It's not that I hate vampires, but lawds, I hate Smeyer. That woman cast a shadow over the world of popular fiction fantasy that the Harry Potter books and the revived Lord of the Rings series had recently illuminated. Smeyer is the worst kind of popular tripe author. Not to mention her books and the resulting cineshit are poopsicles. Jo Rowling could pluck that woman's eye out with a flick of her pen, man.
I do love Anne Rice. Actually, my new movie is going to be dedicated to Anne Rice; not because of her awesome vampire series that I grew up reading in high school, but because of what has happened to her lately. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/29/anne-rice-i-quit-being-a_n_663915.html Poor woman. I know just how she feels. But her vampire work, and the resulting movies that came from it (well, more Interview than Vampire Lestat) were so awesome, such a huge triumph of fiction. They were also HOT. Really hot. And in that fashion, True Blood has become worthy of paying homaaage to Anne Rice's delightful "savage garden".
First, let me say that the opening credits is just one of the most awesome montages I've ever seen. I loooove a good montage. Chuck Workman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_fCRE5Xtnc is one of my favorite montage directors ever. TB's credits are just sublime. I love gritty Southern shit. See In The Garden Of Good And Evil. The writers clubs of the South are some of the most exclusive, and in true genteel fashion, they love their homages. TB and especially TB's famous opener portrays the best of the South: Crazies, etiquette, hot sweaty wisteria sex, pitch black night and blazing day, and all the nasty things that live at the bottoms of swamps. The only other openers I've seen on par with it are Dexter and many an anime. It always makes me feel such a confusing tangle of powerful emotions.
Sookie Stackhouse/actor Anna Paquin and I have a love/hate relationship. Anna was Rogue, one of my favorite characters of all time. I grew up with Lenore Zann's sexy and yet innocent voicing of her in the 90's classic X-Men the Animated Series. I do have a soft spot for Paquin's portrayal of her. In fact I wrote and obsessively read dirty fanfiction for her character and Logan/Wolvie for a long time. Of course they were mixing Jubilee's comic book role with Rogue's, but that was fine for me because Rogue is awesome. The more screen time the better. Then X3 came out and shat on the relative goodness of the first 2. But hey, no Marvel movie is perfect.
Sookie is well portrayed as pure and sweet, but everyone knows too many sweets give you cavities. And by now my jaw is dully throbbing. Sookie better get badass quick or things are going to go South for her reviews. Well, farther than they already are, and it's way past the Mason-Dixon. Bill, played by the intriguing Stephen Moyer, is getting a bit dull too, but that's only because he's being overshadowed by Alexander Skarsgard's delightful Eric. Eric is a great character. At a thousand years, he retains a certain quality of being caught between his blood and power lust and a certain sense of insecurity bestowed upon him for one of my favorite characters, Godric. Now I know Godric isn't the Godric from the books, but I plan reading the books after the series is finished, so I don't care. Alex's portrayal is amazing. He's sexy, cold, and yet beastly passionate. He reminds me of Rice's Marius, my favorite character from her work.
Other favorites of mine are Lafayette and Tara. Brilliant acting and great character ownage. Too bad the scripts they're given past season 1 all suck. Poor guys. Like Sookie, they've been stuck in perpetual victim mode the entire time, Tara in particular. I need to see Tara emerge from this funk, and the emerging had better be as awesome a bit of writing as an actor like Rutina Wesley deserves to play to. I've got no qualms about her or Nelsan Ellis, just the people standing behind them and sometimes, around them. Favorite other characters include Maxine Fortenberry and son Hoyt, Jessica Hamby, Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq (going to be cosplaying her soon!!!), Nan Flanagan, Pam, Terry Bellefleur and sweet, bumbling cousin Andy, and Jason Stackhouse. The last two have a tendency to get the short end of the stick as well, and people find them sickening because of their constant moron factor. However, they have their moments of brilliance and all is very well portrayed by Chris Bauer and Ryan Kwanten. Funny, I never saw Ryan in anything before TB, but now I see him everywhere! His All- American good looks and honest open style are refreshing. He plays Jason to a T.
True Blood offers lots of other goodies, like great music tracks, fantastic one-liners, and an amazing amount of quirk and zing. Its stories are generally good, punctuated by cliffies that are generally hair-ripping. All together its pretty well-rounded, but as of late its been going a bit oval. People and events seem locked. It's like the 5th Harry Potter book, all transition and little real movement. That's how I prefer looking at it, as it gives a feeling of room for hopefully inevitable improvement. I continue to watch the show and await the finale with bated breath and growling stomach for more. True to my backpage reader form, I've wikipedia'd the books to see what shape storylines will take, and me likey so far. As long as it keeps going, I'll keep posting. Hell, after it stops, I'll Firefly the shit.
Cheerio,
Part III
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