‘True Blood’ Review
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
TRUE BLOOD
A Pilot Review by Scott Carelli
I really like Vampires.
But as a fan I’m also a really picky one. Ever since Buffy, I’ve never seen or read anything vampire-related that’s really impressed me. Moonlight was a rip-off of two other vastly superior vampire series (Forever Knight and Angel) with a generic, bland plot filled with generic, bland characters I couldn’t care less about if I tried. Reading the novel Twilight, I was immediately turned off by the portrayal of vampires as nothing more than gothic runway models. I had all but given up (assuming that once you go Whedon, you never go back), when I started being accosted by viral marketing ads for a new HBO series called True Blood.
The first of which was for a new beverage called “TruBlood“, which I assumed was some new drink cleverly disguised as blood in a bottle for the hip gothic crowd (Available soon at a Hot Topic near you!). It even comes in different flavors: O Negative, A Negative, B Negative, and AB Positive. The site itself was complete with clever commercials, downloads, and even a short quiz to determine what blood type you would prefer. It was all odd for sure, but I didn’t give it too much thought and forgot about it for a few weeks.
Then I discovered another one, a human/vampire dating site called “LoveBitten“. At this point I began to suspect viral marketing and that’s when I noticed the copyright of the site was owned by HBO. So, in an attempt to find out more information, I registered with the dating site. Once finished with the questionnaire though, I was informed that due to the high volume of registration requests, I wouldn’t be able to join their service at this time. It also told me to browse their members area, but when I tried, it of course told me that I had to be registered. The site had successfully lead me in a circle, chasing for a wild goose. I still had little to no info about what exactly this was, but a third advertisement caught my eye.
This one was for a blog called “BloodCopy” which claims to be a site chronicling “the amazing days we live in as vampires attempt to integrate with humans.” There’s a lot of information to take in here, and the site does the best job setting up this world in which vampires have “come out of the coffin”, revealing themselves to the public. The most interesting part of the site, are a series of news reports focusing what the world has been like since “The Great Revelation”. Sites for “The American Vampire League” and “The Fellowship of the Sun” are mentioned here which focus on vampire rights. It all paints a very realistic picture of what the world would probably be like if these events were to transpire.
Finally, I discovered a much more straightforward advertisement for a webcomic prequel for a new HBO series called True Blood. Usually, comic tie-ins (especially of the web variety) are pretty low quality, with scripts that read as if they were written over a coffee break and the most generic, stiff artwork possible. I assumed that this would be no different, but was actually surprised at the level of quality. It’s no Watchmen by any means, but definitely better than any webcomic tie-in I was familiar with (*cough*Heroes*cough*). It follows the Vampire King of California (is that anything like the Sausage King of Chicago?) as he gets involved with the distribution of TruBlood, giving a lot of back-story along the way from the vampire perspective which wasn’t really explored on the BloodCopy blog. In any event, I was hooked and ready to see what this series was all about.
The other day, I had the chance to catch a screener copy of True Blood‘s pilot episode. I must say, there’s a lot to like about this new series. Turns out, it’s based on the Southern Vampire series of books by Charlaine Harris and was adapted for television by Six Feet Under mastermind Alan Ball (who also wrote and directed the pilot).
The main problem I’ve always had with vampires is how they’re depicted. My worry was still very much alive going into the pilot episode of this series, but fortunately, the opening scene put them to rest. It involves two teenagers stopping at a convenience store, which happens to carry TruBlood, to ask the attendant about the beverage and the customers who purchase it. There’s a twist at the end of the scene that you’ll probably see coming, but I don’t want to ruin just in case you don’t. Right away, I knew I was in for something a little different.
