TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

My somewhat negative review of the True Blood garnered 3 comments from non-regular commenters. I’m not sure where they came in from because it was before I attached analytics to the blog. I do know (now that I HAVE attached analytics to the blog) that the video post scores the top hit if you Google True Blood vs Buffy.

Having now watched through the first five episodes — the great national scare has been averted… I’m on board.

The Good

• I’m in to a good, old-fashioned serial killer storyline with a vampire twist. It was only “OK” until the fifth episode where it took a turn into “good.”
• The pacing of the show picked up considerably after the pilot. The pilot seemed to be just throwing a ton of stuff at the screen to see if anything stuck. That’s probably exactly what it was but it didn’t make for particularly good television.
• There seems to be a solid contingent of vampires who aren’t particularly for “mainstreaming”. Mainstreaming is assimilating in to human society. This actually seems to be the most interesting of the B-storylines. Unsurprisingly, the storylines involving exclusively humans range from meh (the vampire-blood drug trade) to eh (Tara’s obsession with Jason). On the other hand, the ones involving vampires range from good (vampires who want to mainstreak vs. those who don’t) to very good (Bill and Sookie). It’s pretty obvious which storylines the writers prefer giving attention.
• It took until the fifth episode to deliver a solid “Holy Crap!!” moment but now that they have I’m hooked and want to see how it plays out.

The Bad

• Some of the human characters are… shall we say “less than interesting.” Sookie’s brother Jason’s ongoing exploits with all the women in town is a little, well, unbelievable. Sookie’s friend Tara’s I hate all white people act is pretty funny but also wears thin after five episodes. The bumbling sheriff’s deputies have been played out.
• I can’t imagine that southerners are at all amused by their portrayal on this show. It’s fortunate that “redneck” is still a safe group to goof on.
• If the serial killer ends up being who I think it is, it’s not a good sign for the show — because I never see anything coming and if I have it figured out in the third episode, most of humanity does.
• The serial killer story was only OK until the fifth episode when they killed off someone I wasn’t expecting. Once that happened then I was in. Soaps use serial killers often to kill off dead-weight but who you perceive as “main characters” are often protected. The first two victims were “eh”. The third delivered a punch (with a great visual) and a great cliffhanger.

The Rest

I think my initial aversion with the pilot was because I didn’t understand where it was going or what they were doing with it. After the fifth episode, I get it more. Where I was expecting it to be some kind of new version of “humans and vampires killing each other” show, instead it’s a portrayal of what life would kind of be like if they were living together. Even though I’m a bit skeptical of the way they have become integrated. In one scene Bill gets pulled over by a cop who pulls a gun on him. Bill then hypnotizes the cop and takes his gun. I find things like this a little over the top. We’re supposed to buy that in two years of “mainstreaming” that the government is still OK with these things running around that can kill you if they feel like it? They haven’t trained police to deal with them? It seems like the general population knows nothing about vampires even in this information age. We’re supposed to believe that this group is trying to mainstream without giving anyone information about them? Now, granted, the little section of the world in which this show takes place isn’t exactly on the cutting edge of technology, but it seems like the national “scare the f*ck out of you” news would have some reporting on how one can hurt vampires.

And that’s before you get in to the various continuity things that don’t make sense. In the show, there is an active drug trade involving “V”. V is vampire blood. When ingested by a human, it acts as a crazy XTC like drug — it heightens senses, heightens feeling, and apparently makes people off the wall horny. When Jason Stackhouse overdoses on it, it makes him kind of crazy and gives him a giant, purple erection that needs to be drained by the doctor. But when Bill gives Sookie blood directly from the tap, so to speak, it doesn’t seem to affect her in the same way. I mean, minus the obvious problems with priapism that she can’t really experience, the drug heals her from the brink of death and seems to not make her crazy.

Other than a few minor issues, though, I like it. I’m glad to see it got re-upped for a second season.