True Blood is biting into the Buffy effect

from the Guardian UK

It's six years since the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was first transmitted. That, you might have thought, was that. After seven seasons, we'd surely had enough of bloodsuckers.

With its sanguine exploration of teen and twentysomething sexuality, the urban fantasy genre is going from strength to strength – a certain cheerleader would be proud

Except it hasn't turned out that way. It's not just that, in 2007, Dark Horse Comics unleashed "season eight" of Buffy, a direct continuation from the series, partly written by Buffy's creator, Joss Whedon. Now vamps, vamp companions and eldritch folk in general are suddenly everywhere.

In July, F/X will screen True Blood, an HBO series produced by Alan Ball. Instead of residing Six Feet Under, this time a sizeable percentage of its characters are the walking undead, vampires who have revealed themselves to humans and apparently want to join our wider community. Anna Paquin stars as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress attracted to bloodsucker Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) in part because she can't hear his thoughts.

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