The series stars Anna Paquin (“Rogue” of X-Men fame) as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress at a diner in a small Louisiana town. The pilot begins two years after the vampires “came out of the coffin” and the people of the town have seemingly recovered since then, going back to their regular lives. It reminds me a lot of the time right after 9-11, when most of America seemed restless, not really knowing what to do or where to go from here (okay, you can stop singing the Buffy musical now…). We’re introduced to a variety of characters including Sookie’s best friend, boss, and brother. All of the characters in the pilot were interesting to varying degrees, and I didn’t dislike any of them (other than the ones I was supposed to.)
The show finally starts moving when a vampire named Bill shows up at the diner, much to the dismay of the restaurant’s patrons. Sookie is the only person there who isn’t afraid to talk to him, and does so with all of the southern hospitality she can muster. Stephan Moyer plays Bill as overly mysterious and gothic, but I think that as the show goes on, it will be revealed as mostly an act on Bill’s part to portray a vampire the way the town would probably assume they would be. Even in the pilot, there were instances where Bill seemed to be lowering his defenses around Sookie and letting his real personality come through.
Another interesting part of the mythology of this show is that vampire blood can be used as a drug of sorts. Humans capture vampires and drain their blood to either use for themselves or sell for a nice chunk of change ($2500/ounce). It was unclear to me if they ingest the blood or inject it, but it apparently makes you feel strong and healthy. I’m assuming the experience is similar to MGH (Mutant Growth Hormone), the fictional drug from the Marvel universe that grants users temporary superpowers, or in this case, vampire powers.
The rest of the episode sets up a murder mystery involving a local “fangbanger”, a sort of groupie for vampires who allows them to drink their blood during a sexual encounter. When she winds up dead, the evidence points to Sookie’s brother, but the town is convinced that Bill had something to do with it. Nothing is resolved, so I’m assuming that it will be a multi-episode arc, possibly spanning the whole first season, but I’m not certain.
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An aspect to the show that isn’t really gone into is Sookie’s telepathy. She can read minds, and because of this she is the town outsider. How do they know what she can do? For whatever reason, Sookie goes around answering people’s thoughts every chance she gets. Seems like something I would keep to myself, but I suppose everyone would react differently to a situation like that. I do, however, love that her friends and co-workers mistakenly refer to her as ‘psychic’, much to her dismay. It reminds me a lot of the public confusion between ‘anorexia’ and ‘bulimia’ or ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘DID’. But overall, Sookie’s mind reading seemed mostly like an easy way for her character and Bill to connect almost immediately because when Sookie tries to read Bill’s mind all she can hear is white noise. I hope more is explored with this aspect of her character, because so far it seems to serve little purpose beyond making her a bit eccentric.
Overall, I think the pilot does a great job of introducing us to the world of True Blood. My favorite part of any series, is discovering the mythology behind the show (Lost, Heroes, Buffy, etc.), and I’m happy to see that True Blood is no different. Having watched this, and enjoying it so much, I had to ask myself what was different about this series? What makes it better than any of the other recent vampire outings? All I could come up with was one simple answer: this show has heart. And I’m not talking about romance or a family hug. No, it’s something bigger than that. Something that isn’t really seen on the surface. The series, like Buffy, cares about its characters almost more than you do, which I think is a huge strength that speaks volumes about the creators. Was it the best pilot I’ve ever seen? No, not remotely. But it was strong regardless, and I urge you all to give the series a shot. I’d almost given up on finding a new vampire series worth watching, but I’m glad I didn’t.
True Blood premieres Sunday, September 7th on HBO.
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I had never even heard of the show until I read your review. It was actually pretty good, there was a few scenes in the pilot that I didn’t like but I am sorely missing a vampire show in my tv schedule since Buffy and Angel ended (the comics do not even compare to the show) so I’ll give the first season a chance and see where it goes. Thats if it doesn’t get canceled or anything like that. :)
Also Scott
Also Scott what?
Oh yeah. I killed him before he could finish typing. Sorry.
I watched the pilot for True blood a few months back and Im on the fence. It is a little too camp, which is one problem most vampire movies do have. and some of the acting was a over the top, but I see that they have done some recasting and such.
so for now Im looking forward to the second episode.
