Saturday, March 28, 2009

True Blood: bloody Gothic camp with psychological depth

Spatula blog in New Zealand nails it with his descritpon of True Blood ...

This week in television shows: We've finally gotten the HBO TV series "True Blood" on the air down here, starring New Zealand's very own Oscar-winning Anna Paquin, whom I must say has, er, filled out since "The Piano." I've only seen two episodes so far but I rather dig this new spin on the vampire mythology by "Six Feet Under" creator Alan Ball. Brief synopsis: thanks to the invention of a "blood substitute" drink, vamps have come out of the closet and are trying to integrate into human society, and "True Blood" focuses on one small Louisiana town's reaction to the vampires in their midst. Paquin is quite good, doing a decent Southern accent, and I like the way the very adults-only show straddles bloody Gothic camp and psychological depth. The satire of other minority movements is great ("God hates fangs" reads one sign). It really captures the relaxed, sultry yet tense feeling of the American South without descending into caricature. (The South is frequently larger than life, and "True Blood" is honest there.)

http://spatulaforum.blogspot.com/2009/03/this-week-in-assortment-of-random.html

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's so annoying how Alan Ball always gets credited with creating the concept and the story.

He's just the face in front of Charlaine Harris.