I’m a recovering Catholic. Of course I get sucked into vampiric lure.
Although for the record, Stephanie Meyer is one of the worst writers I have ever read. She has the vocabulary of an eighth grader (His too-big hand. He manfully took a bite of cake), and her characters are obsessively flat, much like her narrative scaffolding. She has a way of saying nothing, but taking 50 pages to do it. And, worst of all, the Twilight series is fanatically Mormon, so therefore, grossly inaccurate, but at least comical at times (though not at all on purpose). Read her acknowledgements, and then after that try to take her seriously.
Meyer took something genuinely sexy, vampires and teenagers, and made them Mormon.
Which leads us to True Blood, a salute to all vampire fiction, including the genre’s camera tricks, but worst of all, this HBO series seems to copy the Twilight series, probably because it’s the newest edition, and probably because the Twilight craze spawned this show. Though HBO is trying to make it riskier, and, of course sexier. Those who love Robert Pattinson will deny this, but they are forgetting that the movies are intentionally steamier (and much, much better) than the books. (Note, how B the first movie was, as if the director knew she was working with low grade material. The dialogue seems almost ironic. What am I? Say it outloud. Vampire. Yeah.)
True Blood does one thing right, or rather, they have one really good idea, which is that vampires have all “come out of the coffin.” They now walk amongst mortals thanks to a Japanese drink called Tru:Blood, which comes in a variety of types. And is also sold as a blood orange carbonated drink on HBO.com.
Vampires also go on tv shows and fight for equal rights. There is no question that the Louisiana setting, as well as the heroine’s best friend, the sarcastic black woman with a slavery chip on her shoulder, are meant to recall race issues. This is not done subtly.
The show opens strong, everything is downhill from there. Excerpt from Wikipedia.
True Blood’s Emmy-nominated title sequence was created by Digital Kitchen, a production studio that was also responsible for creating the title sequence of Six Feet Under. The sequence, which is primarily composed of portrayals of the show’s deep South setting, is played to “Bad Things” by Jace Everett.
Conceptually, Digital Kitchen elected to construct the sequence around the idea of “the whore in the house of prayer” by intermingling contradictory images of sex, violence and religion and displaying them from the point of view of “a supernatural, predatory creature observing human beings from the shadows …” Digital Kitchen also wished to explore ideas of redemption and forgiveness, and thus arranged for the sequence to progress from morning to night and to culminate in a baptism.
Most of the footage used in the sequence was filmed on location by Digital Kitchen. Crew members took a four-day trip to Louisiana to film and also shot at a Chicago church and on a stage and in a bar in Seattle. Additionally, several Digital Kitchen crew members made cameo appearances in the sequence.
In editing the opening, Digital Kitchen wanted to express how “religious fanaticism” and “sexual energy” could corrupt humans and make them animalistic. Accordingly, several frames of some shots were cut to give movements a jittery feel, while other shots were simply played back very slowly. Individual frames were also splattered with drops of blood. The sequence’s transitions were constructed differently, though; they were made with a Polaroid transfer technique. The last frame of one shot and the first frame of another were taken as a single Polaroid photo, which was then divided between emulsion and backing. The emulsion was then filmed being further separated by chemicals and those shots of this separation were placed back into the final edit.
Eight different typefaces, inspired by Southern road signage, were also created manually by Camm Rowland for cast and crew credits, as well as the show’s title card.
Despite these opening credits, there is no critique of religion within the show.
Sex and violence are obviously the adult edge, but also drugs, namely blood. We all know what human blood does to vampires, particularly female virgin blood (why?), but vampire blood, V juice, or just V, will give humans supernatural powers: super-sonic senses, rapid healing, voracious libido, and even put a stopper to death. But, for some reasons, only the V junkies know about the sense and the libido. No one has figured out the medical benefits vampires could have on society. Mortals never captured one and studied them. Highly unlikely. And when the heroine finds all this out, she keeps their secret, even after the threats on her life, because, she may finally be in love. Albeit with a vampire, but as Americans we know that nothing is more important or more powerful than love.
Sookie is the virgin heroine. She can read minds. (Like Edward.) And, naturally, because she’s a 25 year old virgin she’s captivated by the only vampire in her small town, one that’s old enough to have witnessed the civil war. He’s, of course, gorgeous, but there isn’t too much emphasis on beauty. For instance, the humans are more desired than the vampires, and those that desire vampires seem to do so only because vampiric sex is supposedly the best one will ever have.
We find this all out because half of the town’s women have all been bitten, and they loved it. But, unfortunately for them, someone’s going around killing vampire bait. In other words, there are way too few characters. I know it’s a small town, a small town with incredibly good looking twenty-somethings (every other age is represented in typical red-neck, back woods retard, white trash fashion), and they’re all fucking each other, which is fine, to be expected (on both tv and real life). But, the show becomes predictable.
The most annoying formulaic gimmick True Blood employs is the inordinately suspenseful endings. The show moves along with the usual dialogue about who are you? what are you? etc. and then suddenly someone’s dead, or Sookie’s in trouble. Like literally, suddenly. Then the credits roll. The viewer isn’t in the mood for suspense, and when it hits them over the head it’s only job is to make the viewer tune in next time. It’s leaving a cliff hanger at the end of a chapter, which is fine to do once or twice, but every time? People will see right through the gimmick.
They even use the shape-shifter gimmick. Why? Because there’s not enough characters.
Oh, I should also mention I’ve only seen 1-4 of the first season. So, the show may improve. All my friends seem to like it. And I trust their judgment. And so far, it’s palatable, but only barely. If I shut part of my mind off.
