True Blood

[Michael]

This new HBO series has me hooked. Any other fans on here?

[kaujot]

I've got the first episode on my DVR, and I've watched about ten minutes of it, but I haven't found the time to go back yet. The opening sequence was really good, though.

[Polybius]

I've been watching regularly. It's kind of an uneven mix of styles and the humor might seem a bit too broad at times, (each a typical feature of Alan Ball productions), but it's all working for me, so far.

The main strength is the cast, especially the always vibrant and watchable Anna Paquin. Stephen Moyer, the guy who plays Bill Compton, the vampire, is someone I didn't know before seeing him here. Looking at his IMDB credits, the only thing I've seen that includes him is Quills, and I don't remember him in it. He reminds me of Hugh Jackman (which is a compliment from me, for what that's worth.)

I'm also enjoying seeing a couple of my favorite character actors, Chris Bauer and the great William Sanderson, in supporting roles.

[luridedith]

I'm completely in love with it and totally obsessed. I haven't been so excited about a television series in a long, long time (maybe since Oz and Six Feet Under ended). Its just so sweaty and pulpy and lovably irrational and engrossing all at once.

[Tom Hagen]

American Beauty -- a film I saw theatrically my senior year of high school -- will always hold a special place in my heart as one of the first movies that made me genuinely think about the possibilities of cinema as an artform, and I think Six Feet Under to be among the great television series of all time, but I haven't made it past the pilot episode of this one. The culture war metaphors are far too contrived for me. Between this and Towelhead, I think Ball has gone off the rails.

[flyonthewall2983]

I watched one episode and it intrigued me on a few different levels. Hoping to not give away much but the episode I saw ended at a perfect moment, the first two seconds of a blood-curdling scream. That's when it had it's hooks in me, no pun intended. From what I've seen I think it has potential.

[Michael]

What I love about True Blood:

It's not a draggy family drama like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. It involves the community of a sweaty Southern town, mostly its very sexy outcasts so it comes in various directions, from every corner of the town.

A wonderful flavor of modern Southern Gothic, I love the setting - the old houses with long porches and rusty screen doors.

Very cool vampires. Sleeping in crawlspaces instead of coffins. The town's prejudice against the vampire community is fascinating as it mirrors America's everlasting social diseases - racism and homophobia.

Everyone is always horny. Loads of hot kinky sex. A bit for everyone, an amazing share for everyone - men and women, gay and straight. Knockout breasts, abs, and breasts of men and women here and there. Quite a rarity for TV.

Anna Paquin is fabulous as an annoying Hooters-type waitress at a rednecky bar/grill.

The story has a great pull, mysteries piling upon more mysteries and how the town is involved and more. Twin Peaks of the South.

[flyonthewall2983]

Got HBO over the weekend and am properly caught up with the show. It's everything the post above this one suggests, and a bit more. In recent episodes, it's interesting how aspects of the show mirror drug addiction. Very powerful stuff, and proof HBO hasn't lost their edge as some have predicted recently.

[Polybius]

Hilarious choice of closing credits theme song Sunday night.

[Anhedionisiac]

Huh.
Not to knock it down or anything but I briefly checked an episode out and I thought it was a fairly kitschy, by-the-numbers pastiche of genre and soap-opera melodrama.
I mention this just to single out how great Stephen Root is, though. Dude never goes stale.

[flyonthewall2983]

The finale tonight was good, but I'm hoping for a stronger 2nd season. I'm guessing writing off the first season will be a little premature given that there are still some elements of the show as of yet unresolved.

[Polybius]

Having Michelle Forbes around for more than a couple of episodes will definitely help.

I really love the way the vampire establishment acts like stereotypical Eurotrash. That's led to some very droll moments, especially any scene with Kristin Bauer's jaded vampire, Pam.

