True Blood season 1 (HBO) (1 Viewer)

[MikeyWeitz]

I can see this show being a major high dollar flop for HBO.

 

[MarkMel]

I found myself reading my book more than watching the show.

 

[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...

 

[Tom Kirk]

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.

 

[Matthew Brown]

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.

 

[mattCR]

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.

 

[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?

 

[Garrett Adams]

HBO renewed TB for another season.

 

[Zack Gibbs]

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.

 

[MikeyWeitz]

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)

 

[JonZ]

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

Nothing is as good as Deadwood and Carnivale's second season was so strong it was heartbreaking to see it get axed.

For a show about vampires, the vampire angle is the weakest link here. Every time they show up - they look ridiculous. The guy who plays Bill was really good in ep2. I could have watched the conversation with him and the grandmother for a hour. I thought it was a much stronger episode than the first, which I didnt like at all.

Im really kind of indifferent to the show. Sorry, but Ill never forgive them for killing Deadwood(As Seth Gecko said "You cant make it up to me").

What Im waiting for is the second season of Californication (which Im kind of worried about). And Ive GOT to start catching Mad Men regularly.


And yea it needs more Zydeco music.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

As an avid watcher of Rome (and the commentary on this site that went along with it), I really don't get why some people look at what happened negatively. Rome was originally intended to run as a miniseries, not a series. Due to popular demand, HBO gave it a longer life (S2) than anticipated, while cutting back some of the cost. I thank them for giving me a S2 of a show I loved rather than condemn them for not giving me a S3.

I do get why fans of Deadwood and Carnivale were disappointed.

I just watched episode 2 of True Blood and while I like the show, I do agree the Vampires look campy and silly when they show up. Upon reading that comment, I realized I like the vampire angle a whole lot more than I like the specific vampires we've seen.

Sookie sure shows a lot of skin in this show.

 

[MichaelD]

Ask Jim Carrey in Once Bitten

 

[MikeyWeitz]

It was all about Amalgamation and Capital :frowning:

 

[mylan]

We watched the first two episodes last night and so far it is take it or leave it, we'll still watch but I hope it gets better, Six Feet Under it is not.
The one thing that bothers me about all of Alan Ball's shows is the reoccuring homosexual references, I know he is gay but please can he make one show without overdoing it? American Beauty had a closeted Chris Cooper which didn't ruin the movie, S.F.U. had David which didn't ruin the series, but already there are have been several references in two episodes that will wear thin if continued: during the opening montages, there is a sign that says "God hates fangs" take out the n in fangs and there is the slang and someone was discussing vampires "coming out of the coffin two years ago", cute but lets be real here. I am no homo-phobe, I have two great friends who are gay.
OK, rant over, let the shelling begin.....

 

[mattCR]

HBO already renews. Where was this kind of love for the much superior Carnivale.. the second season of that show is one of the creepiest, fiercest things I've ever seen. Killer mythos in that thing. Maybe something really starts clicking later in this first season that made HBO buy in so early. Or maybe they are just desperate considering how freaking good Dexter is in comparison to anything HBO has going on.

http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news.a...=20080917hbo01

 

[Johnny Angell]

This is an important theme of the books, so he'd be deviating in a very significant way from the author's vision if he diminished that angle. In the making of doc on HBO he said it's his aim to make a series that he likes, and hope that the public does too. Since he's gay, this theme of the books would appeal to him and I can't see him dropping it.

This is an issue our society is currently struggling with and True Blood and the source books are one reflection of that. I expect it to be there at some level for most of the series. Asking Ball to drop this issue in this series would be like asking Mr. Rogers not to wear his sweater

 

[TravisR]

Maybe it's just me but I think they're drawing a parallel between vampires and racism rather than prejudice against gay people. I'm not saying that there's no gay parallel but I just find the racism parallel more upfront.

The shorts they made for the BloodCopy website drew heavy parallels between gay people and vampires though. They're also laughably heavy handed and I'm glad the show doesn't go that route.

 

[mylan]

I can see that as well, and I wasn't aware that the books had the references also. Maybe I was a little out of line but, no matter, once Californication and Dexter return, T.B. will be DVR'ed and watched whenever time allows.

 

[ErichH]

Agree on all points. Carnivale did get a second season, so...
I'm with everyone on Deadwood and Carnivale. Perhaps they ran out of good history for Deadwood, but Carnivale's good vs evil was just too quality for TV? Perhaps the Preacher was too much for good ol' American Right Wing aHls. Who knows

Sookie's wardrobe = Me Likie Long Time