True Blood

POSTED BY: OPPYH
UPDATED: Sunday, August 9, 2009 02:14
VIEWED: 13404
PAGE 1 of 5

1 2 3 4 5 NEXT PAGE

OPPYH

Monday, June 1, 2009 5:07 AM

I just picked the series up on Blu-Ray, and highly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in a good vampire story. I watched 12 episodes in 2 days. It's pretty addicting tv.

Heck of a lot better than that Twilight crap.

STOWEAWAY

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 2:21 AM

I'd like to second that recommendation. True Blood sucked me in (haha) and I couldn't get enough of it.
And I am someone who generally despises vampire stories. It's the reason I never liked Buffy or Angel -- or any other show or movie with vamps. They were too cheezy for me.
The only reason I even gave True Blood a shot is because I like Anna Paquin. My husband was watching it and I would just sit down to watch the scenes with Paquin in it. Then I started sitting for longer & longer until I made him back up & let me see the whole thing.
The vampire story isn't cheezy at all. In fact it kind of pokes fun at all the vampire stereotypes. The story has tons of great characters played by extraordinary actors. In fact Anna Paquin isn't even my favorite in the show anymore.
It's a little like Firefly -- the story is great, but the real value is in the characters and how they interact.
I also like the fact that nothing is "throwaway" in the stories. Even the most minute detail becomes significant later in the season.

Great writing, great acting. Watch it! You won't be sorry.

=============================================================
Check out http://www.americasfunniesttshirts.com for hilarious shirts at a great price.

REGINAROADIE

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 5:25 AM

I LOVE TRUE BLOOD. In a way, I actually prefer it over BUFFY/ANGEL. Alan Ball actually surpasses Joss as one of my favorite writers working in the industry today. He's written one of my top ten films (AMERICAN BEAUTY) and one of my top ten TV shows (SIX FEET UNDER), so he's one of the few writer's I'm willing to follow to the ends of the earth in terms of what they write. And with a pedigree like that, you know that this isn't going to ride the coattails of an inferior product *coughtwilightcough*

The following is something I copied from my blog. It's late, so here you go.

After seeing the trifecta of BUFFY/ANGEL/FIREFLY, I am as much a Joss Whedon fan as the next guy or girl. I love his distinct characterizations, the universes he creates out of thin air, and the genre subversion and sense of humor. But he is not a perfect writer as so many people on the internet would claim he is. His stubborn atheism that hinders the worlds he created, the obvious daddy issues, his random killing off of beloved characters for shock value and the occasional overboard feminism are things that I see as major problems in the Whedonverse (“Oh, wow. You actually use the phrase Whedonverse in real life.”) And one detail that always bugged the shit out of me in BUFFY and to a lesser degree ANGEL, was the fact that an entire town was built on a Hellmouth, and yet outside of our cast members, the entire town was oblivious to the high death toll and things that go bump in the night that vastly outnumbered the humans. And I couldn’t buy the “oh they forget easily” excuse in the pilot.

TRUE BLOOD, on the other hand, bases its entire concept on the notion of vampires being out in the open and of people dealing with the fact that the stuff of legend is actually real. That I find a far more interesting and fascinating twist on the vampire mythos than the typical vampire love story that seems to have taken root. While the relationship between Sookie and Bill is a through line, it’s only a minor aspect to the far more fascinating “vampire as minority” metaphor that runs throughout the series and influences all the various sub-plots. If you need more convincing on how great the show can be, watch episode 5 “Sparks Fly Out”, where Bill is invited by Grams to speak at the local church to the town about him fighting in the Civil War and the various reactions the different townspeople have. The moment when the shell shocked soldier from Iraq comes up to Bill and hugs him because he’s finally met someone who truly knows what he’s gone through (“They don’t understand.”) was to me the moment when the show finally found it’s voice. Where it’s goal of having fantasy interacting with harsh reality finally came to fruition.

Also, while vampires may be what get’s people to tune in, it’s the human characters and their glorious contradictions that keep us coming back week after week. While some people claim that subtlety is not one of Ball’s strengths as a writer, I think what puts him far and above so many other writers is how he is able to have his characters full of contradictions and make wrong decisions that us viewers find painfully obvious not to do, and yet still have us care for them and find aspects of them that we can identify in ourselves. I just find that more interesting a direct than 11 ½ seasons of “demons as metaphor for real life struggles” that after a while can get a bit boring.

Just as an extra thing, I loved the vampire played by Stephen Root later on in the series. You would NEVER see a vampire like that on either BUFFY or ANGEL. A middle aged, overweight gay vampire who watches HEROES who manages to teach Jason about being a man. It's character's like that that make me love Alan's work even more than Joss's. I guess it helps that Alan is approaching this from an outsiders point of view. He's not a genre tv show guy like Joss or Ronald D. Moore. If you listen to the commentary track of he pilot, he talks about the rules he established for the show of things he did NOT want to do, like no opera music, no contact lenses

CALHOUN

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 6:01 AM

Enjoyable enough.

