on HBO
After rolling my eyes through the pilot episode, I was reluctant to give True Blood a second chance. My dad, whose opinion I value, talked me into giving it another try though. The trick is to accept the romance novel, terrible faux Southern accent silliness (“oh my stars!”) and just go with it. I won’t lie, there are still horribly annoying characters (putting me on a long bus trip next to Tara would be torture) who always seem to be overreacting to everything.
The show really doesn’t shine with it’s deep character portrayals, but rather when it gets weird, bloody, ridiculous and focuses on the whole vampire thing instead of the human relationships that are constantly revolving. Otherwise, it kind of resembles season two of Twin Peaks, if you know what I mean.
Not that the vamps are all that “cool”. Strangely, Alan Ball has decided to make them not too dissimilar to mall goths. They hang out at a cheesy spot called Fangtasia that looks like 1995 exploded all over it. A stylish show this is not. But if you want graveyard sex (with the not too shabby “Bill” played by Stephen Moyer), shape shifters, back woods exorcisms, and gut exploding vampires, there’s really nowhere else on TV to find it all delivered in such an unabashed package.
I used the show as part of my birth plan- it was perfect to watch during early labor because it really doesn’t require you to think but can be extremely entertaining once you let yourself go with it. We’ve only seen the first season, but are assured from fans that it just keeps getting wilder and better.
But what do you think?