Blu-Ray Review: True Blood Complete Season One
Alan Ball's HBO Series Stars Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer
May 14, 2009
When you're a fan of good writing, the news that Alan Ball (Oscar-winning scripter for American Beauty, the creator of Six Feet Under) was developing a new series for HBO was cause for celebration. That his new series, True Blood, is as wonderful as his previous work means that lovers of smart, entertaining television have something to look forward to. Based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries book series, it features vampires, shape-shifters and other creatures of the night uncomfortably co-existing with humans.
Neither as deep as Six Feet Under, nor angst-filled as American Beauty, True Blood is nevertheless a bloody fun romp through the Louisiana bayou, filled with twists, turns and gleeful scares.
Alan Ball's True Blood Stars Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Nelsan Ellis
The invention of TruBlood – a synthetic blood substitute – by Japanese scientists has allowed vampires to "come out of the coffin" and co-exist with humans. However, humans aren't ready to ditch their traditional fear of vampires and many bloodsuckers still think humans are nothing more than a walking snack.
In the sleepy Louisiana village of Bon Temps, the situation becomes immediate when brooding vamp Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) moves back into the family homestead he left when he went nosferatu during the Civil War. Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) falls for Bill, much to the chagrin of everyone around her, especially her boss Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) who is secretly in love with Sookie. However, Sam has his own secret to conceal.
Sookie's brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten) would be more concerned with his little sister's vampiric romance, except he has problems of his own. A man-slut who's "dumber than a box of hair," Jason discovers that someone is slaughtering his bed partners, and the police naturally suspect him of the crime.
That's merely the tip of the iceberg for this series, which offers a host of original off-beat characters that manage to subvert their clichés. The writing is sharp as a tack: hilarious one moment, scare-you-out-of-your-seat the next.
The cast is uniformly excellent: the stand-outs being Paquin (that Oscar win at age 11 was no fluke), Nelsan Ellis as the gay "entrepeneur" Lafayette and Kwanten, who not proves it takes a smart actor to convincingly portray a dumb character, but it takes an even smarter actor to resist the temptation to act smarter than that character.
Blu-Ray Extras
Ladies and gentlemen, these are how audio commentaries should be done. Featuring the thoughts and observations of various members of the cast and crew, including stars Paquin and Moyers, these commentaries are alternately informative, insightful and entertaining. The prize goes to Ball himself, whose "ramblings" through the pilot are just about worth the price of admission right there.
The "Enhanced Viewing" mode features screen-within-screen viewing, where hints crop up at the bottom of the screen to show possible directions for future episodes. There's also an animated map of Bon Temps, which shows the various locations, plus vampire-themed advertisements (much like the undertaker ads in the 1st season of Six Feet Under). In addition, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) occasionally shows up to offer arch commentary on what's going on in the episode.
The Final Analysis
That fact that True Blood is already winning awards (a Golden Globe for Anna Paquin, Satellite awards for Paquin and Nelsan Ellis, and an American Cinema Editors award) is news enough. However, this series more than justifies the hype.
If you like smart stories with humour and (ahem) bite, then you definitely should check out this series. True Blood Complete Season One gets a 9/10.
Fun Fact: Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette) is the only actor on True Blood who's allowed to improvise his lines.
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