Anybody else planning to watch this? It’s based on Charlaine Harris’s Southern Vampire series of books, about a telepathic barmaid in a small town in Louisiana. She gets involved with a bunch of vampires, who have recently “come out” due to the introduction of synthetic blood.
It stars Anna Paquin, and it’s produced by Alan Ball, the creator of Six Feet Under.
I like the books, particularly the first few. It’s fun to see an urban fantasy set realistically in a small southern town. Harris was born in Mississippi and lives in Arkansas. She has written two other mystery series plus another paranormal series, all set in the south.
A friend turned me on to Charlaine Harris, and I’ve liked everything of hers that I’ve read so far. Unfortunately, I don’t have HBO, so watching this series will be…interesting. I’m flying to visit a friend in Chicago this weekend and he’s agreed to let me tape the pilot Sunday night. I might be able to get him to tape the rest of them for me, then ship the tapes to me, but that’s going to be a PITA.
I can’t wait! My daughter got me started reading this series and I really enjoyed it. They aren’t the most challenging books to read, but they are fun.
I am interested to see if any of the characters resemble the way I have pictured them in my head.
I haven’t read the books, but the series looks fun. I have a meeting Sunday and, even if I get home in time, the chance are good I’ll forget to watch the premiere, but HBO repeats stuff, so I’ll probably catch it.
I haven’t read the books, but the series looks fun. I have a meeting Sunday and, even if I get home in time, the chance are good I’ll forget to watch the premiere, but HBO repeats stuff, so I’ll probably catch it.
Although I’m clearly in the minority so far, I am not looking forward to it, even though I’ve been known to be wrong in my predictions of how much I’ll like something when I actually watch it. Nonetheless, I consider the whole vampire spiel to be pretty much played out for now. The late 1990s-early 2000s were full of vampires–BTVS, several movies, innumerable cable documentaries about Vlad Drakul and Transylvania, etc. How many times can they rehash blood-drinking immortal superzombies? Victim meets vampire, vampire lifts victim clear off ground with one finger, vampire bites neck. Former victim, now vampire, runs down Victim No. 2, bites neck, etc., lather, rinse, repeat.
For me, it’s been several years since HBO had what would be a must-stay-home-and-watch program for me, what makes it more disappointing is that I loved Six Feet Under.
I’ve only seen the still pictures on HBO’s site. A blond Anna Paquin looks pretty good as Sookie. I’m not sure I like the look of Bill, but Sam looks pretty good. They don’t have a picture of Eric up yet. In fact, Eric isn’t listed on IMDB as a character at all.
I’m hoping that IMDB isn’t accurate, because it lists only Sookie, her brother and her friend Tara as being in all 12 episodes. But there’s no Eric at all, and they only have Bill down for 5. How do you start off this show with Bill in less than half the episodes?
I heard that the series will be closely based on the first book of the series, with each episode only covering one or two chapters. It’s been a while since I read the book, but this might explain why Bill isn’t in as many of the episodes. Also, we won’t be seeing Eric for a while, since he doesn’t appear until later in the book.
Of course, it’s also possible that IMDb is wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time.
For the record, very few of the vampires in the series bite and make new vampires. Part of what made the books fun was that they were a slightly new take on the traditional vampire stories. There telepaths, werewolves and shape shifters too!
I definitely agree that it has been awhile since HBO has given us a really good series.
For the record, very few of the vampires in the series bite and make new vampires. Part of what made the books fun was that they were a slightly new take on the traditional vampire stories. There telepaths, werewolves and shape shifters too!
I definitely agree that it has been awhile since HBO has given us a really good series.
Of course I shouldn’t rush to judgment in any case. My wife and I both loved BTVS, even though we’re quite a bit older than the characters, or what I presume is the target audience. And some of the recent vampire movies have been pretty good too.
Spectre of Pithecanthropus - Actually, in these stories, being a vampire is open and above-board and legal. The action comes from either inter-vampire wars, or more often bigotted humans, humans trying to steal vamp blood for use as a drug, the people in Sookie’s little town never really accepting her because of her telepathic abilities, which she tries to keep hidden. She starts hanging out with vampires because she can’t read their minds - it’s like a vacation not to be in someone else’s head for a while.
As much as I love BTVS, I don’t really like that version of vampires. Charlaine Harris’ vampires aren’t my favorites either, but they are closer. They aren’t really good guys, not like Angel, but they aren’t going around attacking people either, unless they’re provoked.
Hell, by Season 3 of Buffy, vampires were basically orcs - low-level henchmen serving smarter, more powerful villains. At one point we see Buffy going out on some urgent mission, bumping into a half-dozen vamps, muttering “I don’t have time for this” and killing them all in under 20 seconds. Angel and Spike were badasses *despite *the fact that they were vampires, not because.
Maybe it’s that, or maybe it’s all the emo bullshit, but vampires, as a trend, are sooooooo over as far as I’m concerned. They’re the late-1990’s version of big hair and legwarmers.
I’m really looking forward to this show. The books are one of my favorite scifi / fantasy series and I think its a much better choice than trying to serialize the Anita Blake books (esp with the fall off in quality over the last few).
Good lord, I can’t imagine putting the Anita Blake books on TV. I’m surprised that they even produce audio editions of the later books - it must have been challenging to find someone who can read that stuff out loud with a straight face.
Although Jean-Claude is one of my favorite vampires.