Waiting Sucks...

For American fans, the wait is almost over... for us Brits, it's barely began. I refer, of course, to True Blood series 4 which airs from June 26th stateside. Meanwhile we Brits will have to make do with the various trailers and clips that have been released as promotion. Of course, we could always rewatch the previous series/ That is, if anyone wants to get me them from my Amazon Wishlist! ;-)

Anyway, here's one trailer:

And for those of you who are fans of Eric (and there's a lot of us) here's he is in own teaser trailer - billed as a topless blond man!:

Andrew

Dead Until Dark

As I've previously mentioned on these pages, I am a fan of True Blood. I may not have thought to read the books, however, if it were not for the recommendation of a friend.

Dead Until Dark is the first of the Sookie Stackhouse novels and forms the basis for the first series. It introduces Sookie, a waitress in Bon Temps in Northern Louisiana with the power to hear other people's thoughts.  She lives a simple life although thanks to her disability/skill/gift it's not as quiet as she would like. And then Bill Compton walks into the bar.

Bill is a Vampire who is attempting to mainstream, following the outlawing of discrimination against them and the availability of synthetic blood.  Sookie's life is never going to be the same again...

The TV series can be seen as an analogy for black (or homosexual) rights but this subtext is less obvious in the novel. The issue of race does get a couple of mentions but the characters of Tara and her mother who are central to the one of the main sub-plots of True Blood series 1 are entirely absent. The absence of this plot - which would have left a whole in the programme - did not diminish the enjoyment of the book.

Dead Until Dallas is an easy and enjoyable read which is at least as good as the TV series. My initial reticence about what to expect in terms of the quality of writing proved  pretty unfounded. Sure, it wouldn't make the Booker Prize shortlist but it's better than, say, Dan Brown's prose. Having just finished watching the second series, I'm looking forward to reading Living Dead in Dallas and the rest of the series...

Andrew

Something to get your teeth into...

One of the things that has surprised me most in the past year or so was how much I enjoyed True Blood, which is coming up to the finale of its third series in the States.

My love of The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter aside, I've never really been interested in books or films in the Fantasy genre. I've still not read Dracula or seen any adaptations of it and, aside from a screening of Nosferatu, the only other vampire related thing I'd seen, until a couple of years ago, was Ultraviolet. This was a Channel 4 drama series from 1998 starring Jack Davenport. Aside from being a fantastic drama, the attraction was its modern and unconventional take on the vampire myth.

In the past couple of years, however, I've found vampires, werewolves and other supernatural beings have featured more heavily in my tellybox viewing. First came BBC 3's excellent Being Human, set here in Bristol, and then came True Blood.

Made by HBO, so not dependent on attracting advertisers, True Blood can afford to push the creative envelope. As such, it isn't afraid to shy away issues of sexuality and drug use or violence and nudity. Based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, the series has been created by Alan Ball, who wrote American Beauty and was the executive producer of Six Feet Under. 

Set in the deep south where vampires have come into the open and synthetic blood is sold in bars, the programme tells the story of Sookie - who can hear people's thoughts - and her relationship with Bill, a vampire who has forsworn real blood. It's not long , however, before Vampire politics asset themselves and Sookie finds herself being sucked into a world which still remains largely underground (no puns intended). 

Brilliantly evoking small town mores in the Deep South of the US, and the varying degrees of suspicion, hatred and acceptance which the Vampires (which could be considered proxies for Blacks or Homosexuals) are treated, True Blood features great performances from the newly married Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin and a great supporting cast.

And speaking of Mr and Mrs Moyer, here's the main reason for this post, from the cover of Rolling Stone magazine:

Andrew