True Blood is actually great at suspense. A deft horror show that, when it gets its dialogue right, is one hell of a watch. The first two episodes - especially last week's - were largely exposition. I guess some of it was necessary, but the dialogue was stilted, and many of the concepts were too obvious. After tonight's show, I actually like that. If they spin stories the way they did tonight, then we've got all that out of the way and can focus on the story.
And they obviously have a lot to tell. There are about 10 different storylines running concurrently and they handle it well. While they all revolve around the vampires in general, True Blood knows how to integrate lesser dramas into the mix, keeping it so rooted in plausibility that it actually seduces the viewer, along with the townspeople. You forget that it is a Supernatural horror story and when the horror hits, it comes with a... bite (AAARRGGH!).
Making the vampires the focus of the show allows them to explore every character and plotline available to them while staying centered. But True Blood is also a drama with a human center. While this episode introduced us to the larger vampire mythos (living in "nests" makes them more Evil), it did so by playing them off the mundane human characters' problems and experiences. Again, it seduces with its humanity, then strikes with the vampires.
They are Evil. While Suki's little boyfriend is trying to fit in and live more or less alongside humans, not all vampires are keen on that. And they are powerful. You can understand the frustration and apprehension the characters have - better still, you can feel it. Tonight, they embraced the over-the-top theme and worked with it instead of trying to explain it away, though this may prove the most effective approach - after all, they aren't as mysterious to us as they are to the general population in the show, which makes it that much easier to suspend your disbelief. It also lulls you into "forgetting" just how unlike humans they really are, how powerful they are, and how Evil they can be.
True Blood had me on the edge of my seat a few times tonight and they also managed to handle the copious sex scenes without leering... too much. It made a good case for the whole sex and the Supernatural angle the vampire sub-genre is known for. Like Supernatural, True Blood is immersed in a world of its own design. Unlike the aforementioned, which drops its milieu lore throughout, True Blood basically dumped it all on us upfront and still continues to drop it on us in heavy-handed chunks. While Supernatural has a sleek and sexy quality, True Blood is as much about sex, and humans, as vampires. Tonight's episode went a long way in establishing the show's footing, and I hope they go on and dispense with the rest of the mythology soon (since they are dead-set on that approach) so we can get to more of the story.
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
1 comment:
It's "Sookie," not "Suki." I really should have looked that up, I guess, but in my defense, who in the hell would even name their kid "Sookie" - regardless of spelling!?
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