High-larious when

Select to view spoiler:

Jason overdosed on "V" and had a huge erection that wouldnt go down

KWICKO

Thursday, June 4, 2009 11:40 AM

Quote:
And one detail that always bugged the shit out of me in BUFFY and to a lesser degree ANGEL, was the fact that an entire town was built on a Hellmouth, and yet outside of our cast members, the entire town was oblivious to the high death toll and things that go bump in the night that vastly outnumbered the humans. And I couldn’t buy the “oh they forget easily” excuse in the pilot.

Okay, I so don't want to threadjack here, but I wanted to make a rebuttal to this. On one level, it's a bit of an inside joke - you see it more than a couple times - in that it's somewhat played down or laughed off ("Gang-related. PCP. The usual.")

At the same time, have you ever lived in a really bad neighborhood? If so, what did you tell your family and friends about it? "Oh, it's not that bad." or "Hey, the rent's cheap!" and the like. I know this from personal experience.

So even if you ARE living on a hellmouth, it's still where you're living, so you tend to rationalize and just deal with it - at least I do. You know something's wrong, but this is the life you've got, so you just try to make the best of it.

Now, having said all that, back to True Blood. I only ever saw the pilot episode when Blockbuster was giving it out as a free rental. I wasn't *hooked*, but I was definitely interested, and want to see more. While I may not necessarily agree with some of the "canon" material Alan Ball is using, I definitely applaud his bringing new ideas and concepts to the table. His vampires seem to be much more human than most - more human than us, in many cases.

I loved listening to his interview on NPR's Fresh Air, too. It peaked my interest further, and True Blood is definitely on my shopping list.

Mike

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day...
Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

"You're a idiot." -AuRaptor, RWED, May 27, 2009.

OPPYH

Thursday, June 4, 2009 6:23 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
I loved listening to his interview on NPR's Fresh Air, too. It peaked my interest further, and True Blood is definitely on my shopping list.

Mike

It really is fantastic.

My second favorite show right behind "Dexter".

KWICKO

Thursday, June 4, 2009 9:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by OPPYH:
Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:
I loved listening to his interview on NPR's Fresh Air, too. It peaked my interest further, and True Blood is definitely on my shopping list.

Mike

It really is fantastic.

My second favorite show right behind "Dexter".

Yeah, it seems my "summer TV" schedule is dominated by premium-cable shows - Dexter, Weeds, The Tudors, True Blood, The Wire... Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn't just pay for the damned service instead of buying the DVD sets!

Naaaaaahhhh - If I buy the DVDs, I get to watch 'em whenever I want!

Mike

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day...
Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

"You're a idiot." -AuRaptor, RWED, May 27, 2009.

CAMPHILLPAWHEDONITE1956

Sunday, June 7, 2009 6:28 PM

hey all i just got the season 1 dvd set and watched it over 2 days also. i want to see more but dont get HBO so i hve to wait for next dvd. the acting was very good, liked when Bill talked at civil war gathering at the church, and at the vamp trial as he stood up for himself about turning the girl, that went bad, was fun to see eric and ladybitchvamp unconfortible as they dumped her back to bill. i have read 2 of the stackhouse books, so i knew the show would be good. i like sam and jason and tara is real sassy and i hope to see more of her and the shifter in season 2.

REGINAROADIE

Monday, June 15, 2009 4:54 AM

OK. Just saw the premiere for season 2. That was just freaking AWESOME. Here are just some bullet points, and of course spoilers for the premiere.

Select to view spoiler:

The body in the car was the fake voodoo priestess. And as gruesome as the hole where her heart should have been, it was the look of pure horror that sold it to me.

The entire arc with Bill and Sookie and how dark it went before getting pretty damn sexy. Yay Anna Paquin nude.

Jason is still an unrepentant moron. Not a question of if he'll bang the Fellowship of the Sun's leaders wife, but when. I'm betting if not next weeks ep, then by episode three.

Lafayette in the basement of Fangtasia chained to a Conan the Barbarian style wheel. WTF.

Maryanne and how she keeps getting more mysterious and "Holy Shit." Her verbal smackdown of Tara's mom was just great.

Sookie going through Gran's room and not knowing what to get rid of. Emotional highlight followed by her confronting Bill about him killing her pederast uncle.

Oh and the sheriff is a prize winning square dancer. Cool.

All in all, great characters, interesting plots, deepening mysteries and more sex and violence than Joss would allow on BUFFY. Can't wait for more.

**************************************************
"And it starts with a sentence that might last a lifetime, or it all might just go down in flames. If I let you know me, then why would you want me? Each day I don't is a shame. Each day I don't is a great shame."

Loudon Wainwright III - "Strange Weirdos" off the "Knocked Up" soundtrack

KWICKO

Monday, June 15, 2009 8:39 PM

Target has True Blood Season One on sale for $24.99 this week. Only problem is, I haven't been able to find a store near me that has it in stock! I went to 3 different stores yesterday (when the sale started), and all were sold out. So no True Blood for me. Not yet, anyway.

:(

Mike

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day...
Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

1 2 3 4 5 NEXT PAGE