True Blood: Can it Take a Bite Out of an Already Over-Crowded Genre? (True Blood)

Member Name: garrymac

Product:	True Blood
Date:	25/10/09 (20 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Explores some interesting themes. Well acted.

Disadvantages: Too many storylines happening at once

At the time of writing, vampire themed movies and TV shows seem to be going through a resurrection (pun intended). It's been a long time since the days of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and spin-off series Angel but in an era where vampires have been romanticised as sparkly, bleeding-heart saps thanks to the Twilight books and movies, does True Blood have what it takes to bring new life to the genre?

Like Twilight, True Blood also originates from a series of novels called The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris and it also focuses centrally on the romance between a human and a vampire but that's really where the comparisons end.

The main protagonist is Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress working in a bar called Merlotte's in the small, fictional town of Bon Temps in Louisiana. Sookie isn't just any ordinary girl though, she possesses the ability to read people's minds. Unfortunately for Sookie this is more of a curse than a gift so it's a huge relief when she meets Merlotte's first ever vampire customer Bill Compton and notices that she can't hear his thoughts at all and the two instantly form a bond.

The show is set in a reality where Japanese scientists have invented synthetic blood called 'TruBlood' which has allowed vampires to stop feeding on humans and with them no longer being viewed as a threat to humanity they've been able to 'come out of the coffin' and induct themselves openly into society. This opens up a lot of opportunities for the show to provide a twisted take on current real life issues such as vampire and humans marrying in contrast to gay marriages.

Another issue it deals with is racism although as we're talking about vampires I suppose speciesism would be a more appropriate word to use. Most of the world have either accepted vampires or are at least tolerant of them however, there are anti-vampire organisations that are intent on convincing the human race that the vampires are still the evil beings that they always have been and should be destroyed.

Now that all the background info is out of they way how does the series actually hold up? Well, there are certainly a lot of interesting characters and sub-plots although to be honest I personally feel there are too many. It gets to the point where there are so many different characters with their own unique storylines all happening at once that it becomes hard to keep track sometimes.

The series seems to be mainly intent on exploring the lifestyles of the vampires and how their customs and cultures differ from our own. It tries to show us this as we follow the blossoming romance between Sookie and Bill but at the same time we're also supposed to follow a murder mystery in each season as well as the back story and ongoing sub-plots of several other lead and side characters, most of whom are also non-human creatures other than vampires.

At times it seems that the inhabitants of Bon Temps are made up more of supernatural beings or people with dark secrets than normal folk and you get the feeling that with everything going on at once the series is trying to spin too many plates at once while not being particularly good at balancing any of them.

I'm on the fence about whether I like this show or not. On one hand, I'm half way through the second series and it hasn't really managed to hook me like other supernatural dramas such as, well... Supernatural for example. On the other hand, it's interesting enough to keep me watching when there's nothing else on so overall I feel True Blood is a pretty average show but enjoyable enough all the same and you could certainly do a lot worse.

Summary: An average show at best but an effective time killer.