Before watching it, my feelings toward the new HBO drama, ’True Blood’, were similar to the last show I reviewed, ’The Mentalist’. That is to say, I had serious reservations. But this prejudice was much more mysterious. After all, the show’s creator is Alan Ball, the mind behind ’American Beauty’ and ‘Six Feet Under’ -- one of the better recent series on TV.
I’m such a huge fan of Ball's work, I actually get a little starstruck when I see him walking on Runyon Canyon (I live a mile or so away, and go five times a week, shine or shine). This is significant because I see many celebrities on the canyon, but the experience is so well-worn by now -- 11+ years after moving to LA, and having been through several moments like these -- that this occurrence rarely gets me excited any more. (Besides, it's usually somebody decidedly unexciting, and often untalented, like, say, Dane Cook.)
The problem I had came not from distrust of Ball’s skill (not to be confused with ball skills), but from genre –- I’m just not a vampire guy. Never have been. They don’t spook me, they don’t intrigue me, they don’t interest me. But neither was I interested in the behind the scenes machinations in a family mortuary –- before I met the Fisher family from Ball’s superb ’Six Feet Under’, that is. But that's what talented writer’s do –- make you care about the lives of people you’ve just met. And since Ball has already proven so adept at bringing life to the dead in his previous HBO Series, it seems poetic that he bring it to the un-dead in his new one.
’True Blood’ has a few of the typical vampire staples – you know, legends, and blood-sucking, and all that plas-ma (sorry) -– and it’s youthful energy is nothing new (’Buffy, The Vampire Slayer’), but it also has a kind of post-modern feel that’s new to the genre. It doesn’t take place in Transylvania, or Everytown, USA, where vampires appear to prey upon humans. It’s set in the not-too-distant-future -- or maybe an alternate present -- in Louisiana, in a world where vampires and humans live together in not quite harmony (it’s a little like racial tension). And though it’s based on a series of books -– The Sookie Stackhouse Novels by Charlaine Harris, now a staff writer on the show -- it still has the trademark Ball dialogue, along with his signature dark humor and sexual adventures.
It also has a bit of a chick-flick angle -- centering around lead Sookie Stackhouse (a blond Anna Paquin) and her will-they-or-won’t-they vampire beau Bill (Stephen Moyer) which would seem to appeal to a broader female audience (my wife, as a focus group of one, would certainly attest*), while not completely alienating the meathead male demo. It’s got blood, sex (mostly involving Sookie’s brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), and violence, but mixes it with drama, romance, and emotion.
I used to assume any new show on HBO, especially a hour-long drama, would be great. After ’The Wire’, ’The Sopranos’, ’Six Feet Under’, 'Deadwood', et al., they had me at “hello”. But since those shows have ended, and after several recent misfires -- all coinciding with a management shuffle at the top -- I'm much less confident. And I’m not alone. They could really use a success right now. Lucky for them, I think they have one.
'True Blood' isn't 'Six Feet Under'. It has a tendency to go a little crazy with the visual effects at times, and it can border on the overly dramatic as it revels in its own Southern Gothic charm. But that strikes me more as a matter of personal taste than a flaw, especially given its genre, and the writing and performances more than make up for any small missteps.
Using the age-old Hollywood scale of judgment –- HIGHLY RECOMMEND/RECOMMEND/CONSIDER/PASS (circle one) -– I rate ’True Blood’:
RECOMMEND
* The best modern test for how much you like a show is how long after it arrives on your TiVo do you watch it. The best honor you can give a show is to never have it on your TiVo -- as soon as you're far enough in to avoid watching commercials, you watch. My wife has this reaction to 'True Blood' -- the show airs on Sunday night, and it's rarely still around to see Monday morning.
2 comments:
I have mixed feelings about true blood. I like the characters (although Anna Paquin's brother is painted to broadly for my tastes and Anna's character behaves in an annoyingly stupid manner at times [the vampire bar for instance])and the setting is pretty fresh for a vampire story.
However, the central plot of the serial killer does absolutely nothing for me. Furthermore, I don't think I can stomach another "werewolf vs vampire" story , so I will be really turned off if they reveal the bartender as a werewolf as the foreshadowing has indicated.
I give it a solid C. Good enough to Tivo but nowhere near enough to distract me from my beloved Dexter
I agree about the Jason Stackhouse character -- very broad -- although it doesn't really bother me. And the bartender angle is a definite weak point. I'd give it more than a C (at least a B-), but you're right about it not holding a candle to 'Dexter'.
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