HBO - TrueBlood

This looks good albiet a very HBO-ish: high concept comedy with an edge; good, and almost but not quite, quirky casting with unknown actors; simple but well excuted low cost action sequences/FX; excessive use of steadicam shots to chew through the script; more-intelligent-than-the-WB use of pop culture songs and references; etc.

Actually, it looks Buffy updated for adults.

But I still want to watch it!

Jessica

I'm actually really into this. Despite the fact that it was created and executed very quickly to grab onto the upcoming TWILIGHT's tailcoats, it looks pretty funny,

Damned if I could ever get through one of Charmaine Harris' books though. Maybe the show will be better.

I guess the real appeal for me is that it won't have to hold back on content due to the network. The Moonlight show for me was w a a a a y too sterile for a vampire thing.

i have a lady boner for alen ball and anything he does, but the promo did not please me.

my wife is an avid charlaine harris reader (i bought her a copy of "shakespeare's landlord" several years ago so she could read it and tell me about it...i'm not a fiction reader). she was in my left ear the entire time we were watching this show telling me what they fucked up. rather than compressing things as filmed adaptations tend to do, she said there was a lot they needlessly expanded, developing characters that are barely mentioned before they're killed off in the books.

southern accents were mostly horrible, but i withhold my opinion on the rest because vampires don't intrigue me in the slightest. i will admit, watching the vampire fuck was hilarious. but i don't think they meant it to be.

we'll tune in if they ever attempt to turn the anita blake novels into a series (i understand marvel comics recently tried). it was a good move having this on cable so they can be more faithful to the source material, so that's one thing it has going for it.

my boyfriend and i attempted watching this at my parent's house with them during our sunday hang time and it got extremely awkward very fast. but eventually we turned it off in the middle of non-sexy scene because it was so goddamned cheesy. fuck you, alan ball, i'll just re-watch six feet under.

I liked it. I actually subscribed to HBO just for True Blood. While I've never seen Six Feet Under (I plan on netflixing it), I absolutely love American Beauty. So I'm interested to see where Alan Ball takes this series. I've no clue if he's following the Sookie novels or if he's going his own route. But I'm a sucker for vampires (they're my favorite monster) and I like the dark social commentary undertones the show is striving for. I'm hoping we see more of the vampires's violent side, too.

I thought the acting was superb outside of the two leads, lol. Anna's fake accent is annoying as hell (why does Hollywood even bother with the Southern accent?) and the actor who plays Bill the vampire just looks.... odd to me. Odd as in not the part. But maybe that's what they're striving for, the non-stereotypical look. But he just seems sort of flat to me. I do think the actors who play Tara and Lafayette are the scene stealers.

What about it did you not like? I've been trying to find a copy of Dead Until Dark to see if I would like the series. I just recently bought the first book in the Anita Blake series, but I haven't started it yet. Got any other vampire-themed books you'd recommend? My favorite is the Diaries of the Family Dracul trilogy by Jeanne Kalogridis. I really like the tragic story of Vlad.

Val, I didn't like the way Harris writes. At the time I picked it up, I was getting really sick of snarky vampire modern romance novels that were all bestsellers (sort of how I feel about any book entitled "Confessions of a..." or "Girls, Guys, and Martinis" with a picture of a girl shopping on the cover that's basically The Devil Wears Prada and Sex & The City rewritten because someone wants to cash in on the fad)

anyway.... I realluy felt that Harris was trying REALLY hard to be a part of the Female Vampire Phenomenon and her prose reflected that to me in that it seemed so rehashed.

Anita Blake, on the other hand, is more accessible in my opinion, but again is totally predictable.

Have you guy snoticed how many female-lead novel series there are out there where the woman is half vampire/witch/demon/werewolf and she lives in the modern world and hunts ghosts/witches/werewolves/vampires and she accidentally falls in love with a demon/vampire/werewolf/warlock at one point and she also is privy to so many secrest societies and supernatural phenomenon, but she's under 30 and cute and kicks ass and sometimes is witty?

Jesus, there's like at least 10 different ones out in paperback right now (and that's not even counting the ones in small press, POD and Ebook).

Frankly, I am a little sick of it. It all comes back to Buffy to me, which was done the best.

But Heidi! I thought you liked my female vampire as the lead script, Blood Makes Noise!

Jessica

Hmmmm, points taken. I may still give vol 1 a try and then go from there. On a side note, I have been reading "13 Bullets" by David Wellington and it's a fun read.

far and away the best vampire anything ever written.

I did like it!!!!!!! I swear!!!

