True Blood

[demeter918]

This is about vampires. This is set in the South. The main character's name is Sookie Stackwood. We have a vampire called Bill.

We also have Anna Paquin, who I have a weird love for.

So far?

Weird in that I can't quite decide whether they're trying to be a dark comedy or a dark drama. Or maybe it's neither. Or both. Or are they heading in a new direction? Maybe not. I can and am predicting most of the outcomes.

Maybe it's me or maybe it's the show but there's sure an awkward feeling. I feel awkward watching it. They look awkward on-screen, but then... not. This is why I say this is a weird story because I can't even tell if I like it or not! I can definitely say I like it more than Twilight but that might be because I hate Edward Cullen's guts and Bill Compton doesn't remind me of him. Much.

Sookie is, um, interesting. Especially Paquin's interpretation of her. I don't particularly like the innocent virgin! setup, but somehow, it's not bothering me as much as it usually does. Must be all the copious amounts of sex the other characters are having; Bill and Sookie's thus-far-chaste 'relationship' seems kinda almost backgrounded. Which is weird for a series that supposedly focuses on them.

Now, Tara. Tara is both wonderful and terrible. I've never quite seen a character like her on a show yet. She's... unique, certainly. I actually kind of like her; I know she's definitely going to get on some nerves there and I wouldn't be too surprised, but she provides a weird zing! to the show that you don't often get with secondary female characters. Does anyone else get the same feeling?

I think it's worth noting that while the vampires are also highly-sexualized in this series, it still feels different from the other popular vampire series of the day like Twilight, Anita Blake, the Anne Rice... things. A lot of people are going to notice that Bill is quite gentlemanly. It's hard not to compare it to Edward's portrayal in Twilight, but it's obvious they're playing up the whole gentleman-from-the-pre-Cival-War-South. Which is a refreshing move!

I can't believe I'm saying this, but with all the 'bad boys' and asses out there on TV that we're expected to love (assholery and all), this is something I'm looking forward to! It's kind of perfect for Sookie too, who gives the viewer the impression that she's very sweet, naive, but not particuarly stupid either.

Overall, I'd probably suggest a go even if you're not into vampire series/stories/plot devices. I've seen three episodes thus far and while it's not going to be must-see TV, it's not as bad as I thought it could have been.

But still, be prepared for awkwardness. Which, I don't know, I kindasorta like. I mean, relationships are always weird when they start out and I love the idea that they totally don't fit at first, but that they're working at it.

... or it could be the actor/actress needing a bit of time to mesh first. Yeah, or that.

In other, real-life news, the VP debate last night was more boring than I thought it'd be. It's probably very petty of me to say this, but I watched with a kind of half-formed thought that maybe Palin would screw up on the podium. After watching the Couric interview, you'd think she owuld have a hard time dealing with an honest debate, but I guess that 'debate boot camp' kind of worked. Palin rambled a lot. I started tuning her out at points because it got so repetitive.

Mind, Biden wasn't much better. He's pretty repetitive too. I guess that's the point.

Palin still makes my noise muscles twitch. She irritates me so much. Having her as our first female VP candidate just... argh. argh. argh.argharghargharheaejahfkehajfhejkl.

Comments

[minni.livejournal.com]

Wait - they made Dead 'til Dawn and its sequels into a TV show? I can remember reading those books before I left home fiove years ago.

(Actually, I think I owned at least the first four books, but if I did then they were among the many that my sister threw away.)

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

Sookie Stackhouse, right? Yep! True Blood on HBO. I saw the first few episodes before I heard that it was originally a book series. I'm going to check them out once the first season of the TV series is done and finished. I like it thus far, and I'm pretty picky about vampire stories.

[yankeerose69.livejournal.com]

I hear ya on how Palin irritates you. I think what sets it off for me is her voice aaaaaand I guess pretty much everything about her. Everytime I see her on tv if I have it on, I just want to throw things at it so luckily, I switch it back to music.

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

I watched her interview on Fox via Youtube and UGHUGHUGHUGH, she basically complained that Katie Couric was being 'mean' and was asking her all these 'irrelevant' questions. I couldn't believe what she said. Is she really that naive/stupid?

During the VP debate, Biden had me listening and I tried to listen to Palin, I really did, but she literally spoke without taking a breath at times. You know how someone talks for a long time and you just zone them out without even meaning to do it?

Just the idea that she might possibly be our VP is shiver-inducing.

[reynardine.livejournal.com]

Actually, Sarah Palin isn't the first female VP candidate--Geraldine Ferraro was. She ran on the Democratic ticket with Walter Mondale back in 1984. (I turned 18 that year and that was the first election that I voted in!)

I'm loving True Blood, although I agree the series is still trying to find its feet. I'm on the fifth of the eight books of the "Southern Vampire" series. The show is better than the books in some ways because it does put more emphasis on the supporting characters. The books are very Sookie-centric and she can be a bit of a Mary-Sue at times.

All the sex is a bit much. It's like "Whatever, let's get back to the story, mkay?" But if they include even half of the weird things that pop up in the books, this series will be cracktastic, and that's what I'm waiting for.

PS: Keep your eye on Eric, the blonde vampire that shows up in episode 4. He plays a major ongoing role and is a lot of fun to watch.

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for that. I had no idea! Foot, meet mouth.

