pair trekking through a mental asylum, having to fight their way out of a cage match battle dome, and trying to escape from rabid cannibals all while making sure they don’t come in last on each leg of the race. As the season goes on, the duo also starts to unravel the mystery of the nefarious megacorporation Heart Enterprises that seemingly runs the Blood Drive race.

It’s clear creator James Roland (The Purge TV series) put thought into the world-building, from the body part and blood-powered cars to the assortment of other bizarre racers competing against Arthur and Grace as they weave in and out of the story (between all the cannibals and sex plagues, of course). Though the series only lasted one season, Roland says he mapped out at least three seasons of ideas had it continued, with the show set to shift into an anthology of sorts to tackle other types of exploitation genres through a different lens (Season 2 would’ve found Ritchson’s Arthur in a bizarro prison, working his way through different wings from episode to episode and the various new inmates and areas that could entail).

The show is well-plotted, the characters are compelling without getting too silly, all while balancing the inherent insanity of the setting and plot itself. It treats the material seriously, but isn’t dire in execution. It’s a testament to the fever dream Roland was able to bring to life on a modest cable TV budget, buoyed by a star who would go on to be a true A-lister just a few years later.

But sadly, the series was quietly canceled due to low ratings after its first and only season. Which isn’t a huge shock, as the series was a big creative swing and not for the faint of heart—and also might’ve been a bit ahead of its time, a better fit for this more modern gross-out era where happily bloody and genre-busting shows like The Boys top the charts.

But it’s still a hell of a fun ride, no pun intended, and a fascinating binge for Reacher fans to see Ritchson tap into more emotion and range than you might find in the more brooding badass role he’s holding down these days. Because yes, the apocalypse is a scary place, and that setting gives Ritchson plenty of weirdness to play with along the way. 

To make Blood Drive’s legacy even more obscure, the series isn’t currently available to stream and the first season only received a smattering of DVD and Blu-Ray releases in some markets, and those sets are generally long out of availability now. But the full season is available to purchase digitally from services like Fandango at Home and Google Play, so the show thankfully isn’t completely lost to the alternate apocalyptic future of 1999 that claimed many a racers across those 13 gloriously blood episodes.

Trent Moore is a recovering print journalist, and freelance editor and writer with bylines at lots of places. He likes to find the sweet spot where pop culture crosses over with everything else. Follow him at @trentlmoore on Twitter.

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