Also I was scoping out the books at the store on the weekend. I think Im going to pick the first one up.
I haven’t watched the pilot, however I am downloading right now. I will say I did read the first 3 books in the series and was not impressed. There were a few interesting characters however the main character seem to get on my nerves. I dont’ even remember finshing the 3rd book. I’m a huge fan of supernatural series like Kelley Armstong(who is bout to do a run on Angel: After the Fall) Kim Harrison, and Patrica Briggs. I picked up the Charlaine Harris book on the fact that Kim Harrison liked it. I will give the pilot a chance, however I only think it can surive if they use the interesting characters and ignore the borning ones.
ok, I just watched the trailer. seemed to at least stay true to the book from what I remember. Not sure if that is a good thing. However I will say the trailer made it more interesting to watch the pilot. I also feel I must add. Kim Harrison’s books should be made into a TV series on HBO before this was. Those books are a great read. Everyone should check them out.
Mini spoilers for those who haven’t seen the pilot.
@ Scott:
Sorry I pushed the ‘enter’ button by mistake and it posted the comment when I wasn’t finished. I was going to ask, when you saw the pilot did it end with Sookie getting beat up? The one I watched ended just as she got kicked across the face and it seemed a little sudden as if it was missing a few minutes?
Off topic but in Buffy season eight the next big arc after issue 20 is going to be about [REST OF COMMENT DELETED DUE TO SPOILERS!!!]
@Paul
the copy of the pilot I had ended the same way.
But I had no idea about the season eight stuff, so thanks for the spoilers…
@ Scott
Sorry I assumed most season 8 readers would have known. The info was released a while back at this years Comic Con. It’s not so much of a spolier though it’s like saying, Faith will be in ‘No Future For You’ or in Wolves at The Gate’ they go to Tokyo. Looking back I probably should have put up a mini spolier warning. Here is a link to where I found out about it all, it is being discussed in a forum:
http://www.slayalive.com/index.cgi?board=buffyseason8&action=display&thread=3155&page=1
I’m not sure about this one. I watched the pilot several weeks ago, and it had its ups and downs. Most of the characters are interesting, especially the best friend character. However, I thought that Bill the vampire was bland and boring. I also agree with schwien11 about the campiness of the pilot.
So, I liked some things, and I didn’t like others. I think it has some potential, but I probably won’t be watching it, especially since I don’t have HBO.
I saw the pilot a few months back and thought it was ok. I am hoping it will be improved when it airs as pilots usually do IMO. I have known of the books, but never got into them. I do think that this has the foundation to be a great series, and HBO should be able to push the show in a direction other networks couldn’t. The virtual marketing for the show is pretty interesting too.
I agree about there being no other good vamp shows anymore. I watched Moonlight (every ep!), but only because my mom liked it and we used to watch Angel together. She would come to my place and every Wednesday was Angel day. I think she wanted to have that again, but I couldn’t get into Moonlight. It was hollow, the relationships had no chemistry, and was too much of a rip off to me. I put True Blood on her calendar so she can give it a try. Here in Canada it doesn’t air until Sept. 7 though.
Although, as you probably know, I like Twilight. I think the problem is that you have to go into it knowing your reading romance, not a vampire or horror genre novel.
@Care
No the problem with Twilight is that the romance is completely unbelievable. I don’t get the sense of a real romance AT ALL. Bella and Edward do not grow together over the course of the book their just thrust together by authorial decree. At the end of chapter ten, Bella tells us that she is completely and totally in love with Edward. But why? She hardly knows the guy. And Edward is too confused over his conflicting physical feelings for Bella to comprehensibly express what is it that draws him to her romantically. But Meyer deems all of that character development unimportant in favor of longing gazes and epic descriptions of how attractive Edward is.
