If you've been watching anything on Syfy lately, you've no doubt been bombarded with commercials for Blood Drive, an ode to grindhouse and exploitation movies of years past that promises to push the boundaries of what's possible when it comes to sex and violence on basic cable. Syfy even set up a faux-complaint hotline on which shocked and disgusted viewers can air all their grievances. The network clearly wants us to be shocked, appalled and mesmerized by this ultra-violent horror/action romp. But when has a TV series ever succeeded by prioritizing shock value above all else?

Blood Drive: Season 1 Photos 22 IMAGES

Created by James Roland (Weeds), Blood Drive is set in a post-apocalyptic version of 1999, where the US has been devastated by the appearance of a giant chasm in the Midwest and society has all but collapsed. In a country ruled by the sinister Heart Corporation, the only chance to rise above and achieve fame and glory is to participate in the "Blood Drive," a cross-country race where all cars are powered by engines that run on human blood. And naturally, the only way to fill up the gas tank is to toss still-screaming victims into a maw of razor-sharp blades.The series largely revolves around two lead protagonists. Arthur Bailey (Smallville's Alan Ritchson) is the last honest cop still working for the privatized LAPD (which now measures its success not in arrest warrants but the number of teeth collected from water-thieving criminals). Grace D'Argento (Animal Kingdom's Christina Ochoa) is a competitor in Blood Race, one who relies as much on her skimpy outfits and ruthless nature as her top-notch racing skills. By the end of the first episode, the two find themselves reluctantly partnered in a two-week-long race against colorful characters like Ribbone (Chappie's Brandon Auret) the Gentleman (Coronation Street's Andrew Hall) and the Scholar (The Frankenstein Chronicles' Darren Kent). This hyper-violent spectacle is all overseen by the flamboyant, bloodthirsty circus ringmaster known as Julian Slink (Falling Skies' Colin Cunningham).While the Blood Drive is unfolding, the series also focuses a fair amount of attention on Arthur's wayward partner Christopher (Undercover's Thomas Dominique), who finds himself at the mercy of Heart Corporation and android femme fatale Aki (Sinbad's Marama Corlett). Along the way, viewers learn much more about Heart's sinister corporate hierarchy the myriad ways the company uses supernatural technology to profit off the misery of the common man.Like many grindhouse features, Blood Drive can be tricky to review because it makes itself almost immune to criticism. There are many elements of the show that are downright bad, but isn't that sort of the point? Is there any purpose in complaining about wooden acting and one-note characterization when storytelling depth clearly isn't the goal? There's a gleeful silliness to Blood Drive that definitely offset many of its lesser qualities. For all Syfy has hyped up the show's boundary-pushing approach to sex and violence, those elements will rarely elicit a blink from seasoned grindhouse lovers. There's still only so much Syfy can get away with on cable TV at the end of the day.Blood Drive tends to be at its best when it worries less about shocking viewers and more in simply celebrating its many cinematic influences and telling a goofy, self-aware and unapologetically weird story. While the series leans pretty heavily towards parodying Mad Max and Death Race 2000 early on, the influences grow more and more diverse over time. Pretty much every grindhouse trope you'd expect is touched upon here. There's episodes about cannibal hillbillies and another about inmates taking over an insane asylum. The show pays home to everything from Spaghetti Westerns to the filmography of Dario Argento.It's just as well that there's so much variety on display in this series. Blood Drive needs all the help it can get when it comes to holding the viewer's interest for 13 episodes. Those flaws and quirks that are easy enough to forgive in a 90-minute film are much less easy to tolerate in this context. Giving each episode its own theme and fodder for parody helps keep things fresh over the long haul. That's especially key because, honestly, those segments of the show that actually focusing on the racing component are among the most forgettable. No amount of quick camera cuts and fancy editing can disguise the fact that there's little actually happening on screen in those rare instances when Grace and Arthur are actually locked in vehicular combat. The production values are pretty solid, especially for a Syfy series, but that's one area where Blood Drive usually comes up short.But even the sheer amount of variety to the situations and conflicts can only carry Blood Drive so far. There's still the matter of the bland cast and generally unremarkable narrative. As Arthur, Ritchson is a frustratingly dull leading man. He has no real distinguishing characteristics beyond being an impossible straitlaced guy in a world ruled by cruelty. Only in the final couple episodes do the scripts give Ritchson anything at all to work with. The same goes for Dominique. His Christopher is nearly as bland as Arthur, but at least the sheer weirdness and unreality of his parallel journey helps spice things up.Ochoa fares a little better. Where Arthur is a perpetual one-note character, she has at least a few wrinkles to her personality and a coherent character arc backing up the sex appeal. But even in her case, said character arc isn't nearly enough to anchor the show for 13 episodes. Blood Drive simply drags on for too long without a compelling cast of characters keeping viewers invested in the plot. And as languidly as the story unfolds over the course of those episodes, the series could easily have been trimmed down to 10 or even 8 episodes and been better off for it. The show is also hurt by a lack of effective payoff in the final episode, which fails to do justice to most of the plot threads that have been built up by that point.Blood Drive's ostensible villain also turns out to be its most compelling character. Cunningham's Julian Slink brings a real energy and comedic touch that's sorely lacking in many of the other performances. He's basically a human cartoon character, one who never stops playing the showman and thinks nothing of stabbing or eviscerating people who get in his way. For Julian, nothing matters except his art, and that art is bringing blood-soaked carnage to the TV-obsessed masses. Half the fun of the character is that the show constantly keeps audiences guessing as to his true nature and motivations. Is he even human? That question is up for grabs for much of the season.Corlett also has her moments as Aki. In this case, stiff, robotic acting is an asset, as Aki is an android only just now coming to terms with human emotions and sensations during her time with Christopher. She has a fun Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS quality that's balanced out by her growing need to embrace her latent humanity. It's really no coincidence that the two best characters in the show are also two of its major villains. Julian and Aki have a fun edge to them that the rest of the main characters lack.Ultimately, Blood Drive is a fairly entertaining diversion, but one that settles mainly for paying tribute to the grindhouse genre rather than trying to do anything new or inventive with it. There's a lot of missed opportunity in terms of social satire here. Other than the occasional throwaway line about the soaring price of gasoline or America's addiction to reality TV, there's not much bite to Blood Drive's vision of post-apocalyptic America. So it all comes back to the same, basic flaw - there's just not enough meat on these bones to justify the 13-hour commitment.