Culture

Prime
Wednesday 9.30 pm
(4/5)

In the small southern U.S. town of Bon Temps, vampires have ‘come out of the coffin’, making their presence known to the world. After the discovery of synthetic blood, they’re thankfully able to nom on something other than humans. Naturally enough, however, tensions are still thick between vampires and humans. Some people still don’t ‘em, and some vampires don’t necessarily like people – at least, not enough to change their diet. Within this ambivalent world we follow the life of a telepathic waitress named Sookie Stackhouse (New Zealand’s Anna Paquin). She sparks up a relationship with vampire Bill (Stephen Moyers) and has to deal with the consequences. Unlike competing vampire re-imaginings, True Blood is enhanced by their having what I would call ‘real’ vampires. That is to say, these vampires are lustful, they hang out at night, and their encounters with sunlight end in flames rather than a sparkly complexion.
    True Blood is rugged, nasty, and at times a little gross. It’s the best of the vampire genre coming face to face with the worst of humanity. It’s chock-full of disturbing sex scenes (I’m relatively certain that spinning someone’s head around 180 degrees mid-coitus isn’t natural or, generally speaking, hot), drugs (vampire blood turns out to be a pretty sweet drug … except for the addiction factor and its side effects: boners that just won’t go away, umm, no matter what), violence, religious fanaticism (“God Hates Fangs”), and basically lots of weird supernatural shit. So it’s clear that the show strives not to bore you.
   The latest season isn’t quite as flash as the earlier ones, though, especially the first, and you probably don’t want to jump straight in unless you’ve read the books (The show is based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries series of books, which had capitalised on a recent resurgence in the popularity of vampire fiction). I would simply recommend beginning at the very start of the series, and going from there. 
   Also, three more words if you’re not sold on it: Anna Paquin naked. 
   Just sayin’.