Review of Witchblade

One of those productions that just flat-out got lost in the shuffle. Butler caught a lot of eyeballs in the 90s counterpointing JCVD in Hard Target, but this oddball production (filmed in Canada, BTW, to keep costs down ... DUH!) may end up being remembered as the high-water-mark of her career. To do a proper job playing the female cop that accidentally dons the sacred relic, the witchblade, you need to be equal parts action-hero, stunt woman, romantic lead, and just plain sassy. Butler delivered the goods. The production values were very high for an off-the-books indie, and there were some standouts in the casting, especially Anthony Cistaro as a super-villain who made the most bizarre requests seem reasonable (in the tradition for example of a Bond baddie) and Eric Etebari, who used as especially soft-spoken delivery (like Stephen Amell in Arrow) to contrast a predilection for action. The short-lived series also features one of the greatest "resets" ever seen in a TV series, a sort of time travel riff which allows the hero, Butler, to undo all the damage done in the first season by invoking the witchblade, and essentially start over. Never saw that one before, but it was memorable.