[LQ]

I've been catching up with True Blood, and I've got to say- that opening sequence is the best I've ever seen. "Bad Things" has been roving lazily in my head ever since I started watching. Here it is, for anyone who wants a taste. I wouldn't watch it at work though, if I were you

[LQ]

First season on dvd coming in May

[Binker]

This show is horrendous, and I say that as an ardent lover of most things pulp. It's the worst kind of melodrama, taking the gratuitous sex, the cheesy dialogue, the convoluted machinations that can be so touching and wonderful in the right hands and going absolutely nowhere with it. Such a disappointment for me, a show that promised to be about the South (let me reiterate that the title sequence is fucking spectacular, if the show itself could have captured half that ambiance it would've been one of the best on TV), but turned out to just be set there. It's basically an R-rated One Tree Hill, 50 minutes a week of cardboard cutout characters spouting dialogue that reads as if it were pulled straight from some 13 year-old girls Twilight fanfiction. In some ways it's a The Happening-like experience, so bad that every five minutes you convince yourself that the show must be playing for laughs, only to realize that every indication of tone, performance, and direction points toward the conclusion that the creators truly believe they're crafting complex and stirring drama. Key difference is, your mind went there on The Happening because it actually was unintentionally hilarious... It goes there with True Blood because you can't believe such trite, overwrought, and vapid material could possibly be presented with a straight face. I'm hesitant to compare it to even the most vacuous of soap operas, because I'm not positive that even those operate within pure stereotype to this kind of degree. The black ghetto girl character is fucking indefensible, but the gay drug-dealing cook who shoots porn, the dumb, inconsiderate jock who takes his shirt off a lot, the mysterious vampire with a good heart, even the main character, they're all so empty and utterly one-note. Performances are terrible across the board, with some of the worst accent work you will ever see.

I did enjoy the tits.

[mfunk9786]

I did enjoy the tits.

Wasn't that the last line of Ebert's Blue Velvet review?

[flyonthewall2983]

[LQ]

Thoughts on the season opener? It somehow managed to feel jumbled and a bit empty at the same time, but then again the first season only started to hit its storyline-stride after the first few episodes. It did lay some good groundwork for the upcoming season, and I'm excited to see how it all plays out.
All in all, it really is a perfect hot-summer-night diversion, and I'm glad to have it back.
And to my relief,

Spoiler

Lafayette isn't dead!!...yet

[flyonthewall2983]

I got HBO free for the weekend and caught last night's show and agree on all points. I'll add that I was pleasantly surprised that the 2nd season came in this quick, after the first.

[flyonthewall2983]

Article about the show's sexual politics, and the stark contrast between it and Twilight.

[puxzkkx]

I love it. IMO, its the best thing that Ball's done and its getting better - Season 2 is much better than the first. Ryan Kwanten and Rutina Wesley really need some attention for their performances (which are great).

Unfortunately, however, Anna Paquin is terrible and Lafayette is a ridiculous character that needs to be written out entirely...

[mfunk9786]

Lafayette is easily the most engrossing and entertaining character on the show.

[flyonthewall2983]

Last night's show was pretty solid, I must say.

[Yojimbo]

What I love about True Blood:

It's not a draggy family drama like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. It involves the community of a sweaty Southern town, mostly its very sexy outcasts so it comes in various directions, from every corner of the town.

A wonderful flavor of modern Southern Gothic, I love the setting - the old houses with long porches and rusty screen doors.

Very cool vampires. Sleeping in crawlspaces instead of coffins. The town's prejudice against the vampire community is fascinating as it mirrors America's everlasting social diseases - racism and homophobia.

Everyone is always horny. Loads of hot kinky sex. A bit for everyone, an amazing share for everyone - men and women, gay and straight. Knockout breasts, abs, and breasts of men and women here and there. Quite a rarity for TV.

Anna Paquin is fabulous as an annoying Hooters-type waitress at a rednecky bar/grill.

The story has a great pull, mysteries piling upon more mysteries and how the town is involved and more. Twin Peaks of the South.

I find it hard to imagine Anna Paquin as anything other than that vaguely-annoying little girl in "The Piano"; likewise Macaulay Culkin in 'Home Alone'.

It sounds a bit like 'Caligula', or 'Salon Kitty', neither of which I saw, I hasten to add.

For me I can't imagine any tv series topping 'Deadwood'

[flyonthewall2983]

It's definitely an acquired taste *cough*. What saves the show for me, is the fact that it is a completely unlikely circumstance set in a very likely world. There is something about that (admittedly absurd at times) dichotomy that attracts me. That it mirrors very real societal problems (this season it's clearly religious prejudices versus certain lifestyles) in such a way, and keeps it entertaining and thrilling is to me a good thing.