You'll Be the Death of Me

I came to True Blood with this sort of expectation that I knew what it was. What with it being from Alan Ball I had equated it to Six Feet Under, while it being from HBO made me assume that it would be intelligent and complex in the way that fare such as The Wire, Sopranos, In Treatment and other of their shows are. Of course I know this is not all the shows that HBO do, but these are the ones I watch and I had forgotten that they also do Sex & The City and other comedies. So I came to True Blood expecting this alternative world of vampires being "out" to be layered with subtext, commentary and insight. While it has some of these in small measures in season 1, what the show actually comes over as is a wonderfully trashy and colourful soap opera set in the Deep South. It contains drug use, romance, murders, forbidden love, physic abilities and small town politics and it is a lot more engaging than I expected.

It took me a few episodes to be into it and it took me most of season 1 to really put a finger on why I liked it, because at times it is all very silly and trashy, with the plot devices and twists being far from those that I would expect in the shows that I have already mentioned. I think it took me a minute because I had expected something else but once I got the taste of it, it made sense on its own terms and I got interested in all the various threads and characters. Setting it in the Deep South is a key reason that it works for me in a way that perhaps it would not have done had it been in a major city. The humidity and heat of the location is really well conveyed and, along with the small town and the accents, it compliments the hot and rather gaudy nature of the material. Once you get into the trashy rather overblown nature of some of it, there isn't much of it that doesn't engage. Whether it is the central romance or the murders, Jason's drug use, the internal politics of the vampire world, Tara's personality struggles or the colourful character of Lafayette, all of it just seems to work. It maybe trashy but the professional and thorough delivery keeps it far away from being disposable or silly – it is just wearing the sheen of trashy drama. The show is funnier than I expected as well because of this trashy aspect – it uses it to have fun, to not be too serious or full of itself and the effect is positive.

The cast certainly seem to get this. Paquin is great as the central character – never out of shorts and quite the Southern lady, she plays well to the more interesting stuff below the surface while keeping her sexual and brave character strong. Moyer is a lot more sturdy and he works well with her. His weird way of speaking took a minutes to get but otherwise he is charming and charismatic while also able to keep our interest with just hints of his struggle to mainstream and other pains. The supporting cast tend to scene-steal though. In particular Kwanten is much better than his cut-out-school-jock character starts out as and I look forward to see where he goes with season 2. Wesley had impressed me in How She Move – not a great film but she engaged me. Here she does a similar turn hidden behind a character who is at first a bit too "feisty black woman". She is very good at letting her eyes and face soften before toughening up – very good at it; only problem I had was how often she did it versus doing anything else. I like her a lot though. Ellis braves comparison with equally colourful character Omar from The Wire but is quite different. His character is important within several plot threads but is also just plain old good fun at times. I liked Trammel a lot more as the season went on and am interested where season 2 goes with him as well. Support outside of these main roles is generally very strong, with Skarsgård, Porter, Preston, Sanderson, Bauer and others all doing good work.

Overall True Blood is not the show that I expected it to be with my assumptions based on Sopranos, The Wire etc kicking round in my head. While it is different though it is actually very good if you come to it for what it is. It appears to be trashy, passionate and explicit like some cheap novella or alternative-reality soap opera and indeed it is (and fun with it), but the plot threads and characters are all engaging, making the show work very well indeed. Not to all tastes but it is a very entertaining show.

Not too good Predictable A little boring Totaly not bad

This is going to be a different sort of review because I want to talk about all of Season One of TRUE BLOOD. Even though I consider myself a genuine fan of the show overall, I have to say that for my money the first season really was the summit, the peak, the absolutely flawless championship season that the writers, cast and crew never quite recaptured.

First of all, most of all, TRUE BLOOD is a love story. Notice that Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton are always believable as a couple on every level, not just in bed. They complement each other perfectly. Anna Paquin is from New Zealand and Stephen Moyer is from England, yet they not only capture the southern accent perfectly, they capture everything southerners have always most valued about themselves. Courtesy, grace under pressure, concern for others, modesty about themselves, are all qualities that define both Bill and Sookie. No wonder it's love at first bite!

Season One is the best season of TRUE BLOOD because, more than any other season to follow, it perfectly balances every character and story line to maintain the tension between the very real problems of a small southern town and the bigger than life problems of vampires, werewolves, shape-shifting humans etc. The sensational performances of Nelsan Ellis (as Lafayette) and Rutina Wesley (as Tara) are not only powerful and dramatic and emotional, they are real.