There were two points in the book where I realized there was a major problem:
1) Bella and Edward are heading into the woods on a “date” and Bella is convinced that it can only go one of two ways. Either Edward will choose to love her or choose to eat her, and Bella seems okay with either option. She even goes so far as to tell everyone in town that her plans with Edward have been canceled so that he doesn’t get into any trouble should he decide she would make a better milkshake than a lover. WHAT?!! Hey, Bella how about the third option that you seem to have some sort of mental deficiency, blocking yourself from even considering: RUN LIKE HELL!
2) The revelation that Edward has been sneaking into Bella’s room at night to watch her sleep… AND SHE’S OKAY WITH IT?! Well I guess having a stalker is okay so long as he’s hot, right Bella? Now, if it was that pimply-faced AV geek, you’d bet your ass she’d have gotten Sheriff Daddy to put him away for as long as he could.
It’s not that I object to the relationship between Bella and Edward, but that the relationship does nothing to help her grow as a character, and she certainly doesn’t maintain any control over it. Had Meyer taken the time to show us the reasons, beyond sexual attraction or simple curiosity, that brings Bella to throw away her sense of self-preservation and fall in love with a vampire who doesn’t even know if he can stop himself from killing her, then Twilight would have been much more powerful.
Instead, the relationship between Bella and Edward isn’t developed beyond a clichéd love-at-first-sight, and it shorts Bella’s development as a character. Bella constantly focuses on the impossible god-like beauty of Edward, his manly, muscular chest, his perfect features, his marble-like skin that sparkles in sunshine (vomit..), and only gives passing mention to his intelligence. She is justifiably flattered that Edward would go against his nature as a vampire to love her rather than suck her dry, but it’s a shame to see a allegedly modern female character (of above-average intelligence no less) be swept up by good looks and a little attention.
Bella acts like the walking stereotype of a victim of abuse, refusing to display any sense of self-preservation, and wishes nothing more than to have her free-will taken from her so that she can completely give in to the man in her life. It’s as if she has no self worth whatsoever. Where’s the girl power?
It sickens me to know that teenage fans of the series consider Bella to be a role model. I happened to be in a bookstore the day “Breaking Dawn” was released, and caught coversation between two young woman (somewhere between 14-17 I’d say. I swear, the older you get, the younger everyone else seems) longing for “their Edward” to come along. My advice? Use pepper spray or a high voltage taser.
Wow. So that ended up considerably longer than I intended but nevertheless I meant every word. I guess this post doubles as a Twilight review… go figure.
I go to high school and the girls at my school that love Twilight, LOVE Twilight. Like, with a fervor that puts my love for Star Wars and Lost to shame. I remember one time in AP English last year, I called the book “another entry in my favorite literary genre: Melodramatic Teenage Vampire Bullshit.” And like, all at once, three girls in my class erupted into this passionate and angery sermon about the deeness and compelxity of the book. And I’ve tried to read it. But everytime I get to the paragraph describing how mind crushingly sexy Edward is as he lays shirtless in the blazing sun, I call it a day. Step Myers describes shirtless vampires the way John Steinbeck describes clouds and turtles.
I have soooo been meaning to read these Southern vampire books. My friend at work reads them and says their awesome so I’m gonna give the first one a try. I hadn’t read them before because they’re always on display with those “Undead and Unwed” books and thought they were the same. (HORRIBLE by the way. If the title alone doesn’t sour you) but she swears they’re totally different.
TNN- Dude, don’t screw with teenage girls and their passions. Just don’t. It’s dangerous at best, downright terrifying at worst. When I was that age and some jerk jock would crack some comment about Buffy- oh lord help me I would tear him a new one. Granted we’re dealing with the almighty Buffy and not some dinky goth vamp book series but…. still.
Care: I read romance novels and I’ve been reading the dark romance ever since I found of the Laurell K. Hamilton. But for the life of me I just can’t take these Meyer books.
