As I understand it and remember from Earl Brown's posts on the deadwood forum on the HBO boards HBO needed 'band of brothers' type of viewership and DVD sales out of Rome for it to be a success. When it didn't they canceled their show with the second biggest budget in deadwood and kept Rome going in order to get in the black. Frankly that was probably the worst decision they've made in recent history, imho HBO has yet to recover from losing deadwood. Maybe not money wise; I have no idea on that front but definitely on the creative side. HBO used to be known as the leader in creative, edgy TV. Now with stuff like Dexter, Californication and Weeds Showtime has definitely taken up that mantle. With The Wire gone, Deadwood long dead and buried HBO seriously needs True Blood to be a hit for them to keep their 'street cred' up.
As for 'why the love' for True Blood... well lots of people really dug on Carnivale, a show that I also liked but for me one of HBO's greatest works was six feet under. With Alan Ball at the helm I'm more than interested to see what sort of direction this is going to go in.
I watched the two episodes. I think it's just awful.
The point is so labored, that a "minority" might be discriminated against, in this case, vampires. All others are fine, be they white, black, homosexual, whatever.
And lets set it in the "redneck" south, so stereotypes are on full display.
Whenever the actors are wearing fangs, they are forced to lisp.
Still fun for me and when Bill worked his Mojo on the cop I couldn't help but think of this 31 year old conversation:
Stormtrooper: Let me see your identification. Obi-Wan: [with a small wave of his hand] You don't need to see his identification. Stormtrooper: We don't need to see his identification. Obi-Wan: These aren't the droids you're looking for. Stormtrooper: These aren't the droids we're looking for. Obi-Wan: He can go about his business. Stormtrooper: You can go about your business. Obi-Wan: Move along. Stormtrooper: Move along... move along.
The results of the V juice overdose were also a hoot.
I like the show, not as much as Deadwood, or even Carnivale, but I still enjoy watching it. I don't think True Blood will be Deadwood(IMO, behind The Wire as GOAT), but still good enough to watch.
Sookies brother cracks me up, they guy is such an idiot.
I like this show.There is one thing that I'm not quite buying. The whole Vampire= Racism/Homophobia thing
In the context of the world of True Blood.
With issues of Racism and Homophobia we are dealing with other human beings.They deserve to be treated with the same rights as anyone else who is a human being because we are all humans and we should all treat each other as equal.
Vampires are not human. They are predators. It is in there nature to feed on humans. They are not equal to humans.
A perfect example form list night's Ep. Bill was able to manipulate the officer into doing pretty much what he wanted him to do. A human could never do this let alone an African American.
If I lived in that world I would probably be the head of an Anti -Vampire group. Being a person of African American decent I just don't by that whole comparison. It doesn't ring true.
Who are you to say that they aren't human? Were they not all born human? How is their affliction all that different from any of the real ones people face every day. So what if they have a limited amount of control over the weak minded, a lot of people in real life already do. And it's not like there aren't trade offs...sunlight for instance.
I would think that human society expects them to not use that ability. All people have the ability to kill or rob other people but we don't do it and I don't see the vampires' Jedi mind trick as much different.
The point is that what separated vampires from humans has been eliminated in the public's mind by the synthesis of True Blood. You say they aren't human because they are predators and it is in their nature to feed on humans. The point of the show is that the public does not believe that that is a difference any more. The public is wrong, as we've started to see. But the premise is that it is a world where vamps and humans can coexist. If you don't buy it, I don't know what to tell you. It's the basic premise of the show. As for comparing vamps to other minorities or protected classes, there have been a few references that with the coming out of vamps, there is less talk about other classes. All of the classes have found another class to hate and so they've forgotten much of their differences. That rings pretty true to me.
Um, yeah. The moment you have near immortality, you have lived off killing people to survive.. and as we saw in Episode 1 you can make what appears to be a "tornado" appear destroying trailer parks.. yeah, you aren't human then.
Biologically, I wouldn't consider a disease that stops you from dieing all that different from one that kills you. Some people might find the idea that their hearts pump no blood through their veins inhuman, but how is the loss of this muscle any different from the loss of an arm or a leg? Does that make you inhuman?
And we've seen clearly that simply being a vampire does not make you evil, assuming it does is the very definition of racism, regardless if some vamps actually are evil.
They need not kill us to survive either, even without Trublood.
Vampires are the undead. They do not breathe nor do they have the need to consume food.
It is their nature to feed on human blood. They may have the synthetic substitute but it's all ready been implied that given the choice there is no substitute for human blood when it comes to a vampire.
The next time you get pulled over try that "Jedi Mind Trick" on the police officer. See if he is weak minded. Especially if your African American.... That ought to work out real well for ya.
I hear the whole ripping the gun away from a police officer and telling him you intend to keep it worked real well for opressed minorities over the years
I was just re-reading this and it comes across as kind of harsh. It wan't meant to be. Please take it within the spirit of the discussion. No hard feels are meant.
I think the show is big on trying to get the tones across that there are a big slice of Vampires that are trying to "Mainstream" as Bill is, but there are a great number of vampires who look down upon them and still prefer to feed on normal humans - like the guy that was killed in the bathroom at Fangtasia.
X-Men tackled this in both the comics and the films, using Mutants as a metaphor for racism.
In that universe you have homosapiens(nonpowered humans) and homosuperior(humans empowered through mutation). Both consider themselves to be human, with Mutants feeling persecuted because of their gifts.
However it seems that alot of the vampires on this show dont consider themselves to be human. Bill emphasized this in a conversation with Sookie.However you can argue forever and ever about "what is it that makes us human".
As for the show - eh. I dont think alot of the scenes work and come off as really silly.