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If there's one thing
I hate, it's whiny vampires. Seriously, you're
undead and I'm sure that sucks and all, but don't
bore me with your self-pity. Stake yourself if it's
that big of a problem. It would seem that author
Anne Rice ushered in a stampede of authors who like
to write romances with whiny immortal evil vampires
waxing poetic about their condition, and I'm over
this trend. It doesn't matter how popular these
books or movies or shows are, I want no part of it.
I dealt with one broody vampire on a TV show once,
and I stuck with the show because it was good in
spite of his brooding, but Angel was enough for me,
I'm ready to knock the fangs out of the mouth of the
next creature of the night who can't shut up about
how hard his life is, ok? Are we clear?
Knowing this, it was
with much trepadation that I approached "True
Blood," HBO's new series chronicling the exploits of
vampires in modern day USA. These vamps aren't like
they used to be. for starters, in this series, the
Japanese have marketed synthetic blood with all the
nutrients that vampires need to stay alive, so
vampires need not hurt or kill the innocent any
longer (this beverage is called "TruBlood" and it
comes in a beer bottle and looks suspiciously like
Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade).
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With this new
invention, vampires are free to "come out of the
coffin" and live normal lives. They started the
Vampire Liberation Movement and are now asking
to be treated like regular citizens and allowed
to live their lives, but most humans are,
understandably, suspicious of this development
and continue to be afraid of vampires. As an
added complication, vampire blood tends to make
humans feel more vital and alive, so there is an
underground market that sells vampire blood like
any other drug, so while humans fear being
attacked and drained by vampires, vampires must
fear being attacked and drained by humans, which
adds a nice little ironic twist to the events.
This is an intriguing world, the one the show
has created for us. All these plot points come
to a head to head in a small town in Louisiana
called Bon Temps (where not many people seem to
be having good times). Anna Paquin plays Sookie
Stackhouse, a waitress with telepathic powers
who falls for a brooding and dangerous vampire
named Bill, played by Stephen Moyer. When I say
that Bill is brooding, it's more his look than
anything else, he carries none of the whining
that makes me want to stab other, lesser vampire
characters. Bill is one of those characters who
you never quite know if they're good or evil,
and as the series progresses, his ambiguity puts
him in a lot of danger from humans who don't
like that he's messing with one of their kind.
For instance, Sookie's best friend Tara, played
by Rutina Wesley, is mouthy and full of
attitude, but she cares about her friend and
doesn't want to see Sookie get hurt. Sam
Trammell plays Sam Merlotte, the man who owns
the bar where Sookie works as a waitress.
Trammell seems to be trying to do as much as he
can with what little he's given here. He could
have had an interesting character, but the
script doesn't do him justice and every scene
he's in is one note (he's always pissed at
Sookie because what it boils down to is that she
doesn't love him like he loves her). He's been
in love with Sookie for years and doesn't like
the idea of another guy coming into the picture,
especially someone so obviously dangerous.
Sookie can take care of herself, though. That's
the one thing that no one seems to recognize.
Her telepathic powers give her the ability to
wander around absently listening ot other
people's thoughts, and osmetimes the din becomes
too much for her and she shuts her eyes and
grabs her head like she has a headache, so I
guess everyone interprets that as her being
weak, but that's not the case at all. She stands
up to people, knows how to dress and make
herself up in order to manipulate people to give
her better tips, and she fearlessly runs after
Bill when she reads people's thoughts and finds
out that they plan to drain him and sell his
blood. It seems a little silly for everyone to
be treating sookie like such a child. I suppose
in the show she's supposed to be young, and
Paquin is by no means elderly, but she
definitely doesn't look anything like a child
and the way people treat her throughout the
series is annoying. Not to mention the show gets
bogged down by too many soap opera-ish subplots
for my taste.
Just when you think there's enough small-town
drama to fill a hundred soap operas, here's some
more for you. Sookie's brother Jason (played by
Ryan Kwanten) is a pimp with every girl in town
seemingly drooling over him (including Sookie's
best friend, Tara). This 'Ladies Man" shtik
makes it hard to have any sympathy for his
character, and I grew to dislike any sub plot
involving him. He can get any girl he wants and
he usually does, but early on in the season he
gets a girl who later winds up dead and he
becomes the prime suspect. This girl liked to
play with danger and she was even bitten by a
vampire once (he paid her a thousand dollars to
bite her) and she later videotaped the two of
them having sex. It's after we learn this that
we're subjected to some stupid and pointless
special effects (that don't look very special)
showing a vampire having sex with the woman
(hey, Buffy taught me that vampires don't show
up on film). Basically this leads to a season of
subplots with detectives watching Jason's every
move and Jason acting so guilty that you'll want
him to go to jail just to shut him up. Suffice
it to say that I wasn't interested in Jason or
anything involving his character. I thought was
unlikable and his character bogged down the
series and weakened it.
Though prime time has already seen a romance
between a vampire and a human with special
powers, this one held my interest anyway. Sookie
and Bill are both great characters with secrets
and angst but this chemistry that made the
screen feel like it was buzzing every time they
were together. I credit Paquin and Moyer with
great performances helping rise this series
above the level of silly melodrama that seemed
to permeate every subplot that didn't involve
their characters. Every time I was ready to shut
the series off and give up, they drew me back in
again. Of course, inevitably, every time a
character has special powers, she must find out
that she has some kind of mission, and Sookie is
no different. Her powers help her help Bill as
she finds out more about her destiny as the show
progresses. Meanwhile, Bill is strong and scary
enough to ward off danger and avenge Sookie when
some lowlifes attack her early on in the season.
Bill winds up being every bit as dangerous as
everyone warned he would be, but Sookie is
strong enough to match him, which is something
no one seems to have suspected. Sookie and
Bill's relationship actually rings true, as
fantastical as the circumstances may be, and
that alone is what keeps this show worth
watching.
Time will only tell if the other characters will
get more interesting or if the show will
continue to be worth watching, but for my money,
this show owes any success to Paquin and Moyer,
who act their asses off and singlehandedly save
the first season from mediocrity.-
Lillian Patterson
9/10/08 |
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