I'm starting to like True Blood quite a bit, which surprises me since I hate Twilight and dislike the Anita Blake series. But there's something strangely endearing about Sookie on the show (I'm guessing it's going to be a different experience with the book!Sookie, so I'm waiting to read it until the first season is over) and I love Anna Paquin so it's kind of a perfect fit. I thought, at first, it'd be the usual young!gal falling for dark!older!broodin!vampire, and it is, but... yeah, feels different to me.

(it could be my own bias saying that!)

I really like the supporting cast, but I'm enjoying Tara the most!

=( Eric is precisely the type of vampire I dislike... I saw the fourth episode and while I know he's going to enter that relationship sooner or later, according the to Laws of Dramatic TV, but I'm hoping it's later rather than sooner. -_- Yeah, I suck.

[flamika.livejournal.com]

Ah, True Blood. It's definitely gotten mixed reactions all over the board, both from fans of the book and people who are walking into the show cold. I just finished reading the sixth book in the series, and it's fun vampire fluff, but it just never reaches that level of awesomeness that the Anita Blake series did--for me, at least. I think that something that the series has that others didn't was this tangible sense of Southern culture. It's actually one of the things that I really love about both the books and the show.

The books are in first person PoV, so they kind of expanded the TV series to showcase the other characters. (I don't know if you've ever read the books--if you have, I suspect all my babbling here will be stuff you already know. ^^) There's a Tara in the books, but it's not the same Tara that's in the show. We get to see all of Jason's exploits (which I could, quite frankly, do with a little less of, but in the canon, he is promiscuous), and I think they're playing up Jason's humorous aspects and maybe trying to contrast his sexual lifestyle with his sister's. (Sookie doesn't come across as quite the innocent virgin in the books; Anna Paquin has kind of this girlish demeanor about her, but in the books, I didn't realize that Sookie was a virgin until she came out and said it.)

I hope the series improves for you. ^^ I'm fairly fond it by now, but it could just be because I'm liking seeing the book brought to life.

[demeter918.livejournal.com]

I just finished the fourth episode and actually, I rather like it! I'm kind of surprising myself too because I'm usually pretty harsh on vampire series (all of them, from books to anime to movies, so it's not just Anita Blake or Moonlight biases) but this one... I don't know, it just feels different to me. On the surface, we have the totally stereotypical setup of young, innocent girl falling in love with the much older, much darker, much more experienced vampire who broods, is a man of few words, and yet still somehow loves her. This isn't anything really new, but at the same time, IT IS. 0_0 I have no idea what I mean.

And exactly, what you said about Southern culture. You don't often see a show that's set there and it seems to be digging itself deep rather than just skimming the shallow, useful parts. I'm starting to adore Sookie and Bill's gentlemanly ways are really, really, really... well, nice! He reminds me of this standalone manga I read as a kid. It was about vampires (obviously) and the vampire in there was a lot more of my vision of vampires than anything else I've seen. So True Blood is, so far, playing on at least one part of it.

So it means (have you seen the fourth episode?) that already, I am disappointed by the entrance of Eric.

By the way, I haven't read the stories yet. I found out that it was based on a series of books after I looked up the TV show. I heard the later books were a bit like the later Anita Blake books (in terms of how they change the main character) so I'm a bit hesitant. I heard Sookie breaks it off with Bill and enters a series of relationships with other supernatural characters, right?

[flamika.livejournal.com]

I'm very picky about vampire series as well. The Twilight Saga was god-awful in so many ways, and since I fell out of love with the Anita Blake series, I've yet to find a vampire series to own my heart. There was an adaptation of Tanya Huff's Blood books on Lifetime called Blood Ties, which I actually liked better than the books they were based off of, but the series was episodic and eventually lost my interest.

Stephen Moyer--who, btw, is British!--is doing a really good job of bringing Bill to life, so to speak. To me, Bill was a little bland in the books, but there is a whole group of readers who still love Bill long time in spite of some things that go down later in the series. I actually like Bill mostly for that raw rage we see when the human facade slips and we see a god-honest vampire who is actually frightening and doesn't sparkle. XD

Yep, I saw the fourth episode. ^^ I didn't much like Eric's presence until later in the series, and now he's probably my favorite. (I really don't get emotionally involved with the series, so that's not actually saying much...) I went into the books knowing that Sookie would eventually develop the Mary Sue-ish quality of having a whole parade of suitors chomping at the bit to date her/sleep with her, so was able to brace for it. So far, Sookie hasn't changed as drastically as Anita did, which is good because I couldn't stand the direction the AB series took.

(Yes, Sookie does break it off with Bill, but with excellent reason. And then the man-jumping commences (although not to as many men as I'm sure some people make it seem), but unlike what happened with the AB series, Sookie doesn't end up having a man harem. She moves on from each man and doesn't gradually accumulate multiple lovers like Anita did.)

[akujunkan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, True Blood is a show I've been meaning to get my hands on somehow...if only because I like the premise and after Twilight it's time for me to get back to some decently executed vampire fiction.

The thing about the whole "Palin breaking glass ceilings" story they're trying to spoonfeed us is that she was chosen precisely so that the Republicans could either pit her against Hillary or crow about how they had the balls to select a female running mate while the Democrats chickened out. That and the pander to religious conservatives.

Which is a longwinded way of saying that she was not chosen for her intellectual or experiential merits, and is thus not breaking a single glass ceiling at all.