Alan Ritchson's 13-Part Sci-Fi Series Is 'Fallout Meets Mad Max'

Published Sep 14, 2026, 5:30 PM EDT

His journey to stardom feels like it's only just begun, with a long career ahead of him whenever he decides that he's had enough of playing Jack Reacher. It hasn't just been BMS and Reacher, though; Ritchson has been trying to break into the mainstream for over a decade with a handful of excellent performances in shows and films that simply didn't stick.

Plenty are worth returning to, particularly the short-lived Syfy series, Blood Drive, which Ritchson starred in for the year that it aired. In the 2017 show, Ritchson stars as Arthur Bailey, alongside Christina Ochoa as Grace D'Argento. The series is set in a dystopian, alternate version of Earth.

After a series of massive earthquakes caused by fracking, the United States has become split by a massive ravine where the Mississippi River used to flow. In the wake of the apocalypse, a megacorporation called Heart Enterprises has taken control. Arthur "Barbie" Bailey is a police officer of what remains of the LAPD.

He's assigned to partner with Grace, a femme fatale with a violent streak, and together, the pair participate in the "Blood Drive", a car race where the vehicles run on the power of human blood. The gory, action-packed, hyperreal series was canceled after just one season but deserved a lot more attention.

Blood Drive Is A Forgotten Dystopian Masterpiece On Syfy

Blood Drive was canceled the same day its finale aired, and maybe it was the network's quick efforts to divorce itself from the show that ultimately relegated it to the forgotten lands of television. It certainly hasn't been forgotten because it's a bad series. It's actually a very good one, with an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.

The series pulls from a lot, with each episode being centered on some grindhouse concept, whether they be post-apocalyptic monsters, cannibals, cults, evil lawmen, or sexually-charged Amazonians. Each episode of the series is like a pulp fiction comic magazine come to life in all its improbable glory.

Blood Drive does not feel like other Syfy shows which go right up to the edge of over-the-top guts, nudity, and language, but never cross over. Blood Drive does cross over, and it makes for a colorful, gruesome, delightful science fiction show that feels as powerful as the cars that participate in the titular race.

This Alan Ritchson Series Feels Like Fallout Crossed With Mad Max

Blood Drive wears its influences on its sleeve, calling attention to various B-movie tropes and films. One episode has Barbie and Grace accidentally ingesting humans at a monstrous BBQ; another features a mental hospital where the residents are addicted to candy. Things get weird.

The car races and brutal vehicles are obvious parallels to Mad Max, and the wasteland the pair drive through will remind a lot of the viewers of the Australian Outback of that franchise. For more recent shows, Blood Drive calls to mind Fallout, where monsters and people have come together in an uneasy truce in the wake of the apocalypse.