Review: True Blood (HBO)
Jul. 2nd, 2008 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xlivvielockexI should preface this review by saying that I haven’t read any of the The Southern Vampire books by Charlaine Harris. So I am going into this review, watching this show, with no previous knowledge of the characters.
I have to admit that I wasn’t really ready to start watching another vampire show. But when I saw that Alan Ball was producing, I really couldn’t resist. Alan Ball was the brilliant man behind Six Feet Under, one of my favorite shows. Unfortunately, all the things that worked so well for Six Feet Under, that made it such a compelling program, are lacking in True Blood.
This show wants to be great. And while there were scenes and music missing from the screener that I watched, it is even more than that. It isn’t so much the basic premise that is the issue but rather the execution of that premise.
Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is just a small town girl from Louisiana who is trying to make it as a waitress at the local bar and grill. Only Sookie isn’t your average girl. She can hear people’s thoughts and apparently, it really isn’t a secret to her friends and family. Sometimes these thoughts are amusing, sometimes boring, and sometimes sinister, but always an annoyance when they start to build up. She seems to have the ability to shut them out at times but it appears that she really needs to concentrate. That isn’t quite so easy where she works.
Her boss, Sam (Sam Trammel), is in love with her and doesn’t do a very good job of hiding it. Her brother, Jason (Randy Kwanten), is a manwhore who will pretty much sleep with anything with girlparts aside from Sookie’s best friend, Tara (Brooke Kerr, who is being recast). Tara is one of the biggest problems that I have with this show. Unfortunately, being one of the few black characters in the show, she seems to have taken on the angry black woman stereotype. Not as bad as the angry black ghetto gang member stereotype but still just as hurtful. The only other black character who has lines is Lafeyette (Nelsan Ellis), the short order cook, who is basically a prop who goes on and on about sex in such a crass manner in order to show the audience that Sookie is the last of the great Southern Ladies. She is offended by his crude manner as well berates Tara for using the lord’s name in vain.
Unfortunately, the only character that brings any sort of humor to the show is Sookie’s grandmother (Lois Smith). The drama is so thick in the show that even the few lines that Grandma is given aren’t enough to help break up the pacing of the episode. Where is Ball’s great sense of timing like we got to see on Six Feet Under and Cybill or even hell, Grace Under Fire?
Of course, everyone wants to know about the vampires. The first vampire is shown within minutes of the episode opening. The vampires are a character in and of themselves, trying to fight for equal rights after “coming out of the coffin”. The bits of dialogue, a television playing in the back ground of the scene, set the tone for how society is now. The “vampire of interest”, as it were, is Bill (Stephen Moyer).
Bill arrives in the bar where Sookie works and she instantly knows he is a vampire. I am not sure if the audience is suppose to believe that she knows because of her special abilities or if it is something else, some effect in how they walk or move that will be added in post. It doesn’t seem like love at first site on either of their parts but more like Sookie is interested in Bill because he is different, new, and exciting. He doesn’t get a lot of character development aside from the fact that we learn vampires don’t particularly do well with silver.
In addition to the pacing and some characterization problems, my biggest problem is the accents. All the characters seem to have this southern fried accent and some of them; the accent goes in and out. It might be better if they either cast Southern actors or get a better dialect coach. At times, the accents were so bad, it was like a high school production of Gone With the Wind.
Another large problem is the vampire special effects as they were. The only thing that seems to change between vampire and human, thus far, are the teeth (aside from their bodies feeling cooler). Instead of having the teeth grow longer at the incisors, as we are accustom to, they seem to go to the front teeth, which just looks odd. And it also doesn’t make sense when a vampire bite is shown. The teeth aren’t far enough apart to cause the bite. Something minor, yes, but it is noticeable. The vampire sex shown is also downright laughable. I am not sure if they blew their entire FX budget on that one scene but the vampire moves strangely, his eyes literally rolling in his skull as he has sex with a woman. To see it, it is really hard not to crack up.
The show is interesting and it could be really great if Alan Ball puts the effort into it that he did with Six Feet Under. The pacing needs adjustment, along with tightening up the writing, as well as adjusting the vampire effects. The story itself, that of Sookie and her abilities, is intriguing and hopefully with some work, this can become a great new vampire show to fill the void.
I've uploaded the screener to YouTube as well as Megaupload.
