Southern Vampire on HBO

[ShannonA]

Apparently the networks giveth of modern fantasy and the networks taketh of modern fantasy this week.

From http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=43190

HBO has officially picked up the vampire series True Blood from Six Feet Under's Alan Ball, based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire novel series, Variety reported.

Ball will executive-produce and act as show runner for True Blood, which is expected to go into production this fall. HBO is still ironing out an episodic order and airdate. Ball wrote and directed the pilot and has already penned several more episodes.Now the Southern Vampire novels have largely slipped off my RADAR. After reading the first few books I decided I didn't need to read any more--and they're nowhere as good as The Dresden Files, who's TV show was just cancelled.

But Alan Ball is the bomb. It'll be interesting to see if a great producer's take on a (IMO) mediocre property is better than a (IMO) mediocre take on a great property.

[litlfrog]

It'll be especially interesting for me. The town those books are set in is just like my hometown of Natchitoches, Louisiana. I hope Ball can bring something beyond the usual TV cliches to a portrayal of the rural South.

[ShannonA]

We're finally starting to get some news on True Blood, which seems to be well into the production phase.

Here's what Alan Ball has to say about the show's mythology:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=57550

An excerpt:

In our world, a lot of the myths about vampires were created by vampires themselves over history so that they could pass, because if you could convince everyone that you couldn't be seen in a mirror or that you would freak out if somebody shoved a crucifix in your face then you could prove you weren't a vampire pretty easily," Ball said in interviews at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Calif., on July 10.


I'm largely encouraged that he seems to be going in his own direction rather than relying too much on the books, which I found pretty mediocre.

The show debuts on September 7.

[deadfish3]

Well, I'm pretty pumped for this show-I've enjoyed all the Sookie book, I find its an origional take on Vampires and other supernaturals and although its a streach to totally accept the female POV so far I've liked that the larger story keeps advancing and spreading to encompas more of this "new" society in what I feel is a convincing way. And if Bell is highly recommended all the better--R

[ShannonA]

There are a couple of documentaries about "true-life" vampires being broadcoast before True Blood. I dearly, dearly hope that they have nothing to do with the show:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=59170


HBO has done two companion pieces, scheduled to air Sept. 6, called True Blood Lines: Vampire Legends and True Blood Lines: A New Type. The shows document the recent surge of interest in the walking undead, which has sparked more than 15,000 vampire Web sites.

"They are definitely worth watching," Ball said. "They actually talk to vampires and interview them in their vampire communities. Some of them have actually had dental work done, so they really do have fangs."


But then I've been a little queasy about the show from the start since I very quickly lost interest in the source material. I'm encouraged that articles about the show keep saying that it was "inspired" by the Charlaine Harris series.

[ShannonA]

And to offset my queasiness, here's an article on why it won't, ahem, suck:
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=59050

My favorite statement is, "Ball admitted that he's never read an Anne Rice book".

[ShannonA]

Here's a generally favorable review of the first two episodes of True Blood:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/04/DDTA12O4B1.DTL


Neither episode definitively suggests where the series is going or whether Ball can pull off whatever storytelling trick he's after, but they are uniquely compelling.

This is primarily because Ball is having a ball with the tone. It's all over the map - part scary, part funny, dramatically intense and yet kind of silly. Audaciously sex-filled but also violent and bloody. There's not enough mythology present - what the vampires can and cannot do, their subculture, etc. - to know whether that's a world that will hold anyone's interest over the long haul. And even after two jam-packed episodes, viewers not familiar with the books will find it hard to get a read on Louisiana waitress Sookie (Anna Paquin), who seems virginal and naive but is also fearless and oddly world-wise. One thing is for sure, she's open-minded about vampires.

[ChristopherA]

I've been enjoying Tru Blood on HBO, but what is amazing to me is that this isn't really a traditional episodic series. Instead, it is basically almost exactly the plot and pacing of the first book in the Southern Vampire series "Dead until Dark". This makes it more of a long-from book adaption, or an old fashioed TV mini-series style, where one story is being told over a long period of time, rather then multiple episodic stories over a longer story arc.

There has been some compression of characters and plotlines (for instance, Sookie's brother wasn't addicted to V in the book, but he was dumb, sexy, and hated vampires), but basically every episode is almost a chapter, with a cliff-hanger at the end just like the book has. Some of the cliffhangers are precisely from the book, for instance the death of Sookie's grandmother.

It will be interesting how this long-form of story is received over time. HBO might have the willingness to stick it out where other networks need each episode to stand-alone more.

-- Christopher Allen

[ShannonA]

I saw some clips of the first episode, and it looked very gory, which turned me off. Did they just clip the goriest 30 seconds of the show, or has that generally been the case for the series?

[ChristopherA]

I saw some clips of the first episode, and it looked very gory, which turned me off. Did they just clip the goriest 30 seconds of the show, or has that generally been the case for the series?

No more gory or violent then other HBO shows like The Soprano's, Rome, etc. Probably about the same amount of nudity and simulated sex as both of those series as well.

The 1m30s opening credits is kind of gross, and after seeing it a few times I fast forward through it.

-- Christopher Allen