REMOTE CONTROLLED
Kinder, gentler vampires
By Gerald M. Gay
Ggay@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.04.2008
Life sucks for the characters in Alan Ball's new series, "True Blood," debuting Sunday on HBO.
The show is set in the sleepy town of Bon Temps, La., where vampires have "come out of the coffin" and made it known that they've lived among humans for centuries.
Thanks to a synthetic blood substitute called Tru Blood, created by the Japanese, they no longer have to feed off the living and therefore don't need to hide all the time.
But not everyone warms to the kinder, gentler vampires. Prejudice is rampant, and hate groups and the religious right are screaming bloody murder.
Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a telepathic waitress at a Bon Temps watering hole, seems to be the only one who trusts the area's first vampire resident, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).
Suspicions build when townspeople, some known for fraternizing with the undead in other parts of the state, begin turning up dead themselves.
HBO, post-"Sopranos," has struggled to nurse its original programming back to health. Judging from the first five episodes, "True Blood" might be just what the doctor ordered.
The tone is surprisingly light, given that it was created by Ball, who wrote the dark film "American Beauty" and the even darker HBO series "Six Feet Under." Based on a series of novels by Charlaine Harris, "True Blood" is more about acceptance than about death and the macabre (there's some of that, too, of course).
And it goes out of its way to avoid clichés. Vampires don't run around in capes, nor do they fear crosses. They wear trucker caps and business suits. They enjoy a bottle or two of Tru Blood with friends after a hard night's work and, in Compton's case, occasionally show an emotional interest in humans.
Paquin's strong-Southern-woman appeal is convincing, and Moyer bounces between sincere and downright creepy as her 173-year-old suitor.
Bringing vampires into the modern world isn't a novel concept. But "True Blood" packs enough bite that it will be hard to resist on Sunday nights.
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