True Blood: Season 1 (2008)

Last night Spooks ended its 8th series, while True Blood's 1st season came to a conclusion - with another cliff-hanger! Hopefully, since the USA got the 2nd season this year, Channel 4 might get round to showing it sooner rather than later? Wishful thinking I suppose.

I'd heard about True Blood months before it came to terrestrial TV in the UK, mostly because I'd seen many shots of Ryan Kwanten wearing, well, bugger all! So naturally, I was curious about the show, and more so when I learned it was a HBO production. That explained the copious nudity too. 

After an initial slow-burn of 2 or 3 episodes, which seemed to leave plotting at the expense of exposition by way of explaining this show's vampire lore. That's not to say that the first few episodes were boring, just that by contrast, the rest of the season featuring more exciting incidents and plotting. It made sense to set out what happens to vampires in True Blood as opposed to, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Here the vampires are a lot bloodier, more 'realistic' (if possible), and as a few episodes later proved, a lot messier when killed. 

I like that True Blood doesn't just confine it's supernatural leanings to vampires, and includes a telepath and a shapeshifter - the revelation that Sam, who I'd assumed was the obvious killer, can turn into a dog was handled brilliantly and made for some great comic moments with Sookie. It's impossible not to see the parallels that are made between vampires and how they're treated by human society and the way the experiences of gay society and the prejudices it faces. This isn't a new parallel, but it's explored a lot more in True Blood than in anything I've seen before, I guess since Alan Ball, the creator, is gay himself. It's a shame that the stand out gay character in season 1, Lafayette, is a bit underused though. 

Andrew gave up watching True Blood with me as he'd had enough of vampires on TV and movies lately, and I can understand what he means, they do seem to be everywhere. True Blood is more than just a vampire show though, as with many HBO dramas the setting (like the wild west in Deadwood, or funeral home in Six Feet Under) serves as a jumping off point for explorations of the complex characters and their relationships. I found Tara's relationship with her alcoholic mother more intriguing than Sookie and Bill's 'romance', and the former had no real supernatural elements (turns out the exorcism was fake). Actually, I found Bill to be a bit of a bland vampire, because as Angelus proves, vamps are much more interesting when they're evil.

I'm keen to see the 2nd season of True Blood now, even if just to find out where exactly Lafayette has got to - and what made Sookie and Tara scream so much when they saw the body in Andy's car?!