Anyone watching Alan Ball's new HBO series True Blood? It is a southern gothic romance liberally spiced with sex, violence and blood - but mostly the synthetic kind sold in six packs as Tru Blood. Ball evokes a world where vampires are not only real but where they walk amongst us: a vampire spokeswoman shows up on Bill Maher's show; a redneck vampire shops for Tru Blood at the convenience store; and a handsome, mysterious vampire shows up at the bar where our heroine works, hoping to wet his whistle with the above mentioned synthetic blood. "I read in Hustler once that everybody should have sex with a vampire at least once before they die."
~Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten)
All the young principals in True Blood are lean, hard and muscular, including Anna Paquin who stars as Sookie Stackhouse. I like the spunky surliness of Sookie's best friend, Tara Thornton, (Rutina Wesley). She is a mahogany spitfire - as is Nelsan Ellis who plays the sassy fry cook, Lafayette Reynolds. Yeah, True Blood can be precious like that. The two black characters are stereotypes but so is the prim and proper southern belle played by Paquin and every redneck and reprobate who inhabits this improbable Lousiana parish. Frankly, I don't know what to make of the fact that in his series Six Feet Under and True Blood Ball has created exactly two black male principal characters and both of them are gay. But whereas Six Feet Under's Keith Charles was a hunky cop who could pass for straight, Lafayette Reynolds proudly wears his freak flag as a mammy-like bandana. Whatever. Ball has hooked me again. I will tune in next week.
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