Adaptation: True Blood, Season 1

When you came in, the air went out.
And every shadow filled up with doubt.

So begins "Bad Things," the devilishly catchy theme song of True Blood, HBO's adaptation of the Sookie Sackhouse novels. Is there any better way to describe that first meeting between Sookie and Vampire Bill? Him, sitting in Merlotte's, glowering, looking about as monstrous as he ever has. Her, delighted, bubbling over with excitement and anticipation. A vampire! Right here in Bon Temps!

True Blood loosely follows the arc of the first of Charlaine Harris's novel, Dead Until Dark. The writing and editing have been carefully done, with showrunners excising the superfluous (the Bubba character, most notably) and beefing up roles for interesting characters (especially Jason, Sookie's brother, and Lafayette, her coworker). They've also played up the political angle of the story, which gives some of the goings-on a bit more weight and real-world credibility.

The acting is across-the-board great. I've heard some complaints about the accents (three of the leads, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, and Ryan Kwanten, are from New Zealand, England, and Australia respectively), but nothing sounded radically off to me. Of course, I'm no great expert of the accents of northern Louisiana. Also, I think it's cute that Stephen Moyer says Sook-EH instead of Sookie, so I may be biased.

The real standout of the cast is Rutina Wesley, who plays Sookie's friend Tara. As I mentioned in my previous post, I love Tara. She's a fantastically complicated character; a woman who's strong, scared, funny, angry, and vulnerable. It's a huge oversight that Rutina Wesley does not have an Emmy nomination this year. I also have to recognize Ryan Kwanten, who plays Jason Stackhouse. He takes a character who seems pretty dumb and unlikeable, who continues to do idiotic things throughout the season, and injects him with enough warmth that you kind of have to love him. It's a bit of a tightrope act.

I also really love the mood of the show. The ambience. Vampires fit in quite nicely among the swampy backwoods and the antebellum homes. It's a funny show as well though, particularly because of Tara and her scene-stealing cousin Lafayette. The funny moments are offset by moments of outright horror, including spouting blood and - well, whatever else it is that might come out when a vampire is staked in the most spectacularly gory manner possible. It is not always advisable to eat when watching True Blood, fair warning.

Having finished the first season and being in possession of some iTunes credit, I was all set to settle in with season 2. I'm quite curious to see what direction they go in, considering that by the end of the season 1 finale, they've set up two storylines from the second book (but I'm pretty certain that they aren't planning to follow them too closely). Anyway, imagine my disappointment when I discovered it wasn't online yet. I'll have to console myself with season 2 of Mad Men - a fine show in and of itself, no doubt, but seriously lacking in vampires. (Time travelling crossover special, anyone? You know you want to see Sterling Cooper marketing TruBlood.)