After two episodes, I’ve got to say… I’m digging True Blood, Alan Ball’s new HBO series about vampires “coming out of the coffin” to live among humans. The story’s set in rural Louisiana–there’s a murder mystery, corny jokes, and a psychic Anna Paquin falling for a hot vampire–and I’m already invested in the gory fun.
I doubt the show will affect me like Six Feet Under, Ball’s previous series, but no series has ever effected me that way. Did you guys see the final episode? I was still crying the next day. I was standing on the subway platform, thinking about the scene where David see Keith’s ghost (or whatever), and I just lost it. Capital L.
But that show was also structured to end perfectly: When your conceit is that someone dies every week, it only makes sense to see all the characters die in the finale. It’s absolute closure.
True Blood is much less profound… at least right now. As Alessandra Stanley writes in The New York Times, it’s a “little too enthralled” with its own exoticism, and its politics are wincingly obvious. Vampires have represented social outcasts for so long that we could have made the connections in True Blood in our sleep. We certainly don’t need “helpful” touches like church signs reading “God Hates Fangs.”
But that said, there’s a sudsy, sexy playfulness in this show that Ball’s work usually lacks. It’s nice to see vampires go into a bar an order a tall glass of Tru Blood (the synthetic blood that slakes their thirst for humans), and it’s nice to hear about “fangbangers,” the humans who want to get it on with vamps.
It’s nice because vampire stories are usually so moody that their comedy is unintentional. (Lestat, we are looking at you. )
Or else the vampires are Count Chocula, and they’re completely devoid of mystery. When the creatures land between beastliness and foolishness, they’re much more interesting.
Do you guys read those Twilight books? Do they skirt this line, or are they all, “Vampires are goth and sexy!” If Twilight is more like True Blood, I might see that movie or read one of those novels.
Then I guess I’ll be a vampire freak. I’ll have to go to a vampire convention. Or think more about this woman.







6 responses so far ↓
1 Lisa // Sep 17, 2008 at 6:44 am
We completely agree about True Blood. It has given us a reason to be rebels and stay up past 9:00 on Sunday nights. And now I want some cereal!
I started watching this past episode hoping that it would be faster paced than the first one. I am all for setting up a story, but I get bored too easily (and bored for me means asleep on the couch). This episode had me wide awake from start to finish!
2 Amanda // Sep 17, 2008 at 10:38 am
Speaking as a former middle grades teacher, I have to say that the Twilight series is pretty amazing. Speaking as me, they are hella fun to read.
3 TRAYB // Sep 17, 2008 at 11:01 am
I agree, Mark — “True Blood” has been really addictive so far. For me, I think that says a lot about what else is on TV right now. (And really, could HBO ever do worse than “John from Cincinnati”?)
I thought “Fringe” was a big stinking mess. I barely made it through the first episode. And we’re hating “Runway” this season.
Not sure if you’ve been following “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,” but its new season has been fun and unpredictable so far. However, I’m fairly certain I’m the last person in America who still cares.
4 Mark Blankenship // Sep 17, 2008 at 1:21 pm
You know, I was thinking about watching “Terminator,” but since I didn’t see the first season, I figured I’d missed the boat. Is it the kind of show I can just jump into, or should I wait for seasons to come out on DVD?
5 TRAYB // Sep 17, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Nah, I think you could jump in pretty easily. It’s fairly similar to the setup for “T2″: Sarah and John on the run from killer robots, only this time helped by a hottie teenage cyborg instead of Ahnold.
The first ep of the new season introduced Shirley Manson (!) of Garbage as the new bad guy, and her debut was quite bad ass.
6 I’m Glad to be Pushing Daisies // Oct 2, 2008 at 2:52 am
[...] ten episodes, the series has never seemed realistic. Even True Blood aims for verisimilitude, with its vampires living in authentically grungy swamp shacks, but Pushing [...]
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