Scott: I have to put up with this Twilight bs everyday. All the (grown I’ll add) women I work with are gaga over it. I just don’t see the appeal. The sexism is overwhelming in them. Yes, yes, girls give up EVERYTHING about yourself just for HIM. And I HATED the way he talked to Bella, like an old man telling his extremely younger girlfriend to do things and how to behave. It was gross. And that’s why they love it so much. Because that’s kind of what some (not all) teenage girls want because psychologically they aren’t ready for a real relationship where they have to think, and they think it’s “romantic” to give up everything they are for some guy. It’s gross and disturbing, but true.
And WHY do the werewolves ALWAYS have to be at war with the vampires? God, someone needs to write a great werewolf book or tv show or movie.
AND THEY NEVER EVEN MAKE OUT. Okay, if you’re gonna have a gothic vampire romance novel- I want some making out at the least. You know why I read ‘dark romance’ novels? I’ll admit it: I like the cheap thrills. There were none to be found in this book. Although I heard this was rectified in Breaking Dawn. I might have to read Breaking Dawn.
I also hated the way she treated her parents, especially her father. It’s like- I get it, your mom was flakey and you hardly know your dad but it’s not like he LEFT you or beat you or was an alcoholic or something. Get over it. God, was she whiny,
In my honest opinion these books are just a cheap imitation of the L. Smith vampire books from the 90′s. Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle, and all the Night World novels HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. God, I loved those books. Yeah, everyone is always impossibly gorgeous and things like “soul mate” are thrown around a lot- but if someone becomes a vamp at the end they have a damn good reason to (like in one book the girl is dying of cancer.) and they don’t always do at the end. (In one book she decides that even though she loves him to pieces and they’re soul mates he’s been too much of a jerk and she wants to follow her dreams so she opts out of vamp hood and tells him to hit the road) If this Twilight craze has done anything positive it’s that L. Smith’s books are back in print. TRUST. Pick them up. They’re even packaged with two books in one for only ten bucks. Good deal. And the Nightworld first volume has three books for ten.
Oh, and Scott, dontcha know, according to popular fiction it’s only stalking if you’re ugly. It’s romantic if your hot. See: Amelie, Say Anything, Sleepless in Seattle, etc. LOL.
alright someone help me out, i can’t seem to download a working pilot. please give me a link to a good copy thanks
I’m really looking forward to this show, and I tink it premiers after Entourage, so cool.
But I think it premieres the Sept. 7th, not the 2nd.
So it is… I must have gotten it mixed up with the release of the Meltzer novel. I changed the premiere date in the article. Thanks for pointing that out… er… Mr. Pointy (that was an unfortunate pun).
@Scott
I totally agree with your assessment on Twilight. When I say I am not a fan of Twilight, but am a fqan of Buffy and Angel, people laugh at me.
My main hangup is the fact that vampitres are merely mutants with a bloodlust. At least in Buffy, the vampires were . . . well . . . vampires. Now I’m not close-minded to any and all versions of vampires. I mean, vampires are fictional after all. But even in Supernatural’s take on vampires, they were still vampires.
Also, I hated the romance. It seemed almost as if all Bella could think about was how much she wanted Edward. It was silly. Very superficial. At least, in the case of the Buffy-Angel-Spike triangle, the characters involved were changed and had progressed in the story. As far as what I read, Bella had not changed Edward at all, or vice-versa.
Anyways, to be short, I think Twilight is overrated and shows like Buffy and Supernatural are vastly overrated. WHY?!?!?!?!?
I hope you meant shows like Buffy and Supernatural are vastly under-rated!
Most puns are unfortunate, Scott. :)
Will this series be available on itunes?
yeah i love this show. Its really interesting and it has a very exciting and well planned plot the series “sell of”
some jamaicans will say. the only prob it that i have to wait a whole week 4 the next episode!!!
I wish I had HBO
BUt i have to wait for the DVD to watsh it
I love bill
viral marketing is the best but you have to think of a great idea that goes viral`**
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It’s good to see someone else who thinks like I do. With so much ignorance in the world these days it’s nice to know there’s someone out there who isn’t an idiot.
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