New Obsession: True Blood

Pictured (left to right): Sam Trammell, Ryan Kwanten, Rutina Wesley, Nelsan Ellis, Stephen Moyer, Anna Paquin.


Ever since its inception, I have not been a big believer in the recent vampire fad. I do not find anything terribly appealing about the Twilight series or any of its other broody-teen-vampire offshoots such as the CW’s The Vampire Diaries. And I confess, I coupled the HBO series True Blood along with that trend, and I now own up to this severe error in judgment having watched the entirety of the first season and second season.

In all honesty I should have known this would happen as HBO is well known for its quality dramatic program,s and yet I resisted True Blood as I feel compelled to resist all vampire-related media (the lone exception being the wonderful Swedish film Let the Right One In, which is currently in the midst of an American remake). Set in a small Louisiana town, Bon Temps, True Blood (for the maybe two people in the world who don’t know) is about local girl-next-door waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) who meets and falls in love with a vampire named Bill (Stephen Moyer). Obviously this causes controversy as vampires have only recently “come out of the coffin” and fierce political battle is being played over whether or not America should grant them civil rights (allegory, anyone?). However, Sookie is unashamed of her relationship with Bill and soon gets enveloped in his world of the living dead.

In terms of writing and storyline, I have to separate the show from the series of novels upon which it is based as I have not read any of them and from what I hear, the show has (not unexpectedly) taken several liberties. Whatever these liberties may be, the way vampire lore is dealt with here is truly unique, which is a real achievement given the recent craze. There is the established set of “rules” for vampires, and to see it get revamped (pun completely intended) is exciting and makes the show all the more enjoyable. I was particularly fascinated by how the selling and buying vampire blood is similar to that of narcotic drugs, as are its effects. Also, synthetic blood is bottled and sold as a kind of taboo drink (a la Absinthe) called True Blood, where the show gets its title. It is in ways like these that True Blood takes an already tired bit of mythology that is currently seeing its most brutal beating –to- death and makes it fresh and downright cool. The characters are likable and completely relatable, and the views they have toward the presence of vampires in their lives is extremely realistic and was clearly made to mirror the ongoing debates over homosexual civil rights.

The aesthetic look of the show mirrors the seductive quality inherent in all the vampires, and contrary to what I initially feared upon hearing legends of the True Blood sex scenes, the nudity is not lewd or unnecessary and frankly the few sex scenes that do occur do not even go as far as HBO’s censorship limits permit. That aside, True Blood is just genuinely a well-constructed piece of television. The writing is witty and not overly melodramatic (a major pitfall for most vampire stories) and even in a world of all manner of supernatural being, you can find the humanity in any character, be they living or the living dead.