The pilot to the TV series based on the movie, The Crow: Stairway To Heaven is surprisingly entertaining considering the rather dismal success rate of television shows adapted from theatrical films. (Robocop: The Series?)
The producers of The Crow, Stairway To Heaven set about “adapting” The Crow the right way. Instead of changing the story in any way (save for the necessary adjustments to the finale so that this can be a continuing series), the writers merely took out the swears, mellowed the violence and rehashed the plotline. The result is The Crow with syndicated TV production values and without Brandon Lee.
Rock-n-roller, Eric Draven (Mark Dacascos) and his fiance, Shelly Webster (Sabine Karsenti) are sent to an early grave by a ruthless band of hired guns. As legend would have it, a crow carries your spirit off to the sweet hereafter, but, if your death was particularly unpleasant, the crow becomes your spirit guide and returns your corporeal self to earth as a mime zombie with superhuman kung fu.
Draven sets about avenging his girlfriend’s death to discover that the crime boss who ordered the hit, Top Dollar (John Pyper-Ferguson), was working for evil Reyes Enterprises, the parent corporation of the record company that stole Draven’s unreleased love song to his girl and turned it into a hit single. Draven’s sudden re-appearance a year and a day after his supposed death also unleashes a cop, Det. Daryl Albrecht (Marc Gomes), who suspects Draven in the murders.
The Crow, Stairway To Heaven works well enough because it retains the comic book style of the movies and the fight sequences are above the bar for television. However, the outstanding music, which drove the movies ferociously, is replaced herein with cheezoid TV music, which… lacks.
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Timothy... Thanks for the postive review! As it turns out, THE CROW: STH is coming out on DVD this July. Details at http://bztv.typepad.com.
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