Anyone still watching this? I’m kind of enjoying it. Who knew Jason was fucking his grandma. Seriously tho, Sookie can’t read Sam’s mind? I am beginning to think he’s less than human. Also, can anyone remind me who the first vampire fucker was?
I noticed that Bill twigged on the detective’s name and was sure that it would turn out that either the detective was descended from the wounded soldier in Bill’s story or from Bill by the lady in the farmhouse. I guess it won’t be the latter.
I enjoy the show. Love Paquin in it; ditto the guy playing Bill.
I’ll go on record and say that Sam is werewolf and he turns into that dog that follows Sookie around (have Sam and the dog ever been onscreen together?) or maybe one of those vampires that Bill mentioned to Sookie who that can turn into animals.
I’m also really enjoying this show. I love how they have such well thought out depth to the human-vampire-society interactions, such as the idea of “mainstreaming”, and how it’s controversial in vampire society, etc.
My girlfriend and roommate and I watch it together, and we definitely think there’s a connection between Sam and the dog, although they were quite clearly shown onscreen together last episode, so it’s not quite as simple as “he turns into the dog”. Maybe he can possess its soul or something?
Yeah, what’s up with Bellefleur? Maybe Bill killed one of his ancestors? Or maybe the woman vamp was a Bellefleur?
Hated to see grandma dead. Maybe this will be the impetus for Sookie and Bill to start looking for the killer.
This is killing me. As I mentioned in one of the earluier thread on the show, I don’t have HBO so I can’t watch it. I was visiting a friend in Chicago the weekend it premiered so I was able to watch the first episode, and asked him to record the rest of them for me. I’m hoping when I see him in November that he’ll have a stack of VHS tapes for me, so when I get back I can have a True Blood festival.
I’ve been reading the books, so I know the answers to many of the questions and suppositions being made in this thread. But I’m not telling. 
I am loving this show. I’m kind of glad I didn’t read the books first- it’s all new for me and I’m really enjoying the “differentness” from Anne Rice’s vampire books, which I did read- years ago. I must admit that Jason Stackhouse’s poor judgement in every situation irritates me.
I love Lafayette: “Bring it on hooker, I was all-parish in high school!” and “Bitch, you come in my house you gonna eat my food the way I f*cking make it, you understand me?”
We are digging the heck out of the show in my house. To those of you out there who read the books, how faithful is the show being? Will I still want to check out the books once the season is over, or is the show basically the book in TV form?
No she can, it;s just that his thoughts are mostly dog-like (some words… with strong flashes of emotion) so she doesn’t recognize what she’s “hearing.”
Sam has got to be a weredog or shape changing vampire (probably weredog b/c he had sex with Tara without losing control). The dog he called “brother” is a friend, family, or familiar.
From the first episode and the comments I’ve heard about later episodes, it sounds like the show is following the plot of the first book pretty closely. I don’t know if they’re planning on continuing to do so with the rest of the books in the series. In any case, I think you might enjoy the books, as the writing is good and there are some things in them that probably don’t translate as well to the screen.
Pretty darn close to book so far. In fact I’m kinda frustrated at the slow pace. IIRC we’re about half-way through the first book. Any corrections from other readers? I read the books, although it’s been over a year since I read the first one so I’m fuzzy on some stuff I must have skimmed over.
I wasn’t thrilled with the casting of Eric. I don’t find him either compelling or dangerous, at least not to the degree he is described in the book. I’m happy, pleased even, with the rest of the cast.
ROFL at Lafayette," tip your waitress."
I can really tell that the writers/producers/directors have read the books, and have some respect for what they’re working with. They’re doing an excellent job of following the spirit of the books, but are not afraid to take a few liberties with sequencing when they feel the need to. The basic sequence of the major plot points seems pretty much as I remember it, but I’ve seen some other background things brought out sooner than they were in the books. An example of this is the story of Bill’s being brought over. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I remember finding out the details of that until much later in the books. And, if you know the characters already, in one of the first couple of episodes there was a nice little scene between Sookie and Bill where Sam was mentioned. There was a subtle little expression on Bill’s face that showed that he knew something about Sam that Sookie didn’t know, but he wasn’t saying anything. Sookie was oblivious to it, properly so.
I’ve heard that the first season is expected to follow the books; after that, the producer is allowed to come up with his own plots for the characters.
I really enjoyed the flashback to childhood scene from last week’s episode that explained by Tara was carrying a torch for Jason. She’s such a canny person that you would wonder why on earth she would be attracted to such a jerk; that gave it some plausability. I don’t think I remember that from the books, but it’s been a while since I read the earlier ones.
I remember hearing that the cast of “NYPD Blue” all had to sign contracts stating that they could be required to perform in the buff at some point. I swear that the guy who’s playing Jason must have signed a contract saying that he would be required to have a kinky or embarassing sex scene in every episode. I thought it was hilarious that he even seemed to get turned on by Tara dumping trash on him and the newly-divorced skank when they were having sex out beside the dumpster.
Thanks, drastic_quench! I had given up on trying to find any place I could watch them online online.
I’m down at the beach, so I haven’t seen this one yet. Sounds like it was a good episode.
Plot-wise, this is sticking pretty close to the first book, although the show is fleshing out the secondary characters more. The books don’t have nearly as much sex (they’re written from Sookie’s point of view, so we don’t witness Jason’s exploits firsthand) and the obligatory HBO rough language is not in the books, either. They are also not quite capturing the small-town, humdrum life Sookie leads outside her interaction with the vampires. In the books she goes to Wal-Mart, cleans her house, cooks dinner, etc., which gives a nice contrasting background for an urban fantasy.
There’s definitely something there. Did you notice the painting in Sam’s office? It shows a dog standing over a fallen blonde Alice-in-Wonderland looking girl in what looks like a protective posture, though it could be a predatory one since the girl appears incapacitated, unconscious or dead. Certainly significant though.
Maladroit - I’m not thrilled with the casting of Eric, either. He’s not the super-humanly handsome Nordic god I was expecting.
I just caught up watching yesterday. Can someone else who has read the books confirm that Tara in the books was white? I always pictured her as the over-made-up Southern woman who I can best characterize as “high-maintenance”. And not the brightest of the lot, although not as dumb as Jason. More like one of those people who has always gotten by on their looks. Maybe I just visualized her character ina different direction.
StG
Yeah, I remembered her as being a white, insecure, get-by-on-your-looks woman too. I’m pretty sure she also had a steady job working at Tara’s Togs. And I don’t remember her having a crush on Jason, either, though time could have made my memory fuzzy.
Did you see him start rubbing the trash on her back? 