True Blood - A Review

Let's get a few things out of the way, first:

I am no great fan of vampires. I like them, I like a lot of the mythology and media surrounding them, but I am not one of those vampire people; I are a zombie people. Still, I was as into vampires as a horror kid as anyone else - a lot moreso than most, actually - and I did some really heavy research into the whole mythology of them as a teenager when I developed a Blade project I planned to present to Marvel a few years before the movie was released. This was no "psychic" thing or big coincidence; this was at the time Interview with the Vampire was sweeping the sub-culture in a big way and I had read the book and hated it. Hated it. And I could do better, so I tried doing just that (albeit with the vampire as superhero and in sequential art form). Obviously someone at Marvel had the same idea around the same time.

Interview with the Vampire is a (very) thinly-veiled allegory for homosexuality and nothing more. Two men - one of whom "inducted" the other into this "lifestyle" and showed him the ways and so forth - who sleep together and share a special connection, outsiders against a world that does not understand them and shuns them, blahblahblah. That is what that book is all about, plain and simple - right down to the adopted, Himalayan, whistle kid. The entire book is one sissy vampire whining about having to drink blood and how no one understands and blahblahblah.

To my credit, I tried reading the rest of the series and hated them, as well. When Lestat rose from the grave, walked across the street, and joined a garage band, I literally threw the book across the kitchen. I would have peed on it, had it not belonged to the library.

At any rate, I have gotten older and my detestation for the sub-genre has relaxed a lot. Like I say, I liked vampires to an extent before everyone I knew shoved Interview down my throat. I played one of the first games of Masquerade at a local convention in Memphis, TN back in the early 1990s and continued to play for many sessions following. Once that became a whole Thing in and of itself, I once again detested the whole idea of vampires (and, eventually, White Wolf and their whole system), but that was years ago as well.

So I was looking forward to True Blood, which premiered tonight. I watched the specials HBO has been playing, discussing the general backdrop of the mythology and legend, as well as the presentation of such in different media, the evolution of the whole thing, and so forth. And while the experts were knowledgeable and obviously directed to steer their discussion in such a way as to promote the series, they missed a whole lot. For one, there have always been a wide variety of vampires, even though the idea of any undead being "sexy" is a modern concept. For another, the concept of vampires as a part of society and having their own sub-culture is nowhere near a unique twist; White Wolf set that forth in great detail over a decade ago and Kindred: The Embraced predates True Blood by 10 years.

Most of their concepts and knowledge concerning vampires stem directly from pop-culture and not the historicity of the matter. Nevertheless, they are worth seeing if you missed them over the weekend or tonight before the premiere.

As for the show itself, let's get something else out of the way: Six Feet Under was an extended exercise in pretentiousness. I like Alan Ball just fine and have nothing against him, but the media and the mainstream critics in particular love to choke themselves on his manhood and I just don't get it. There is absolutely nothing all that special about Alan Ball, and I'm sorry for anyone who thinks there is. Because there just isn't.

He's good, but I'm one of those "weird" critics: each new project has to impress me on its own merits. Frank Miller is the only guy I can safely say leaves me breathless with almost every project and there have been several of his I did not like (DK2, Ronin, more), so while I give him much more leeway than anyone else, I am still an actual critic when I approach his work. I have yet to read an honest review of True Blood - or anything Alan Ball has done since American Beauty (which I loved) - so I am going to give you one.

Being from the South, I used to hate the hillbilly stereotype so prevalent in most pop-culture. Having lived in Decatur County, TN for three years now, I can safely say it is well-deserved; live and learn - I stand corrected, y'all. Many parts of the South are infested with inbred hicks and Bon Temps, Louisiana (the setting for True Blood) is apparently one of these places. While the set is true to form, most of the actors affect turrible Suthun ay-uccents which ain't even close to how Southern folk talk. True Blood actually does a decent job of "capturing" the South, though it is far too Romanticized. Of course, everything about the show is over the top - way over the top - and this stays within those overblown boundaries. Still, it is occasionally jarring - maybe only because I live here (in the South, not Bon Temps, LA - if such a place even exists).

Speaking of over the top, there is a difference between sexy and... sex. True Blood does not seem to know this; it is as preoccupied with sex as a teenage boy - and in much the same way. While nudity and sex scenes do not offend me, it's hard to take them seriously in context when they are so obviously there specifically to be shocking or, more specifically, "adult." Truly jejune.

Aside from these general flaws though, True Blood is actually very entertaining. Absorbing and replete, it comes with its own lingo, a fully-realized backdrop, and a rich backstory only mentioned in the pilot. In fact,there is more information about the backstory online than was even hinted at in the premiere episode.

All in all, a recommended show that makes me hate both Alan Ball and vampires a little less. Especially since I only hated either of them because everyone else is so stupid over them without being able to qualify their zealotry.

The True Blood premiere was good enough that they have a new viewer. Here's to hoping the rest of the series is as good.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008