My health has improved a lot since two days ago because I stayed in yesterday and watched the entire True Blood first season in (almost) one sitting. I think it is clear already that I liked it since I watched all of it and was left disappointed that my second season hadn’t arrived jet. Still hasn’t – the reason why I took some time to write about the shows first season.
What to say about Alan Ball’s creative mind is a question that I have been thinking about since last night. He is the author of Six Feet Under, a show which I watched with a big interest back when I was a younger gal sitting in front of the TV late at nights. It was mostly about death – since the family lived and worked at the morgue. True Blood in some ways has a similar vibe to it as to think of it – it uses this sarcastic/ironic and over the top humor in bad situations and vulgar language with a hint of sex in every episode! Ball isn’t afraid to push the limits of people who are maybe used to things more pretty-pink-marshmallow-rainbow-embellished – well, True Blood is far from that by giving us some true blood and gory scenes.
I remember starting to watch the show back in the 2008 and disliking it for some reasons. I now get the hype about the show – it is so different that at first it feels weird. And the statistics prove it: the fallowing link takes you to Wikipedia – click here.
I’m not trying to justify myself disliking it at first but the numbers show clearly that the second season was more popular and the third, well let’s see how it holds up since it’s airing at the moment (4th coming next summer). But I think that the show for it rawness comes as a shock at first and the first 4 episodes were hard to watch in many reasons for me. First the southern accent – oh lord, it was so funny to hear that because I wasn’t used to it, now I already like it a little. Except Bill going “Suukih” in his low deep voice – I still laugh at that and I know it’s not supposed to be funny. And getting to know the characters was a little rough at first – but a rocky start is now over and I’m waiting for the second season as well as the third one with great excitement.
A short preview of the show: the first time we meet the characters it is led to know that vampires have been out from the coffin for two years now, thanks to synthetic True Blood drink. Most of the people don’t like it, there’s even this group called Fellowship of the Sun who fight against the vamps in order to restore the purity of mankind or something like that. But Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin – she won an Oscar when she was 11!) isn’t as offensive towards them being a more tolerant person than others, she actually starts a friendship with a new local vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer – they started dating after the pilot was filmed in 2007 and now are engaged) which later turns into a relationship and during the first season they kind of fight and make up a lot. But Sookie is a strong individual and after the deaths in the town that come to the closure in the 12th episode (all the seasons contain only 12 episodes) she still manages to hold everything together even when she finds out what everybody really thinks about the deaths. How does she find out? Well, she is telepathic which basically means she reads their minds – a gift and a curse at the same time. She works at this bar Merlotte that is owned by Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) who has a secret ! I’m not gonna tell you because if you have the interest in movies and TV-shows True Blood is a must see series! Not because vampires are popular but because it is made brilliantly (visuals, writing etc.). Anyway, Sookie has also an older brother Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten – some know him from the long running series in Australia, Home and Away) – and he likes to be naked a lot, and I mean a LOT while having sex with a LOT of women – and since Ryan looks amazing, those sex scenes never get old. The town has of course other colorful characters like Sookies best friend Tara Thorton (Rutina Wesley) who has had a rough childhood and shows that off with a rough personality. Lafayette Reynolds (Nelsan Ellis) is related to Tara and is the perfect example of a colorful character: while working as a cook in Merlotte’s he is also a drug dealer and a prostitute. But since it’s mostly a show about vampires you need some vampires: so here’s one (who I like more than Bill, sorry Bill) Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård – my affection to him runs deep in my European roots since he’s from Sweden) is the vampire sheriff in Area 5 which means he’s the boss of Bill! (I like that!) He and Sookie meet in Fangtasia, a bar that he owns, and fthere he inds out about her ability which he finds useful in a later episode (and second season?). This all sounds interesting but I haven’t really told you anything about the things that happen in the first season – well, there’s no way to tell – the killings are the main plot during the whole season and there’s a lot of relationship drama between Sookie-Bill-Sam-(Tara)-Jason. And since the show is so fluid it is impossible to tell a story without writing about previous episodes and up-coming episodes. There isn’t a special plot in every episode like in Supernatural (a new case every time) since it mostly runs like really long movie. I’ll tell this much – after watching the whole season you’d be begging for more and luckily there is more!
What’s also interesting is the intro (which has an addictive song!) – I keep thinking about the fact that it’s so different from the show but at the same time it suits it like a fist to an eye – lurid and strange, like the show. So enjoy the intro I added to the post and start watching True Blood if you haven’t seen it jet and like vampires (and shows like Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries) who aren’t using glitter when the sun shines.
thanks a lot, I am a big fan of this episode
which episode are you referring to?