TrueBlood...

Question

Slogging through season one, on DVD. I'd already seen the first two eps and wasn't interested, but my niece - the one with the thing about vampires - doesn't get HBO and she's curious, so I found the box set on eBay ($12) and am watching them all before I mail it off, 'cause she'll want to talk about it after she sees 'em.
This is what passes for Quality Drama, these days?

SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!!It's the end of episode nine and we've just found out that Sam can transform into a dog. Seems in this world, every-damn-thing from Monster Chiller Horror Theatre is real; this is officially my jump-the-shark moment for this steaming load of art. The writing's heavy-handed in the extreme, and the characters might as well wear t- shirts with their backstories and motivations printed on them, but its biggest sin is that it's just all too SMALL.

This is a town with about 24 people living in it, and so far every damn one of 'em has a toe in the supernatural, and enough going on in their lives for twelve soap operas. And like most soaps and similarly bad dramas, no one has any reaction to any-damn-thing that's going on. There's a serial killer loose in Bon Temps, who's killed half the population by now, and everyone's going about their lives like nothing's happened.

And, I don't like the lighting.It's a victim of what Neal's pinpointed as the problem in most of the SyFy Channel's original films - a multiplicity of premises. Sookie's a psychic, and the vampires have just come out of the coffin, and there's a guy who's in love with her since he met her, but ended up as her boss instead, and he's a werewolf (or something) and her best friend is a child of an alcoholic who isn't really an alcoholic but actually has a demon in her, like the one in Tara herself, only Tara's is worse.

Plus her brother, the gay drug-dealing pornographer/ prositute/short order cook is a bigot against vampires only he also sells vampire blood as a drug, which Sookie's brother... and his Bryn Mawr psycho girlfriend... and the detective who can't find his own butt with both hands and a map... even though there's also a sherrif who seems to cover the exact same jusrisdiction... and vamps being killed and drained is supposed to be a nationwide problem, but when three of 'em die in a fire on the outskirts of ***, Louisiana, it makes the national news...

and werewolf boy's sleeping with demon-girl but they both hate vampires... ENOUGH!!! There should have been a 15 yard penalty assesed, for piling on, around episode three. Gawd, but this thing sucks!!!
..and I've got three more HOURS to slog through, before I can wrap it all up and ship it. Also got the novels (1-9) as e-books. Can't say I'm likely to get to them, any time soon.

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]Slogging through season one, on DVD. I'd already seen the first two eps and wasn't interested, but my niece - the one with the thing about vampires - doesn't get HBO and she's curious, so I found the box set on eBay ($12) and am watching them all before I mail it off, 'cause she'll want to talk about it after she sees 'em. This is what passes for Quality Drama, these days? SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!! It's the end of episode nine and we've just found out that Sam can transform into a dog. Seems in this world, every-****-thing from Monster Chiller Horror Theatre is real; this is officially my jump-the-shark moment for this steaming load of art. The writing's heavy-handed in the extreme, and the characters might as well wear t- shirts with their backstories and motivations printed on them, but its biggest sin is that it's just all too SMALL. This is a town with about 24 people living in it, and so far every **** one of 'em has a toe in the supernatural, and enough going on in their lives for twelve soap operas. And like most soaps and similarly bad dramas, no one has any reaction to any-****-thing that's going on. There's a serial killer loose in Bon Temps, who's killed half the population by now, and everyone's going about their lives like nothing's happened. And, I don't like the lighting. It's a victim of what Neal's pinpointed as the problem in most of the SyFy Channel's original films - a multiplicity of premises. Sookie's a psychic, and the vampires have just come out of the coffin, and there's a guy who's in love with her since he met her, but ended up as her boss instead, and he's a werewolf (or something) and her best friend is a child of an alcoholic who isn't really an alcoholic but actually has a demon in her, like the one in Tara herself, only Tara's is worse. Plus her brother, the gay drug-dealing pornographer/ prositute/short order cook is a bigot against vampires only he also sells vampire blood as a drug, which Sookie's brother... and his Bryn Mawr psycho girlfriend... and the detective who can't find his own **** with both hands and a map... even though there's also a sherrif who seems to cover the exact same jusrisdiction... and vamps being killed and drained is supposed to be a nationwide problem, but when three of 'em die in a fire on the outskirts of ***, Louisiana, it makes the national news... and werewolf boy's sleeping with demon-girl but they both hate vampires... ENOUGH!!! There should have been a 15 yard penalty assesed, for piling on, around episode three. Gawd, but this thing sucks!!! ..and I've got three more HOURS to slog through, before I can wrap it all up and ship it. Also got the novels (1-9) as e-books. Can't say I'm likely to get to them, any time soon.[/nq]
Not having seen any of this *** just because I find this whole "romantic vampire stuff" of which this seems to be yet another dreary variation, to be be just more ghastly horrid unwatchable girl- **** but your description of it raises a question.