(I was mostly talking about literature. Everyone who knows me knows I like anything with vampires that's turned into a film. Hence me probably liking True Blood the show but not the book)

I AM SO LOVING TRUE BLOOD!! I get up early every sunday night before work just so I can watch it!!! I cant wait to see next weeks episode!

I found a website the other day where you can watch it if you miss it when it is on. I work nights and so I get up early, but my husband goes to work earlier than I do so he doesnt always get to watch it. Then when he gets home the next morning he will view it online. It is really nice to be able to go there and watch it again right before the other show starts. Let me know if anyone is interested in the site.

what a neat site! is it run by HBO? I hope they don't get shut down!

Nah, its not run by HBO. There are all kinds of sites running movies and tv shows now, it is basically obsolete to try and shut most sites down. I am gonna have to watch the last 15 min there as my cable and internet went down with 15 min to the show, couldnt log on the chat or watch the rest of the show, it stinks!

I've watched every episode and LOVE IT!! I was a fan of the books before the tv show aired, and I'm glad to see that they've done a good job with it so far.

I'll admit, it's the first show NOT produced by Joss Whedon on this side of the pond that I've gotten addicted to. These days I've only been watching Doctor Who and Torchwood.

I've been watching online since I don't het HBO, and I have to admit, Paquin has really grown on me. There's a quirky quality to her I really like.

Same here--online is where I get mine too. HBO is too pricy.

She's grown on me too. Originally I wasn't sure what to make of her, but I like her interpretation of Sookie.

I am definitely sooooooooooo hooked!

I read book 5 in Charlaine's series, then book 1, and then downloaded book 2 from Audible.com and, yes, they're doing strange things to the book, but I read somewhere that they said up front that they did not plan to stay true to the book, especially after season 1.

The books (at least the ones I've read) are all written in the first person, so any scene that doesn't include Sookie is most likely one written for TV. Also, the new character, Amy, is new. Keeping that in mind, I find it easier to take the differences because I'm interested in what the TV writers did to fill in.

Yeah, Bill seems a little wooden to me, but having written a vampire in my own novels who is a year older than Bill, I can understand that. I was listening to a podcast from BlogTalk radio this morning and one of the women was saying that Bill's accent is supposed to reflect that of the accents of 173 years ago, which might also make it seem odd to us. (Their web site is at www.true-blood.net)

I agree that the actors who play Tara and Lafayette steal the show. I was looking at their bios the other day and I think they both have Shakespearean training (I know for sure that Rutina Wesley, who plays Tara, does).

I heard some complaints about the "bad acting" from some people. O_O I completely don't get what they're talking about--they're doing a fab job. No complaints here!

Has anyone seen the latest ep? Omgs. O_O

I can't believe we only have one more to go. The wait is gonna be excruciating!

What did you make of the lady who bailed out Tara? Was she the same lady that Tara saw in the road? It sure looked like her. Hmmmmm....

I haven't seen last night's yet, but will be watching it tonight. So your comments are meaningless to me so far. LOL

I'll answer once I've seen it.

Yikes! I'm glad I didn't spoil anything big! haha

LOL! Yeah, my previous comment on the episode was on the previous week's episode. *G*

It's okay. After I run my errand after work, run home, feed my cats and make myself the yummiest vegan pizza ever, I am SO watching the most recent episode. I've been trying to avoid spoilers, but it's hard...I'm already running into commentary here and there, but just turning a blind eye.

Season 2 is starting June 15th, if you missed the first season, here's a link to catch you up... http://tinyurl.com/qkrvau
I can't wait!

I have to say I struggled with TB at first, but then it got under my...no, no I won't.

But seriously, there are a few really colorful characters inside some very cheesy storytelling, but for some reason it works. And Paquin comes off charmingly dumb, which can be hot.

I actually really like Paquin in this. Unfortunately, I DON'T get HBO so I have only seen a few episodes!

I'm seriously digging the second season. Horny maeneds, vampires ripping people apart, horned creatures attacking with giant claws, cursing, violence, nudity, comedy and all of it, if you can believe it, smartly done and intelligently crafted. I was iffy about the show through the first half of season one, but Ball is back to cooking with gas and kicking ass.

It's a shame you don't have HBO, Heidi. You need to find a way to rip it, I think.

Love True Blood!

I haven't seen anything from second season yet cuz I don't have HBO either. I've been reading the episode recaps until I find some episodes online. I burned through the first season on DVD in little over a week cuz by the end of the third episode I was completely hooked. I never thought I'd ever get into it but I ended up really liking the depravity of Jason and Eric, well, he had me at swedish gibber. LOL