Blood-curdling: how tv got bitten by the vampire bug

From Irish Independent

Ever since Dracula terrorised polite Victorian society, the world has been obsessed with these scary, mythical creatures. Paul Whitington sinks his teeth into True Blood, the latest vampire incarnation to arrive from the US

Bram Stoker has a lot to answer for. He didn't invent vampires, of course -- they'd been a staple of European folklore since the Middle Ages. But the Victorian Dubliner's 1897 novel Dracula popularised the idea of bloodsuckers as fictional characters to such an extent that they've remained a staple in books, films and television ever since. Surely, though, they have never been more in fashion than they are at the minute. And while Stephanie Meyer and her Twilight franchise might claim the credit for the current vampire craze, a lot of the ground work was done on television.

True Blood, which began on Channel 4 last week and begins on TG4 on 26 October, is the latest in a line of vampire-based TV dramas that stretches back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the daddy of the current trend. And in ways, the new show, which has been running on HBO in America since last year, is a perfect demonstration of why the vampire has proved such a perennial dramatic tool.

Created by Alan Ball, the man behind Six Feet Under, and based on a series of novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood blends the conventions of vampire stories with the so-called 'southern gothic' tradition in much the same way as Anne Rice (Interview With The Vampire) did. If anything, however, the True Blood stories are more daring, and use the bloodsuckers as a kind of metaphor for race politics and even gay rights.

Set in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana, the series revolves around one Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a waitress at the local bar who happens to be telepathic. In Bon Temps, however, that's no big deal, because the town is awash with shapeshifters, werewolves and vampires. In True Blood's alternate world, these supernatural creatures have always existed, but have only come to human attention in recent years. And it's the vampires, understandably, who are the main bone of contention.

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