Wednesday, August 05, 2009

True Blood

I've been wanting to tell you how much I love HBO's True Blood for a while now. In fact, I tried to find some images to accompany such a post a few weeks ago, but a Google image search left me uninspired; the promotional photos for the show are reminiscent of Harlequin romances.

But then I found out about the advertising campaigns for the show.

These were from the first season:


If you didn't guess it already, the show is about vampires:

Thanks to a Japanese scientist's invention of synthetic blood, vampires have progressed from legendary monsters to fellow citizens overnight. And while humans have been safely removed from the menu, many remain apprehensive about these creatures "coming out of the coffin." Religious leaders and government officials around the world have chosen their sides, but in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, the jury is still out.

These billboards are part of a campaign that promoted the second season:


The second season is still in progress, and it's even better than the first. Every time Michael and I watch it, I declare my love for almost every character on the show. Eric. Lafayette. Sookie. Terry. Bill. Sam. Jessica. Tara. Hoyt. Even Jason.

Love fest aside, the show is plain entertaining. It's like a fantasy novel: engaging but not consuming (you know, because vampires don't exist. Right?). Also, it's sexy (though you'll have to watch a few episodes to see what I mean, exactly).

I'm not sure if you'll like it too, but now you know how I feel.

4 comments:

brie said...

I like it, too. At first I was hesitant because I am not a fan of Alan Ball. Don't get me wrong, I liked Six Feet Under a lot, but the episodes that he wrote (and the first season, ugh) always came across as really contrived and obvious. I still don't like him and I find his comments about why women, in particular, like the show to be completely ignorant and a bit sexist. That aside, "True Blood" is a lot of fun to watch. Good characters, fun and funny mystery elements and great sex!

Erin, you should try giving the books that the show is based on a try. Alan Ball gets a lot of credit for "creating" these characters, but the books by Charlaine Harris reveal that he scooped a lot of ideas (even dialogue) straight from the books. The only warning is that they might be a bit spoiler-ish, so maybe wait for the second season to end. They're awesome summer books because they're engaging, fun and quick reads. I think there are 8!

PS I love the promo for the show---thanks for posting that! I hadn't seen it (just the Harlequin-esque pictures you mentioned).

Erin Riley said...

I'm going to read the books when the show's over. I don't know anything about Alan Ball, but I did assume that the books were responsible for the characters (though the casting helped too).

brie said...

The books are a lot of fun. I bought the first one and then ended up buying the box set from Amazon 'cos it was on sale. Definitely recommended!

There was an article in the NY Times (I think) where Alan Ball basically says that women are drawn to the show because it is romantic, whereas men like the sex and violence. Gender steretype, much?

Lydia said...

Those ads are cool. I love Jessica and Hoyt right now, but am so over demon goddess woman.