I know the show is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, a series I have never read, but I have heard they suck, or rather the show’s better, by quite a few people, although I suspect they’re pure candy fiction.
If one wants a good vampire story, and they haven’t read Bram Stoker’s, maybe they should write one themselves, because most of the vampire fiction out there is totally lame, including Ms. Anne Rice.
Addendum: The show did improve. After the initial introductions, and after the writers ran a couple blocks with these characters, they were able to move them in more dynamic ways. They also were then able to begin their critiques on religion, which, even when it’s done badly, is near and dear to my heart. But it wasn’t done badly. I was recently at my parents’ for the week, and they have HBO, so I just devoured all of Season 2. Maybe I’ll write another post about it. But at least for now, suffice it to say, many, many works of fiction slowly move into their stride. Sometimes it takes three chapters before the book gets interesting, or even a whole season in case of the Simpsons, but True Blood definitely starts owning its camp and rocking the vampire genre all over the casbah.
The vessels constricted and blood flow decreased 35 percent. Movie Genre
Lady, lady, lady. How hard you are to please. Twilight appeals, as a movie, because of all the sexual tension. Mormon ideals, though they may be, it’s still just sexual tension and a message of abstinence, which is never bad for teenagers. I haven’t read the books, so I don’t wish to get into a conversation about where things go in the series, I’ve heard some things that might make me rethink my stance on this but ultimately, I think it’s some of the sexiest film-viewing I’ve ever experienced. That being said, I’m also a vampire junkie, and maybe the worst kind; I want my vampires PRETTY. If they aren’t pretty, fuck ’em. This mindset prevented me from watching Buffy until the series was nearly over (ew, they have uggo faces when they go vamp!). Then I caught a couple episodes of Angel and was immediately hooked by the glorious wit and camp of it all. Twilight, to me, is a polished sheen of pretty, of seriousness, and mostly of the gravity and desperation of being a high school girl. Edward is the end all be all because, duh, of course he is. Everything is forever for Bella right now, even though she is pretty precocious and aware for her age.
There is so much vampire lore, and so many different takes on it, and I’m quite fond of it all. Dracula, honestly, the least so. I’d rather historical texts on Vlad the Impaler or some rumours that there was indeed a blood thirsty prince running around the moors of Ireland around the time of Dracula’s writing. Dracula itself, is a fairly boring book, especially without the Mina love affair aspect that has creeped into a couple film adaptations, notably and most beautifully, the Coppola version.
My personal favourite vampire is a character named Simon from the book The Silver Kiss, which is also young adult fiction. The first time I saw the Twilight trailer, I’d never heard of the books, and I thought it was a film adaptation of the aforementioned book. Simon’s a teenaged punk who drains pigeons and rats but falls in love with a human girl going through the pains of a mother dying of cancer…
But it’s really True Blood I want to talk about, though I have little to say. True Blood, unlike other vampire serials (tv or film), is pure SOAP OPERA. It’s Desperate Housewives with a science fiction twist. I love the rapid cliffhangers! I find them charming and often genius. And yes, it gets better. Much better. By the end of season one, I wasn’t sure I was gung ho anymore. Bill and Sookie are boring as leads. But, the supporting cast just becomes more and more phenomenal (so far, the character arcs of Jason, LaFayette and Eric are both surprising and engaging and every second they are each on screen is rewarding). The supporting cast, in recent episodes, even bring out vim and vigor in the flat Bill/Sookie situation, rendering each of them exciting as well–finally.
And goddamn, if that opening sequence isn’t one of the most gorgeous things ever.
We’re in agreement. Twilight does appeal as a movie, and yes, using fantastical elements to illuminate the gravity and desperation of being a high school girl, or rather falling in love at such a precious age, does play out in the film without much Mormon compromise. However, I was mainly focusing on the books, which every aspiring should read if their self-esteem at all stumbles. If that can get published, truly anything can. She’s the Sarah Palin of literature. That all being said, I did enjoy the movie, particularly because I have this self-destructive fetish wherein I love to watch the movies of the books I’ve read. Something about deleting the characters I had created and replacing them with their actor counterparts. Almost always the books are better, however, there are a few instances, such as Twilight, where the film trumps the text.
So yeah, I’ll be in line with you at the midnight premiere of New Moon this November. Spluh.
As for True Blood, I am certainly giving it a thorough whirl. I am a bit of a snob, and will confess to watching little television because I find most television overwhelming visually (too much flashing) and underwhelming structurally. I’m glad to hear someone else say Sookie and Bill’s relationship, though at times sexy, is for the most part boring (and I’ll add cliché). My problem is that I hold everyone else to the standards that I hold myself to. I was excited to see a different twist in the vampire genre, but that seemed to make me all the more annoyed to see old stereotypes rehashed. The other characters definitely have potential, and for the most part have been carrying the show.
And totally! That opening sequence does what an opening sequence should do. An entire narrative is wrapped into a minute using fragment and pastiche to convey an epic story. It’s designed for multiple views. Perfect.
I will say, which I forgot to say:
“Let the Right One In” is fantastic.
I’m almost finished and can’t wait to watch the movie that I’ve heard nothing but good things about.
Ugh. Let The Right One In bored me. A lot. I had such high hopes, and maybe it was that I went to Twilight the day before; LTROI just felt flat by comparison, pacing too slow, storyline a big meh. I was actually thinking about this yesterday, when I was at the video store and came across it on the shelf. The hyperbolic blurb on the cover stated, “Best. Vampire movie. Ever.” Not so much. Certainly, it’s original as far as vampire fiction, but as far as orphaned/abandoned children storylines by Swedish directors go, that was not it for me. Lilya 4-Ever, on the other hand, still makes me want to weep at the very thought of it.