The TV series the Sci Fi channel originally rejected as “too intelligent” for an American audience three years ago is finally making its U.S. debut on that very channel Friday after a 21-episode run in Canada, South Africa, the UK, Japan, Korea, France, Romania and just about every other developed country on the globe.

Hailed by critics for its writing and acting and cinematic artistry, the alternate universe- and bind-bending Charlie Jade with its catch phrase, “Three worlds… One hope,” follows the adventures of a missing persons detective who finds himself caught between three parallel universes.

Created by the team of Chris Roland (Lexx) and Robert Wertheimer (Friday the 13th: The Series), Charlie Jade was filmed almost exclusively in urban South Africa, which gives the series an odd familiar/unfamiliar, otherworldly feel.

SYNOPSIS
from the SciFi.com Sci Fi Weekly:

The series is about a detective named Charlie Jade who lives in a cold, corporate world called Alphaverse. Charlie finds missing people. However, his life is turned upside down when he tries to help a lost young woman with no identity, only to be thrown into a parallel universe. Suddenly Charlie is the lost one as he attempts to get home, along the way discovering an intricate mystery involving three separate parallel universes, Alphaverse, Betaverse and Gammaverse.

“I have to say how thrilled I am that it’s actually going to get an airing on SCI FI in the United States, because when I started this, that was my ultimate objective,” Wertheimer  said in the Sci Fi Weekly interview.

The series’ tone is dark, gritty, violent and very sexy – similar to that of Sci Fi’s current hit series, Battlestar Galactica, although some of the sex scenes which played unedited in other countries are ripe for censor trimming in the U.S.

Nominated for [[Gemini award]]s in 2006 for Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series for Michael Filipowich, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series for Patricia McKenzie, Best Picture Editing in a Dramatic Program or Series, and Best Visual Effects; the series won a Gemini for best sound editing.

CAST
Jeffrey Pierce (Close to Home, The Nine) as Charlie Jade
Michael Filipowich (Earth: The Final Conflict) as 01 Boxer
Michele Burgers as Essa Rompkin
Tyrone Benskin (Persian Emmisary in 300) as Karl Lubinsky
Danny Keogh as Julius Galt
Marie-Julie Rivest (Leonidas’ mother in 300) as Jasmine
Patricia McKenzie as Reena
Graham Clarke as Brion Boxer
David Dennis as Sew Sew Tukarrs

And in case you are one of the 15 people who missed it, here is the original, “Shoes” by Kelly.

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In case you missed it, Star Wars‘ Natalie Portman’s Gansta Rap from last weekend’s Saturday Night Live is available on the Devil Ducky site.

In the video, the actress responded to the question. “What’s a day in the life of the real Natalie Portman like?” with an answer that spoofs celebrity-crazy news magazines such as Entertainment Tonight as well as her braniac Harvard-grad reputation and, most importantly, the “street cred” of modern studio-made rap artists in a mock-interview rap song.

Included are such mock messages to fans as, “All the kids who look up to me can suck my di-*beep*” and “I’ll kill your f-*beep*-in’ dog for fun, so don’t push me.”

The video requires the QuickTime plug in media player.