If, as it seems to suggest this is a world not only in which vampires and werewolves, etc., exist but are generally known to exist how exactly does the legal system deal with this ***?

I mean, I sort of got of vague whiff of this from the coming attractions - this bizarre idea of vampires as a discriminated against minority but how the **** does that play when the minority in question sprouts fangs, is invulnerable to bullets (except the silver kind) and sucks the blood of the living?
And what's the constitutional approach to werewolves and demons? Is there a place on the census form where you check that off? Do you still get to vote if election day comes during the cycle of the full moon? Is the human you culpable for those poor innocent people you tore asunder whilst in your werewolf form?
How does your public defender handle all this especially after you killed and ate your last public defender?
Could this possibly be as dumb as I imagine?
NMS

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Slogging through season one, on DVD. I'd already seen the ... say I'm likely to get to them, any time soon.[/nq]
[nq:1]Not having seen any of this *** just because I find this whole "romantic vampire stuff" of which ... especially after you killed and ate your last public defender? Could this possibly be as dumb as I imagine?[/nq]
Yes.
The hook of the series is the product TrueBlood - a synthetic blood substitute that has been developed by a Japanese pharmaceuticals company for use in trauma patients, but that the vampires have discovered as an alternate food source. As such it allows them to survive without having to kill people. And of course you (or rather, your everyday ordinary vampire) can feed off of people without killing them, so if you've a willing participant you can eat without killing, and if no one's up for it you can just live on the bottled stuff. So the vamps 'came out of the coffin' and admitted to the world that they do, in fact, exist, and are now demanding equal rights under the law. (No one knows about werewolves and demons, though.)

Of course, at present, they don't have such rights, as they're not human and they're not alive. Bill, our vampire hero, fought in the Civil War, and became a vampire shortly thereafter, so it's not like he has a Social Security number or anything. And prior to the introduction of TrueBlood, he killed a lot of people to eat, but there's no legal proof of that - no documentation that so-and-so was killed by a vampire, or even by a bite to the neck or exsanguination or whatever. They're relatively adept at covering their tracks. And they have vampire bars and nightclubs where humans go, looking for vampire *** (fang-banging) and to be fed upon as a sexual thrill - which happens today, in the real world, where clinical vampires are concerned, so at least that part's not too far-fetched.

But yeah, it's all pretty dumb.
Vampirism is a pretty obvious allegory for homosexuality (whaddaya want, it's Alan Ball) but it's a very weak one, as the vampires really are evil, in a specifically Judeo-Christian sense. And it's also pretty much girl-****; Sookie loses her virginity concurrently with getting bitten for the first time (same guy, both ends) and getting bitten seems to be a decidedly feminine thing to do. The guys shown seeking such action are - pretty much without exception - weak little girly-men; pillow-biters one and all. It seems like such a missed opportunity, to me. I'm on record as loving Romero's film Martin, which took the idea of real-world vampires and ran with it. TrueBlood could have done something that interesting, but instead it just turned out to be silly.

Life Continues, Despite
Evidence to the Contrary
Steven

Usenet · Answer

If it ever comes your way, try the UK TV show (two series so far) Being Human, which explores a basically similar premise: a reformed vampire, a kindly werewolf and a reluctant ghost band together for mutual protection against both their own species and the unsuspecting bulk of the population (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1349938/).
Bert

TrueBlood...

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions