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True Blood season 1 (HBO)

post #1 of 206
9/6/08 at 7:53pm
Thread Starter 
First two episodes are up on InDemand.

It's an interesting twist on the vampire-human situation. A japanese firm invents "TruBlood" a synthetic blood that allows vampires to shed their lurker roles and come out into the public.

Some vampires appear, and try to become aprt of society; meanwhile, some people hunt vampires, apparently using thier blood as a sort of drug, and prostituting themselves to them for the experience.

Anna Paquin as a mind-reader.

Hmm. Who knows where this is going. The first episode was better then I expected, and Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) has a good track record. I'll give it a try and see what happens
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

True Blood: The Complete First Season (HBO Series)
True Blood: The Complete First Season (HBO Series) [Blu-ray]
True Blood: The Complete Second Season (HBO Series) [Blu-ray]
post #2 of 206
9/8/08 at 12:07pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

I have a problem.

No mater what, I finish what I start. Be that a movie, tv show or book. No matter how bad it is.

That's not to say that I didn't like this show but since I started watching it, I'm in for the long haul. I liked it but it could go bad.

I still watch ER if that says anything and that pretty much sux these days.
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post #3 of 206
9/8/08 at 12:18pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

I watched the first episode and I thought it was ok. I will give it a few more before I pass true judgement.

Anna is always enjoyable but a few of the characters got on my nerves a little bit...best friend Tara being the main offender.
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post #4 of 206
9/8/08 at 12:31pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

Oh I liked Tara she was funny. Did Wanda Sykes have a kid.
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post #5 of 206
9/8/08 at 8:30pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

It was ok. Anna Paquin was pretty bad in it though, both acting and that accent. Well, all the accents were bad lol.
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post #6 of 206
9/9/08 at 4:10am

Re: HBO's True Blood

I kinda liked the debut, but I have the sinking feeling that this show could get real old REAL fast...

Didn't Buffy already cover this "attracted to a vampire" material for seven seasons (give or take a season)?
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post #7 of 206
9/9/08 at 7:18am

Re: HBO's True Blood

Did the show need both vampires and mind reading? Plus I didn't care for the actor playing the vampire.

I don't know if I'll stay with it.
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post #8 of 206
9/9/08 at 11:12am

Re: HBO's True Blood

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkMel
Did Wanda Sykes have a kid.

Oh man! I was thinking that the whole time...which is probably why she annoyed me so much.
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post #9 of 206
9/9/08 at 11:32am

Re: HBO's True Blood

Quote:
Plus I didn't care for the actor playing the vampire.

Same here. They should have used the "goth" long-haired convenience store clerk from the opening instead.
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post #10 of 206
9/9/08 at 1:49pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

i have the SAME PROBLEM!!! we need to start a club. TV-anonymous or somn like that. although T&A means somn else too .

don, the point of the opening montage is that nothing is what they appear to be. u thought that that the clerk was the vampire... but it's the other guy who was =).

i think this series is going to give us a huge dose of what it means to be prejudiced against somn... anything. vampirism is just a cover for whatever that "ism" is. similar to dexter's twisted moral codes =).
-yifeng

Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkMel
I have a problem.

No mater what, I finish what I start. Be that a movie, tv show or book. No matter how bad it is.

That's not to say that I didn't like this show but since I started watching it, I'm in for the long haul. I liked it but it could go bad.

I still watch ER if that says anything and that pretty much sux these days.
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post #11 of 206
9/9/08 at 6:32pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

There are a few hotties in the bayou, but they don't look like a casting call in LA, and they don't speak such clear English either. I'll give ep3-? a chance and see what breaks.

It's already obvious the writing borrows from 10 places and expects us to go along with quite a few assumptions about some weird future. I can go there, but it better perform past the fist 2 eps T&A.
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post #12 of 206
9/10/08 at 4:29am

Re: HBO's True Blood

Quote:
don, the point of the opening montage is that nothing is what they appear to be.

I know that .

My point was that I would have preferred the vampire that Paquin "meets" look a little more "Goth" and a lot less "Martin Donovan."
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post #13 of 206
9/10/08 at 7:13am

Re: HBO's True Blood

"Did the show need both vampires and mind reading?"

I havent read the books, but supposedly its just the beginning of meeting supernatural characters (as people who have read the books already know).

For example, Ill mention one change I noticed from when I saw the pilot months back.

This is a spoiler about a character that will be shown in the future.....
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
When Sookie saves Bill there was a woman seen watching from nearby that is supposedly Sookies fairy godmother or something like that. The shots of her were cut from the premiere on sunday


Also it appears Michelle Forbes has landed the role of
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Woman in the Woods/Maryann/ Maenad
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post #14 of 206
9/10/08 at 9:01am

Re: HBO's True Blood

Lots of gratuitous sex scenes...not that theirs anything wrong with that.

Also, a few things....

-When she gets beaten up at the end. I was surprised the bar owner wasn't watching from his window or that he couldn't hear her getting beat.

-For those who read the books. With regards to getting bit by vamps during sex or drinking vampire blood by addicts. Wouldn't they turn into vampires?
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post #15 of 206
9/10/08 at 11:22am

Re: HBO's True Blood

yeah i was just thinking about that todd =P. what kind of vamp mythos will this series explore?
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post #16 of 206
9/10/08 at 6:55pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

Quote:
Originally Posted by todd s
-When she gets beaten up at the end. I was surprised the bar owner wasn't watching from his window or that he couldn't hear her getting beat.

-For those who read the books. With regards to getting bit by vamps during sex or drinking vampire blood by addicts. Wouldn't they turn into vampires?
Your first point will eventually be answered by the series. On your second point, Charlaine Harris created her own version of vampires and rules. She of course used many existing traditions but also modified them. In her books a single bite doesn't create a vampire, come to think of it, I don't that that has been true in other versions either. There is a significant amount of effort for a vampire to make a vampire.

I read someplace or that the first season will be 12 episodes and is only the first book, Dead Until Dark. I thought the actor playing Bill was just fine and so also was Sookie. However, there was something about the episode that seemed off. I'm hoping this is a series that finds it's way after an episode or two.

I've enjoyed the books so much, that I know I'll stay interested in the series. BTW, the books are available at Audible.com and the reader is pretty good.
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post #17 of 206
9/10/08 at 7:25pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Travale
Anna is always enjoyable but a few of the characters got on my nerves a little bit...best friend Tara being the main offender.
I have to agree here, Tara is not in the books and why they wrote her as such an asshole, I don't know. You know what's harder to believe in vampires? Tara keeping a job more than day.

As for those wanting a more traditional vampire, remember that in this world, vampires have come out of the coffin and they occupy all niches of society. Some are more traditional but many blend right in.
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post #18 of 206
9/10/08 at 7:42pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

I believe that traditionally you have to drink the blood of the vampire who bit you for you to become one yourself.
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post #19 of 206
9/15/08 at 5:39am

Re: HBO's True Blood

Second episode was MUCH better than the first.
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post #20 of 206
9/15/08 at 7:25am

Re: HBO's True Blood

Quote:
Originally Posted by JonZ
Second episode was MUCH better than the first.

Yes it was and the preview for next week looks like it will be even better. Can't wait.
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post #21 of 206
9/15/08 at 8:30am

Re: HBO's True Blood

I can see this show being a major high dollar flop for HBO.
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post #22 of 206
9/15/08 at 8:33am

Re: HBO's True Blood

I found myself reading my book more than watching the show.
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post #23 of 206
9/15/08 at 9:55am

Re: HBO's True Blood

Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeyWeitz
I can see this show being a major high dollar flop for HBO.

I thought the numbers were decent?

If True Blood is about to go the way of John From Cincinnati, Deadwood, Carnivale and Rome, I won't bother investing myself in it. Have been burned to many times...
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post #24 of 206
9/15/08 at 9:39pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

I had HBO fired up just so I could view this.
Having just rewatched all of Six Feet Under my high expectations are not being met at this point.
I could also use a lot more Zydeco music.
But, Sookie and Bill are smokin' together IMHO.
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post #25 of 206
9/17/08 at 9:47am

Re: HBO's True Blood

If anything the series makes me want to read the books. I thought the mind reading and Vampires together threads were a but weird at first but if this just leads into it showing that even the humans aren't always as "normal" amongst themselevs as they pretend to be then I will see how it goes.
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post #26 of 206
9/17/08 at 11:39am
Thread Starter 

Re: HBO's True Blood

It's .. different. I'm undecided. I keep thinking, though, that a lot of these kind of vampire stories miss what make previous ones so successful.

I may be alone, but part of what made some shows (Buffy as an example) so successful was the wry humor that tended to take everything a bit light hearted.

In light of that, a over the last few years I've read Christopher Moore's "Blood Sucking Fiends" "You Suck! A Love Story" and his litany of other books in the same area (San Fransisco).

Those seemed like a natural fit for a good light / dark TV series that would be prime bait for HBO or Showtime.

True Blood isn't bad, and the books are good, but it's not a book that I read and see it leaping to the screen.

It reminds me bit of one of my favorite books that couldn't make a screen version work. "Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil" is one of the more riveting books I've ever read. I bought the book, the audiobooks, everything. The story really drew me in.

But on the big screen, it seemed to lose a lot of the mystique that made it creepy fun.

On the other hand, a show like "Dexter" seems to take the book as a starting point and use the characters in new ways.. and it works far better then I would have ever imagined. When I watched the first two episodes of this season of Dexter I thought: "Holy Cow" and I knew I would not miss a single episode.. not through DVR, It would be on my "I watch this Live" list.

I'll keep True Blood on my DVR, but it needs to really establish a through line of action soon so it doesn't just seem aimless.
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post #27 of 206
9/17/08 at 12:54pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexSchwarz
I thought the numbers were decent?

If True Blood is about to go the way of John From Cincinnati, Deadwood, Carnivale and Rome, I won't bother investing myself in it. Have been burned to many times...

I don't get how you can put John From Cincinnati and Deadwood in the same sentence. Other than the fact they are both Milch projects they really share nothing in common. Deadwood was a critical hit that had a huge following that left on a high. It got canceled due to the outright stupidity of the HBO execs. Outside of Milch and maybe his mom there were not too many people who were that crazy about John From Cincinnati. It was axed and rightfully so. Rome may not have performed to the high levels that HBO was hoping for and frankly needing due to the huge budget but it did have a pretty good following. So I don't really understand the connection that any of these shows have other than they are all HBO shows.

This show really looks great. I really like the Sookie character and how her life fits in with all of those around her. It's interesting how they are juxtaposing slavery/Jim Crow/segregation with Vampire rights. If I have a problem with the show it's those lame assed 'tune in next week!' cliff hanger endings.

Did anyone else catch the homage to Six Feet Under in the first ep. with that establishing shot of I think... Sookie's grandmother's kitchen/dinning room?
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post #28 of 206
9/17/08 at 3:31pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

HBO renewed TB for another season.
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post #29 of 206
9/17/08 at 4:09pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

Quote:
Originally Posted by clayton b
I don't get how you can put John From Cincinnati and Deadwood in the same sentence. Other than the fact they are both Milch projects they really share nothing in common. Deadwood was a critical hit that had a huge following that left on a high. It got canceled due to the outright stupidity of the HBO execs. Outside of Milch and maybe his mom there were not too many people who were that crazy about John From Cincinnati. It was axed and rightfully so. Rome may not have performed to the high levels that HBO was hoping for and frankly needing due to the huge budget but it did have a pretty good following. So I don't really understand the connection that any of these shows have other than they are all HBO shows.

This show really looks great. I really like the Sookie character and how her life fits in with all of those around her. It's interesting how they are juxtaposing slavery/Jim Crow/segregation with Vampire rights. If I have a problem with the show it's those lame assed 'tune in next week!' cliff hanger endings.

Did anyone else catch the homage to Six Feet Under in the first ep. with that establishing shot of I think... Sookie's grandmother's kitchen/dinning room?

Where exactly did he compare the shows? They're just HBO shows that were all canceled.

Like Garrett says, TB is getting a second season;

HBO’s TRUE BLOOD Draws Second Season!! -- Ain't It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news.

As far as I know they're taking the 1 book = 1 season approach, so the series should be fairly self contained no matter how many it runs.
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post #30 of 206
9/17/08 at 5:00pm

Re: HBO's True Blood

TB is certainly no Deadwood and it ain't no Carnivale.

Those 2 were among the top things HBO has ever put out (Band of Brothers, EARLY Sopranos quality)
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

True Blood: The Complete First Season (HBO Series)
True Blood: The Complete First Season (HBO Series) [Blu-ray]
True Blood: The Complete Second Season (HBO Series) [Blu-ray]
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