True Blood: (recap)

By Jen Smith
Fancast.com

What I wouldn’t give for a sip of True Blood. HBO’s latest attempt at America’s growing obsession with vampires finally premiered last night, and it certainly was different. Creator Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) knows how to raise an eyebrow or two, so combining the untraditional storyline with Ball’s penchant for blatant sexuality should hopefully create a hit series… if only for the cult status. The name of the series is taken from a vampire drink called “Tru Blood,” a synthetic blood developed two years ago to replace the real thing. Since the development, vampires “came out of the coffin” and told the world of their existence. Humans have been apprehensive about this, of course, but vamps continue to fight for equal rights. It’s set in a small town in Louisiana where, as established early on, vampires aren’t really known to populate.

After the opening sequence (which is long, and truly Alan Ball-esque) we meet Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) who is a waitress at the local bar and grill. Immediately after she appears on screen we hear a bunch of voices that sound like people talking to themselves. Turns out, Sookie can hear everyone’s inner thoughts. Unwillingly, of course. She seems quite annoyed by it, especially when the town’s low-life couple comes in. Thanks to their inner monologue, we discover that the man seems interested in getting in Sookie’s pants while the woman presumes that Sookie is retarded. Then, something truly amazing happens. Just like in the movies, a gorgeous man walks into the bar and Sookie’s heart goes pitter patter. The lights fade and the piano and strings begin to play. Literally. It was sorta cheesy but I think they were trying to make a point like the drowned out all the voices and the craziness and all she saw was him. Sookie knows immediately that he’s a vampire, and is excited for her first encounter with the living dead.

Meanwhile, Sookie’s brother Jason is establishing his man-whore status on the show quite nicely. He’s screwing some chick (who’s showing off her assets, of course. It’s HBO, so it’s kind of a prerequisite) when he discovers some vampire bite marks. He questions her and finds out that some vampire paid her a thousand bucks to suck her blood and have sex with her. It gets better—she has a video of it. They play the video and Jason gets a little inspired, so he has some rough sex with her just like the vampire did. Maybe it was a little too rough…

Sookie approaches the dark and sexy vampire at the bar and is obviously a mixture of nervous and excited. After he tries to order some True Blood, which they didn’t have, she gives him some red wine to fit in. Remember the annoying couple? They apparently figure out that he’s a vampire and makes a plan to try and drain his blood. Vampire blood, it seems, is a mixture between a multivitamin, hallucinogen, and aphrodisiac for humans and goes for much mullah. They manage to get him outside, but Sookie, who has tracked them down by hearing their thoughts, chases them away with a giant chain and some good old fashioned southern charm. They had the vampire incapacitated with silver jewelry, which drained his energy. Apparently that rumor is true. Sookie is fascinated that she can’t hear this man’s thoughts, even when she touches his face. Poor Sookie, who’s way too blunt, laughs in his face when he says his name is Bill. Why, doesn’t that sound like a vampire name?

Jason shows up at the bar a little later. He briefly chats with Tara, bartender/ Sookie’s BFF, then proceeds to flirt with a waitress even though he just had sex with the vampire groupie. Tara looks annoyed. She obviously has the hots for Jason. Why? I have no idea. Sookie’s gone home, though, and has a one-on-one with Gran (Lois Smith) about meeting her first vampire. Gran wants to know if he could talk to her history group about the Civil War. Whatever floats her boat. That night, Sookie has a hilarious sex dream about Bill. Who wouldn’t? He’s delicious.

The next morning, Gran gets a phone call. The same chick that Jason was screwing last night has been found dead. He pretends to not know of her. He can’t, however, lie to the cops when they show up at his work later. The little slut had actually hidden a video camera during their sexcapades, so whatever was on that tape was incriminating enough for the cops to arrest him. Sookie doesn’t find out about the arrest until she goes to work that night. She’s in the middle of defending her brother’s honor when she senses Bill. She turns around, their eyes meet, and she’s pulled toward him instinctively. She doesn’t even seem to hear the dozens of thoughts of the patrons, who aren’t pleased with the way Bill and Sookie are looking at each other. She sits at the table him and he offers his hand to her, somehow knowing that he can block the onslaught of noise that plagues her. He tells her he knows that she’s more than human and wonders if he can spend some more time with her. She agrees to meet up with him after she gets off work and gets up to go back to work, ignoring the stares of everyone in the bar.

Sam, owner of the bar, pulls Sookie into his office to warn her about getting involved with a vampire. She hears Sam’s warnings in his head, but she also hears him declare his undying love. Can we say awkward? Just then, Tara storms in and screams the same vocal warnings about the vampire, but her inner screams are about her love for Jason. Again… awkward. Sookie’s not pleased with her friends and storms out. That night, she’s standing outside after work to meet up with Bill as planned. Suddenly, she’s attacked. It’s the same couple from earlier who Sookie interrupted during their attempt to drain Bill’s blood. They kick her to a bloody pulp and the show ends. I kind of expected Bill to come out and rip their throats out, but I guess we’ll see that next week.

So, yeah, it was kind of packed-full of your standard getting-to-know-you crap and trying to establish the main characters. It’s always a little confusing watching the first episode of a new series, especially one with so many details. Anna Paquin did a wonderful job, of course, as did Stephen Moyer as Bill. The jury’s still out on the supporting cast, except for the lovely Lois Smith who was fantastic as always. I’m worried that Alan Ball tried to squeeze too much into the first episode, but he’s done well enough that I’ll definitely be watching next week. Plus, vampires are totally hot.