If you order 'Tru Blood' in "True Blood", you don't recieve "true" blood but a synthetic potion of fake blood that tastes rather awful. But if you are a civilized vampire in search of a meal and not willing to kill for your dinner then this is the market-leading, legal product to go for.
"True Blood" - as you probably know - is only one of many popular series given to us by HBO network. This one features vampires which usually makes it attractive to a rather limited audience, disregarding the general vampire trend in the last couple of years for a moment. After reading the following lines you might be able to determine whether or not this series is for you. Speaking for myself this is one of the more disappointing series I got into lately - and the problem is not the vampires. Here are the main reasons why I don't like the series very much.
The most interesting thing about the series so far, is the intro. I really like that soundtrack and the tasty licks playing to this weird, creepy collage of death, blood, nature and sex. Major themes that you would associate with this kind of material are all laid out here: racism and intercultural understanding, fundamentalism and religious belief, the nature of evil, life and death, sexual danger ...
Now that's compelling stuff but looking at the plot most of these topics are suddenly missing or just superficially touched on. The basic setup of the series is that vampires and humans coexist and since the "bloodsucking freaks" have had their outcome, there is lots of political debate about cooperation between the two parties and about equal rights for the discriminated dead. Of course, there is a lot distrust and prejudice on both sides - primarily in the lines of the "normal" people. But these components fade into the background as the plot centers on relationships, on love and interpersonal issues. That is certainly not a bad thing in general and of course there are subplots about a murder, about the side character's struggles but all those really suffer from the central heart of the series that in its worst moments plays like a bad TV soap opera for teenagers.
Season one is basically a coming of age story of a young virgin named Sookie who is living at her grandma's house and who has a very special ability that makes her kind of an outcast and therefore she is attracted by vampires who share a similar status. When one of their most charming specimen named Bill enters her life she finds herself confused in a love triangle.
The most annoying thing about the series are many of the characters' interactions and the way they are handled. It is a repeating up and down of rapid mood changes and inconsistent behavior. The basic pattern with most of the characters is they are either overly happy or they are depressed. Those who are depressed won't hesitate to insult their closest friends and instantly get into a fight with everyone around them. It is a constant back and forth between dispute and conciliation and many of the characters act very selfish often times. All that makes rooting for the characters overly difficult. These people seem to have no feeling for using their social skills, no sensibility, no idea of how to properly communicate with others or deal with their issues in a mature way. It is quite annoying and another evidence for why this should be aiming at a supposedly similarly troubled teenage audience.
Considering Bill's age it is quite strange how his relationship to Sookie is like one of two fourteen year olds, often pumped up with pompous cornball dialog that could be taken directly from a third-class TV-show. I don't know how often I heard Bill groaning the name "Sookie" in this annoying apologetic whiny tone. One or two times I just wanted to turn it off.
Sam Merlotte who is one of the more consistent amongst the main characters, is the other guy secretely in love with Sookie. Occassionally he says some dumb things but it seems to be the foolish-side of his character not the stupidity of the screenwriting speaking. Sam also is pissed off sometimes but he seems to have a good reason and he is never mean-spirited or selfish expressing it. Most of his anger is actually coming from deeper fears and concerns about other people and his own insecurities. Apart from that some of the minor roles are quite compelling, too. And yes, it also gets bloody sometimes, but at least Season 1 is rather tame so don't expect furious carnage like in the opening of "Blade".
Then the sex scenes. There are plenty of them not counting the moments when people are doing other sex-related things. Now this is not a bad thing per se and some of you might just think 'the more, the better'. What bothers me is the way of implementation of these scenes. I see that sex and, more precisely, sexual tolerance and sexual responsibility is a major theme but to me it felt like the scenes were often playing for nothing else but for the show, for itself, as an attraction. This seems like a cheap way to get attention ('Game of Thrones' is even more exploitative in that regard).
There are things in the series that I like and now that I am into it I will probably keep watching. But just like 'Tru Blood', the drink, "True Blood" is not the real deal. It is enough to keep vampires, you and your interest from starving but it isn't nearly as stimulating or exhilarating as it could be.
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