True Blood is one of the first series on cable's premium channels to compete in the burgeoning market of the vampire love story. Created by Alan Ball, also executive producer of Six Feet Under, its one of the few vampire stories where the existence of these undead creatures is public knowledge.
Anna Paquin stars as Sookie Stackhouse, a small town Louisiana waitress, who meets elusive vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) and is instantly attracted to him. Portraying Sookie’s best friend with an unrivaled bad attitude is Tara Thornton and her oversexed brother Jason is portrayed by Ryan Kwanten.
The series, based on the The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, follows the lives of vampires who have out-ed themselves to the public, and now must deal with vampire prejudice and a group of humans who are curious about their species.
Disappointingly, most of the action is set inside a bar in this fictional southern town. The idea of bona fide vampires interacting with normal people is fascinating, yet the series doesn’t take advantage of all the interesting angles at its disposal.
Sex, as in all vampire tales, plays an enormous part of the storyline. The legend of the vampire is sexual by nature – the sucking of the neck or creeping around in the twilight – and True Blood features in-your-face scenes of sex between the undead and people. Unfortunately, it relies too much on the sexual side of vampires to get people’s attention, turning it instead into something that resembles a late night, low budget adult film.
The cinematography and direction of True Blood screams amateur college production and often looks unrealistic and laughable. Many of the performances, with the exception of the two lead characters, seem forced and not genuine.
It would be interesting if the series also focused on what was happening nationally with the vampire movement, or at least include story lines in New Orleans - a city portrayed as the worldwide capital of vampires.
True Blood Delivers a New Twist to the Age Old Vampire Story
Every new film, novel or television series based on vampires manages to deliver a new twist to the old story. The basics are usually maintained – such as the aversion to sunlight, blood sucking and super abilities – but each story tries to build off the other.
In True Blood, the vampire population has decided to go public because scientists created a synthetic blood, called “True Blood,” that tastes identical to the real thing. This twist has never been employed before and is ingenious because it leaves open the chance that many of the vampires still prefer the real thing to “True Blood.”
Vampires in the series still don’t like going out during the day and they have super strength and speed, although silver and not garlic damages them.
Similar to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, the lead female character falls in love with a suave, male vampire. And instead of the vampire being able to read minds, the character of Sookie is telephathic, and Sookie’s infatuation with Bill arises from her not being able to read his thoughts.
Overall, the concept is interesting, and it has a lot of potential, but the show is disappointing. Episodes of the second season are currently airing on HBO.
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