True Blood S2 - Boobs, Blood & Bad Accents

[Harsin]

Usually I shy way from the legions of crap vampire shows clogging up the telly (usually shown on Living and Sci-Fi). However I'll be giving this one a try as I'm an unabashed HBO fanboy and the premise sounds a bit better than the usual gothy vamp decides to become a detective/cop.



Here's the synopsis from Alan Ball who behind the show and was previously responsible for Six Feet Under.

It's based on a series of books written by Charlaine Harris, and it takes place in a world where vampires have made their presence known to humans. They've come out of the coffin, so to speak, because of the development by a Japanese biotech firm of synthetic blood for medical purposes, which the vampires claim fulfills all of their nutritional needs. So they've organized, and they're struggling for assimilation and for equal rights. That's sort of the big-world picture, and then in the small world of the show, which is a very small town in northern Louisiana, there is a waitress who works in a roadhouse, and she's telepathic, which has been a seriously debilitating pain in the ass for her. Everybody thinks she's crazy. She has no social life because of this, and then she meets a vampire. And because, technically, he has no brainwaves, she doesn't really hear his thoughts. So for the first time in her entire life, she can relax and be herself and not be on guard about hearing people's private, innermost things. And then there's a huge array of other characters; it's a really fun show. I remember when I was first pitching it, I said, ''This is popcorn TV for smart people.''

The show starts 7th September and HBO have been running fake ads for the blood drink on billboards and bus-stops...etc and websites for the drink's manufacturer and pro and anti-vampire groups.

http://www.hbo.com/events/trueblood/

[Headstar]

oooh looks good! I'm a big fan of Angel and Moonlight but detested Blood Lines! and if it's HBO it should be proper swearing and stuff too

[TheoGB]

Interesting. It's a real shame that no one's ever tried to make a better stab at something based around Vampire: The Masquerade. I mean, Kindred: The Embraced is fun in a kind of Dynasty with Vampires sort of way but when you see the sort of seriousness the put into things nowadays it could be so much better...

Anyway, I'm not sure what to think of this. It sounds like it'll be a bit too quirky to really get going. Hopefully it won't be as full of Six Feet Under's navel gazing characters, though.

[BigH]

I hear that it's quite good (more Near Dark rather than Lost Boys)

[SIMON ADEBISI]

Im keeping my hopes up as i loved Six Feet Under. Well series 3 was a bit cack but the rest was great.

[anephric]

Originally Posted by TheoGB

Interesting. It's a real shame that no one's ever tried to make a better stab at something based around Vampire: The Masquerade. I mean, Kindred: The Embraced is fun in a kind of Dynasty with Vampires sort of way but when you see the sort of seriousness the put into things nowadays it could be so much better...

Bring back Dark Shadows, I says. The 90s version was pretty good. Tim Burton's making a feature version of it as we speak.

[TheoGB]

Originally Posted by anephric

Bring back Dark Shadows, I says. The 90s version was pretty good. Tim Burton's making a feature version of it as we speak.

I've never heard of this. I shall investigate...

[Kryten]

Originally Posted by Harsin

The show starts 7th September

No discussion of the episodes before that date please!

[TonyG]

Interesting opening episode but not as good as I was hoping it would be. Paquin is good in the lead role (looks great too ) but not so sure about her accent. Loved the opening credits though, good music too.

I think it'll take a few episodes before I can make a decision on this.

[Harsin]

That was pretty disappointing, nice opening teaser though. Her best friend is officially the most irritating character ever.

[FlangeMonkey]

Well I thought it was great - very nicely shot - also setting itself up for what looks like an interesting season IMO. Another quirky, original show from HBO. Well done.

Very strange to see Vinnie from Home and Away's days gone past in there! Random bit of casting, but he was very good surprisingly!

Plus some nice bit parts for old HBO alumni like the actors who played Frank Sobotka in The Wire, and EB Farnum in Deadwood.

Will definitely stick with this.

[BigH]

yeah - I agree

will deffo stick with this - even the wife thought it was ok!

[NicolaUK]

I'm a sucker for vampire stuff so will be having a little look at this tonight

[jroadley]

from our house... very well shot.

Look forward to next week episode.

[Cockeye]

Any news of a UK showing?

[scoobyood]

I liked it. Very well shot and enough of a twist on the whole vampire thing to be interesting. There seems to be some scope for a good "arch" with Anna Paquin's charatcer. Will definitely be watching more. The black woman was a bit annoying but she's hot and at least she was written with a bit of intelligence.

[cockbongo]

Yeah, not bad. It dragged a little before ending quite suddenly - and I liked that. Paquin is also cute. Very cute. I'll stick with it for a couple more - at least with HBO there are at least 13 for us to see.

And how great was it to see E B Farnum...

[sleepy67]

Originally Posted by scoobyood

The black woman was a bit annoying but she's hot and at least she was written with a bit of intelligence.

Like sitting on your ass at work as a shop assistant, reading a book and getting annoyed with a customer who dares ask you a sensible question. Yeah thats intelligent.

[scoobyood]

Ever worked in retail? .... the woman was clearly asking for it.

[Kryten]

I thought this was ok. Its a nice twist on the vampire theme. Will definately be interesting to see where it goes from here.