YouTube Playlist
Megaupload
Tomorrow, Pretty Handsome from Ryan Murphy
Review of The Middleman : Review of Book of Daniel
I have to admit that I wasn’t really ready to start watching another vampire show. But when I saw that Alan Ball was producing, I really couldn’t resist. Alan Ball was the brilliant man behind Six Feet Under, one of my favorite shows. Unfortunately, all the things that worked so well for Six Feet Under, that made it such a compelling program, are lacking in True Blood.
This show wants to be great. And while there were scenes and music missing from the screener that I watched, it is even more than that. It isn’t so much the basic premise that is the issue but rather the execution of that premise.
Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) is just a small town girl from Louisiana who is trying to make it as a waitress at the local bar and grill. Only Sookie isn’t your average girl. She can hear people’s thoughts and apparently, it really isn’t a secret to her friends and family. Sometimes these thoughts are amusing, sometimes boring, and sometimes sinister, but always an annoyance when they start to build up. She seems to have the ability to shut them out at times but it appears that she really needs to concentrate. That isn’t quite so easy where she works.
Her boss, Sam (Sam Trammel), is in love with her and doesn’t do a very good job of hiding it. Her brother, Jason (Randy Kwanten), is a manwhore who will pretty much sleep with anything with girlparts aside from Sookie’s best friend, Tara (Brooke Kerr, who is being recast). Tara is one of the biggest problems that I have with this show. Unfortunately, being one of the few black characters in the show, she seems to have taken on the angry black woman stereotype. Not as bad as the angry black ghetto gang member stereotype but still just as hurtful. The only other black character who has lines is Lafeyette (Nelsan Ellis), the short order cook, who is basically a prop who goes on and on about sex in such a crass manner in order to show the audience that Sookie is the last of the great Southern Ladies. She is offended by his crude manner as well berates Tara for using the lord’s name in vain.
Unfortunately, the only character that brings any sort of humor to the show is Sookie’s grandmother (Lois Smith). The drama is so thick in the show that even the few lines that Grandma is given aren’t enough to help break up the pacing of the episode. Where is Ball’s great sense of timing like we got to see on Six Feet Under and Cybill or even hell, Grace Under Fire?
Of course, everyone wants to know about the vampires. The first vampire is shown within minutes of the episode opening. The vampires are a character in and of themselves, trying to fight for equal rights after “coming out of the coffin”. The bits of dialogue, a television playing in the back ground of the scene, set the tone for how society is now. The “vampire of interest”, as it were, is Bill (Stephen Moyer).
Bill arrives in the bar where Sookie works and she instantly knows he is a vampire. I am not sure if the audience is suppose to believe that she knows because of her special abilities or if it is something else, some effect in how they walk or move that will be added in post. It doesn’t seem like love at first site on either of their parts but more like Sookie is interested in Bill because he is different, new, and exciting. He doesn’t get a lot of character development aside from the fact that we learn vampires don’t particularly do well with silver.
In addition to the pacing and some characterization problems, my biggest problem is the accents. All the characters seem to have this southern fried accent and some of them; the accent goes in and out. It might be better if they either cast Southern actors or get a better dialect coach. At times, the accents were so bad, it was like a high school production of Gone With the Wind.
Another large problem is the vampire special effects as they were. The only thing that seems to change between vampire and human, thus far, are the teeth (aside from their bodies feeling cooler). Instead of having the teeth grow longer at the incisors, as we are accustom to, they seem to go to the front teeth, which just looks odd. And it also doesn’t make sense when a vampire bite is shown. The teeth aren’t far enough apart to cause the bite. Something minor, yes, but it is noticeable. The vampire sex shown is also downright laughable. I am not sure if they blew their entire FX budget on that one scene but the vampire moves strangely, his eyes literally rolling in his skull as he has sex with a woman. To see it, it is really hard not to crack up.
The show is interesting and it could be really great if Alan Ball puts the effort into it that he did with Six Feet Under. The pacing needs adjustment, along with tightening up the writing, as well as adjusting the vampire effects. The story itself, that of Sookie and her abilities, is intriguing and hopefully with some work, this can become a great new vampire show to fill the void.
I've uploaded the screener to YouTube as well as Megaupload.
YouTube Playlist
Megaupload
Tomorrow, Pretty Handsome from Ryan Murphy
Review of The Middleman : Review of Book of Daniel
