Vamp it Out with True Blood

Vampires seem to be the rage these days, more particularly, vampire-human team-ups. Must be our generation's sexier and more sordid version of "Romeo and Juliet" huh?

To further fuel your lust for all things bloody and vampire-y, HBO is finally bringing "True Blood" (just a season late:p) to the Philippines this Thursday, April 9, (and every Thursday after that) on MAX.

Starring newly crowned Golden Globe winner Anna Paquin, who won the Best Actress Award for a Television Series-Drama for her role as Sookie Stackhouse, and created by Six Feet Under's Alan Ball, TRUE BLOOD is based on the popular Sookie Stackhouse novels of Charlaine Harris about the tale of Sookie Stackhouse, a perky waitress with telepathic gifts  and an irresistible attraction to a vampire named Bill Compton.

Here's the official synopsis from HBO:

"In the not-too-distant future, and thanks to the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood, vampires no longer need humans for their fix and can walk freely, if not yet comfortably, among their living counterparts – though they can still come out only at night. Meanwhile, in the backwoods Louisiana town of Bon Temps, Sookie works as a waitress at the down-home bar Merlotte’s. Though outwardly normal, she has unusual qualities of her own: Sookie can read minds, which complicates her world in endless ways. But Sookie’s life gets a lot more interesting when Merlotte’s gets its first vampire patron – the 173-year-old Bill – and the two outsiders are immediately drawn to each other."

Aside from the unlikely coupling between a vampire and human, True Blood also has a colorful supporting cast which oftentimes distract from the Sookie-Bill tandem.

Watch out for Lafayette Reynolds (played by Nelsan Ellis), the short order cook/ road clearing crew/ effects supplier, who snatches every scene he's in.

Set in muggy Louisiana, where people just can't seem to keep their clothes on for long, Sookie and Bill, both outsiders in their respective communities, take to each other immediately. Of course, the lovers experience a lot of opposition to their coupling, both from the vampire and human sectors of society.

But more than just a love story, True Blood also threshes out the individual demons of the supporting cast and throws in a mystery or two as well: (a) Who is killing all the fangbangers (humans who have sex with vampires)? and (b) Why is that dog always hanging around Sookie?

All of these add-ons make every episode of True Blood feel particularly protracted and as murky as the Louisiana bayou, with no clear and coherent voice getting across. Maybe the script was made during last year's writer's strike?

Either way, see for yourself on April 9, 2009 at 9pm on MAX. And parents, please make sure that your kids do not watch, because True Blood borders on soft porn with its gratuitous sexual scenes and skimpy costumes. The reason probably being that vampires are sexy beasts and it's just so incredibly hot in Louisiana.

As for me, synthetic blood or not, I'm staying clear of vampires and I'm keeping Buffy on speed dial.

*True Blood airs every Thursday, starting April 9, 2009, at 9pm on MAX. Encores air every Saturday at 1pm and every Sunday at 11pm

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