Screener Girl Checks Out True Blood

 

 

The blonde heroine with issues feels an immediate connection with the vampire with a soul.  How many times have we seen that story?  The difference here is that our blonde heroine Sookie Stackhouse can hear people’s thoughts and our vampire with a soul isn’t so “soulful” so much as he’s filled with synthetic blood (“Tru Blood”) so he doesn’t feel a need to suck on her blood.  And I am hooked.

I can’t really put my finger on what I liked about the show.  The storylines are pretty predictable.  You knew that when Sookie went to Bill’s late at night, there a chance something crazy was going down.  You knew that the bartender would be in love with her, and that her best friend Tara, after quitting yet another dead end job, would end up working at Merlotte’s in order to be an important person in the story.  And of course, there’s the HBO-ified brother Jason who is all about the kinky sex.  There weren’t any terribly suspenseful moments that had me unsure about what would happen next.  The writing is almost painful at times, with Sookie spouting romantically about vampires being normal, or Tara being the sassy sidekick a little too often, but for the most part it’s smooth and easy to follow.

I think I was so taken by all of the acting, that it made me forget that the show was so predictable.  Anna Paquin makes googly eyes a little too often and Stephen Moyer is often expressionless (maybe that’s a vampire thing), but other than that, I thought every cast member held their weight and gave the show something different.  I’m excited to see what happens to all of the characters, and I think that’s rare for a new show.

The positives outweigh the negatives on this new series, and I definitely can see my self tuning in on a weekly basis.