Late to the Party: Finally Watching True Blood

Image from Wikipedia

How did you spend your Saturday?  Me, I wasted it all watching HBO On Demand!  Well, I shouldn't say wasted, since I was watching Season 2 of True Blood, which turns out to be a really good show.  I did manage to do a couple of chores and run a couple of errands, but otherwise, I was ass in the cushions, watching hour after hour of vampires, shape-shifters, and whosie-whatsis god creatures.

It's odd that I've missed out on the current vampire craze, considering that I'm a huge Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan. But I came late to that party too, only catching an episode or two until getting hooked in season six.  Since then, I've seen every episode multiple times. But I was leery of the new vampire shows and movies.  Twilight seems too girly, too Judy Blume. Vampire Diaries is on the CW, which is sorta slumming, and while I'm watching The Gates on ABC, it is obviously a throw-away summer show, a sort of Desperate Vampires.  True Blood though, comes from HBO, which has a great reputation for television series, and is from the maker of Six Feet Under, which was kind of awesome. So how did I miss it?

Dunno. And as with Buffy, I had to jump into it in the middle, since Season One isn't available On Demand.  I was very quickly hooked.  This set of vampires is based in Louisiana, in a world where the public at large is aware of the blood suckers, and they are at the early stages of integrating into society.  The main characters are a mind-reading human woman, Sookie (Anna Paquin) and her ancient (but kinda hot) vampire boyfriend, William (Stephen Moyer). There's a sexy rival vampire (Alexander Skarsgård), a sexy shapeshifting bartender (Sam Trammell), Sookie's sexy but stupid brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten) and lots of other local townfolk. And there's a super-freaky hippy-chick godlike woman (Michelle Forbes) who likes to make the whole town get naked and party.

The show is like a gene-splicing between Buffy and Six Feet Under, with some of the dark humor of both. Being on HBO, there are no act breaks, so instead of a series of mini-cliffhangers, the storylines are more interwoven than Buffy, but most episodes manage a doozy of a cliffhanger at the end of each episode. . .each of which is 50+ minutes long.  So unlike catching up on network season collections, it takes a little longer to get through a whole season.  I don't know about seasons 1 or 3, but in the second, there is--again like Buffy--a "big bad" that is threaded through the whole season, and will come to a head in the season finale, which I'm saving for morning.

The show is very entertaining, engaging, and makes you want to watch just one more. It's like a really good book that you can't put down.  It is no surprise that creator Alan Ball is gay, as there is an undercurrent of "vampire rights-as-gay rights" allegory, not to mention a great job casting sexy guys for primary and secondary roles.  Lots of shirtless guys, and oddly partially clothed women (even during sex scenes). But I frankly was expecting a little more nudity and sex than was delivered, given the show's reputation. Maybe I was spoiled by Shortbus. 

Super-cute Kwanten from Wikipedia

Most of the actors are quite good, though curiously the main male lead, Moyer, is terrible. Or maybe it is just his effort at an American accent. . .or Louisiana accent. . .and his really, really bad hair. Plus he's sometimes talking around fangs. But many of his scenes are just eye-rollingly bad, with emoting on the level of Fred Dryer's Hunter.  The best--or at least most natural--actor of the bunch is Kwanten--whose accent sounds real, and not forced--with much of his time spent shirtless. Which is nice.

I really liked the cable news inserts they did, having point/counterpoint arguments with vampire supporters and anti-vampire activists.  The big subplot of an evangelical anti-vampire religious group was spot-on, and completely believable. But oddly--and I'm sure Ball did not intend this--you really could side with the anti-vampire side of the argument, given the evidence of how the vampires actually behave.

Also liked: shape-shifter Sam (how can you not like a cute guy who turns into a cute dog?), Michelle Forbes in anything, Godric and Eric's relationship (did anyone else think they were going to kiss?), flamboyantly gay, but tough Lafayette, and the whole feeling that anything could happen and probably will. Good show. I'll keep watching (and probably will get the Season One DVD to catch up).  Highly Recommended.