Adventures in Bon Temps
HBO's new series True Blood is based on the series of books by Charlaine Harris, about a world where vampires have emerged from the shadows to claim equal rights in human society, prompted by the invention of a synthetic blood drink that removes their need to hunt humans. In this world, vampires are exciting and intriguing, dangerous but sexy, and their blood has enjoyable drug-like effects on humans, so we now have people who actively try to seduce vampires, and even people who attack them to drain their blood and sell it. The story is set in a small imaginary town in Louisiana called Bon Temps (as in Laissez les Bon Temps Roulez), and features a bleached-blond Anna Paquin as Sookie, a young waitress with the inexplicable ability to read minds, who falls in love with Stephen Moyer's chivalrous, brooding vampire named Bill. Yes, Bill. It beats Sookie...
As a native of Louisiana, an old fan of The Lost Boys, Buffy the movie (not the series), and yes, Twilight, this one had my name all over it. Two episodes in, it has revealed a little cheesiness and a hilarious bloodiness of almost Monty Python proportions, but it is still holding up to be a show to wait all week for. The opening sequence and song are sufficiently creepy; everybody's accent is either amusingly way over the top or actually dead-on Southern, just not particularly Louisianan, but it still works. The characters who float in and out of Sookie's bar are well-drawn from the start: Tara, her best friend and smart-ass who can't hold down a job, Jason, her sleazy and hot but stupid brother (who is clearly going to cause a lot of problems), Sam, the mild-mannered boss who's hopelessly in love with her, and Gran, her ethereal grandmother who shares her unusual lack of fear for the fanged kind. And then there's the strange dog that is currently popping up at odd moments.
Sookie herself is sunny and silly, but smarter than she looks, kind-hearted, ridiculously fearless, and terminally single, because hearing men's thoughts on dates is apparently a real turn-off. (She can't hear Bill, which is a Twilight reversal.) The conversations she overhears from strangers in the bar, or on those flashbacks from previous dates, are some of the funniest moments so far. Interestingly, Sookie is kind enough to try not to pry into the minds of those closest to her, who are all aware of her ability but don't seem comfortable mentioning it. So we only get glimpses of their minds when she lets down her guard.
Bill is so far quiet, intense and entertaining to watch, as he tries to figure out what makes Sookie different from everyone else. Apparently, there are quite a few vampires who don't share Bill's gentleman-like demeanor, as we are about to see in the next episodes, so things should get interesting. From a few scenes we have been given, including a videotape of one doomed woman having sex with a vampire, it appears that these creatures are going to be borderline cartoon-ish when they're evil instead of truly scary, which could work if it's done well and doesn't become campy. Let's hope not. Vampires are a serious business. (Buffy aside.)
True Blood trailer:
Image via True Blood wikipedia page