Lafayette gives you the real gut feeling of what it's like to be black AND gay in a small, rural, southern community. The character almost jumps off the screen. The drama seems to punch you right in the stomach. And you know what? I'm not talking about moments when Lafayette is facing down vampires or dealing with the horrific dangers of V-juice addiction. I'm talking about when he faces down the mean, redneck diners at Merlotte's who don't want to eat food cooked by a black f****t. Nothing in the season thrilled me more than when he told those good old boys they could just ask him to "hold the AIDS."

Nothing could have thrilled me more, except when Lafayette turns to go back to the kitchen, (after punching out his oppressors) and Jason Stackhouse (the sensational Ryan Kwanten) actually gives him a high-five! Such a shocking moment in terms of race and sexual politics, the white small town southern jock treating the gay black man as an equal, a fellow warrior. But it also speaks to the fact that Ryan Kwanten's performance was as groundbreaking and free of cliché as Nelsan Ellis' work as Lafayette. These characters were so new and electrifying in Season One, even if later seasons saw them evolving (or devolving) into more familiar patterns.

The fact is, every single performance in Season One is spectacular. Even very, very minor characters ring true and make you think. That's true on all sides, by the way. Vampire Sheriff Eric Northman's stunning girl Friday Pam (Kristin Bauer) is haunting and compelling in every scene, even though she does nothing but crack wise and look sexy. Jason Stackhouse's forlorn follower Hoyt Fortenberry (Jim Parrack), a repressed, unhappy mama's boy right out of the pages of Larry McMurtry, is just as fascinating. Every character -- good and evil - - seems like someone you might really meet in a restaurant or a bar somewhere in Louisiana on a dark, dark night.

All this is especially true of the two major villains of Season One, Amy and Rene. Notice that the most evil characters are both humans, with no supernatural powers, motivated solely by human prejudice. It's insightful, but it's not preaching, just effective drama. There's no way to put into words what Lizzy Kaplan is able to do with Amy Burley. She takes a character who is outwardly everything our society is supposed to admire -- a college-educated feminist vegan with liberated views on just about everything -- and peels back layer after layer to reveal a monster more terrifying (and more darkly funny) than any Bela Lugosi style bloodsucker. What James Michael Wilson does with Rene is just as impressive. Mean redneck killers, alas, are not an original concept for TV. But Rene is different. All season long we get to know him as a genuinely decent, genuinely responsible man who has the potential to be a model husband, father, and community member. And it's not merely the cover of a cunning serial killer. This is the man Rene really could be if his racial and sexual prejudices (towards the vampire species and the women who sleep with them) didn't destroy him. Having Amy die at Rene's hands is the blackest of ironies, since she is a "fang banger" who isn't one at all. Her murder of the vampire Eddie reveals her to be just as twisted and cruel as Rene himself.

TRUE BLOOD never got any better than this. It never got any more real than this. Season One was truly that championship season!

Rene pays a visit to Jason in the jail and then Sookie arrives to see her brother. Meanwhile Tara is welcomed by Maryann and stays in her fancy manor. Jason is approached by a priest of the anti-vampire church Fellowship of the Sun. Sookie accepts a ride of Rene to her house; when the serial-killer chases her, she runs to the graveyard crying for help. Bill awakes, leaves his grave and runs in the sun to help her while Sam heads to her house first and then to the cemetery. When the serial- killer is murdered by Sookie, Jason is discharged from prison.

"You'll Be the Death of Me" is a great conclusion of the First Season. What happened to Lafayette? What is the connection between Sam and Maryann? These questions will only be replied in the next season that I look forward to see. The airhead Jason now has joined the cult Fellowship of the Sun and I believe Bill will have serious problems with this stupid character and also with the outcast Jessica. Even Eric can not support the annoying, but gorgeous vampire. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Assim Você Vai me Matar" ("This Way You Will Kill Me")

I can't believe that I will have to wait until the summer to see another episode.

Tonight was fangtastic as Sookie almost lost her life because of that ignorant Andy Bellefleur, who was so convinced that jason was guilty that he didn't bother to check on the fax. Only a really funny moment when Arlene's kids found some naughty naughty tapes exposed the whole thing.

This weird woman that suddenly appears has some connection to Sam, but I wonder if we will find out what it is. And, what does she want with Tara? This show is just so damned interesting, I don't know how I will make it.