17 June 2008

Pilot Watch: A first look at True Blood

The above is the concept for True Blood's title sequence. It looks stunning doesn't it? Unfortunately, "stunning" stops right there; because half-way through this vampire series from HBO...I fell asleep.

What is it about? Written and directed by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), True Blood is a TV series adaptation of the book by Charlaine Harris. I've never read the book (can't you figure it out by now? I'm a couch potato!) but the TV show did not hold my interest (I did mention I fell asleep, right?)

The series stars Anna Paquin as the telepathic Sookie Stackhouse. The setting is post-Katrina New Orleans and vampires are regarded by society as common people walking down the street. They have "come out of the coffin". They're still a mystery, they are still feared (especially when they show their fangs right back at ya), but they are regular Joes doing groceries or having a cup of something at a diner somewhere.

From what I saw, Sookie --- who is fascinated by vampires --- attempts to rescue one she meets for the first time from regular people draining the blood out of him (vampire blood is worth thousands, apparently).

I also saw a vampire having sex with a woman...and it's like watching Wile E. Cayote on overdrive, fast forward to 16X.

And then, as I'm mentioning this for the third time --- I fell asleep. In between watching the series, I just got really bored by the story. The characters look, act and sound so much a like, it was not easy to follow (and besides, the story is all over the place). Was it trying to be dark? Funny? Erotic?

Some fifteen minutes later, I got up from my catnap and stopped what was playing.

So, I don't really know how the pilot episode played out...and I don't wanna find out.

Watchin' it or ditchin it? Without even blinking, this one's for ditchin'.

True Blood will premiere in September on HBO. Along with Anna Paquin, the series also stars British actor Stephen Moyer, with Alexander Skarsgard, Ryan Kwanten, Sam Trammell and Brook Kerr.

In the story, "TRU BLOOD" is synthetic blood developed by the Japanese and is sold as a "beer drink", allowing vampires to walk around town like regular people.