Just finished the pilot episode of Alan Ball's (Six Feet Under) new project with HBO. Alan Ball is teaming up with HBO, as the network has officially picked up the vampire series "True Blood", starring Oscar Winner Anna Paquin ("X-Men" franchise, "The Piano").
Ball, who created the hit "Six Feet Under" for HBO, will exec produce and act as showrunner for "True Blood," which is based on Charlaine Harris' "Southern Vampire" novel series. Set in small-town Louisiana, series follows the world of vampires, who are able to co-exist with humans by drinking a Japanese-manufactured synthetic blood. The vampire race is finally able to come out of hiding and co-exist with mankind. The show picks up two years after the vampires are able to "come out of the coffin."
Let me first start off by stating my point of view. Might help you to understand my perspective as I compose this article. First of all, while I'm an avid reader, I've never cracked open one of Charlaine Harris' novels. So, if you are a fan of the novels, don't expect a comparison of the two. Second, I've never been a huge fan of the Vampire Genre. Never seen an episode of Buffy, never got into Anne Rice beyond the movie "Interview With a Vampire." With that in mind, I will rely on my rabid TV addiction and obsession with all things pop culture to share my thoughts.
The show centers around a young waitress named Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin) living in a small Louisiana town with her brother and grandmother. I spent the first fifteen minutes of the show wondering if Sookie was a vampire because she is a telepath. So I'm thinking to myself "OK, so I guess in this world vampires can read minds." Well, it turns out Sookie isn't a vampire, she's just a run of the mill mind-reader. Odd? I thought so. But its hard to hold that little fact against a show about vampires, so I can easily let it slide. Anyway... one night while working at the bar, the town's very first vampire comes strolling in. Sookie is fascinated by him since he's the only person she's ever met whose mind is closed to her. The other side of the story focuses on Sookie's brother, who may or may not be involved in the murder of a woman who was at one time a "vampire prostitute."
I was honestly surprised that this was an Alan Ball project. It is usually pretty easy to spot a showrunner's work. One can see the similarities of the feel of "Alias" and "Lost" coming from JJ Abrams. The same with "West Wing", "Sports Night", and "Studio 60" coming from Aaron Sorkin. A writer/producer usually has a signature stamp fixed to his or her work, you can always spot it a mile away. "True Blood" doesn't leave any kind of impression that Alan Ball was anywhere near it. I found that very disappointing, hopefully Ball's footprints will show up later on down the road.
It's hard to give an accurate assessment of the show as a whole based on the pilot. I get the feeling that this show will play out like a novel, and the pilot is simply the first chapter. Its hard to estimate how good a novel will be based on the first few pages. I was honestly quite bored with "Mad Men" for the first few episodes, but those critical episodes laid the foundation for the season as a whole, the pay off was worth it. I'm hoping "True Blood" will be the same.
There is one matter that really, really has me bothered. Its a minor detail that the average viewer might not even notice. I found the accents of most of the characters (not all) to be just downright awful. Having lived in the South my whole life, four years of it in Louisiana, I just get so disgusted when a show's locale is anywhere in the South and the accents are bordering on stereotypical. Its like the dialect coach for the show told the actors "OK, here's how you should talk...imagine your IQ dropping fifty points and your parents are brother and sister." Why every person from the South is supposed to sound like a brain-dead hillbilly is just an insulting mystery to me. And a handful of the minor characters are supposed to be what I can only assume to be Cajun, at least that's what they attempted to sound like. Listening to them talk was a painful distraction to me.
"True Blood" premieres Sept 7th on HBO.
