When you put aside all of its action and predictable gore, “Blade: The Series” (9 p.m., Spike) boils down to dull, nonsensical pretense.

The “series” begins with a scene that makes absolutely no sense, or at least any sense outside of a video game. Blade (Kirk “Sticky” Jones) is seen riding a motorcycle in the basement of some supersecret facility. Where are we? How’d he get that motorcycle in the building? He’s chasing some guy in a Russian officer’s uniform. When cornered, the guy starts to hiss like a vampire. So he’s a Russian military vampire? Who knows? Who cares? Blade plants an axe in his thigh and then tortures him for some cryptic information. He then smirks, makes a quip and decapitates our mysterious friend.

For the uninitiated, Blade was born half man and half vampire, and he battles the forces of evil while controlling his blood lust with the help of some secret serum. We learn his life story from a mad scientist (Randy Quaid, in an uncredited role) who, for reasons unknown, wears broken glasses. But Blade’s real problem is that he was born without any sense of humor, or much of a personality. For all of his knife wielding and Hog-driving, this Blade is a petulant, grouchy bore.

¢ “American Masters” (8 p.m., PBS, check local listings) repeats “No Direction Home” a two-part profile of Bob Dylan and his music directed by Martin Scorsese. Among the most acclaimed TV events of 2005, “No Direction” explores all of the social, musical and political trends that converged in the first half of the 1960s in the folk-rock scene. Scorsese blends recent interviews with Dylan and his contemporaries with a wealth of archival footage, much of it never before seen. Tonight’s segment ends with Dylan’s triumphant reception at the 1963 Newport Folk festival.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Fabien Cousteau, grandson of the famed television oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, hosts “Shark: Mind of a Demon” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ Regis Philbin hosts two episodes of “America’s Got Talent” (7 p.m. NBC). The first hour is a repeat.

¢ The 16 contestants perform on “So You Think You Can Dance” (7 p.m., Fox).

¢ On two episodes of “Lost” (ABC), Sawyer’s wounds fester (8 p.m.), how the other half lived (9 p.m.).

¢ Television stars discuss how they were discovered on the six-part series “My First Time” (9 p.m., TV Land). Tonight: Henry Winkler and Katey Sagal.