True Blah

I normally love vampire stories, so I was kind of excited to watch the new HBO series, True Blood. And the fact that it's produced by Alan Ball was also a plus for me since I loved Six Feet Under (that last episode still makes me cry every time). T & I tivo'd the first episode a few weeks back and have just caught up with the three eps that have aired so far. And so far, the verdict is...meh.

The premise is intriguing: vampires "come out of the closet" and try to become a part of mainstream society; there's several mentions of a 'vampires' rights amendment' or something of the sort, which I assume is a nod to the civil rights movement. But the fact that the bulk of the show revolves around a backwater town in rural Louisiana gets very old, very fast. I may have a high tolerance for cheesy vampire shit, but I definitely do NOT have a high tolerance for cheesy southern accents.

I'm not going to go into tremendous detail here. I'll just say that the first episode had a lot of promise, but I've spent every one since waiting for something big to happen, some revelation or connection between all the pieces. And it still hasn't. I only have so much patience for a new show, even an HBO one. All the characters just seem so trite and two-dimensional: the sassy black girlfriend, the shallow womanizing brother, the doting grandmother. The murder-mystery seems somewhat predictible, and there's not enough of the revelations of backstory or mythology surrounding the vampires (or even the main character's psychic abilities) that are what I personally find most fascinating. As I watched each episode, I found myself mentally comparing it to Anne Rice or Buffy, and all in all, it's sorely lacking. But of course, like the sucker I am (no pun intended), I'll probably still watch it.

Speaking of lameness, I'm also already feeling kind of over Entourage. I think they jumped the shark with the whole Medellin storyline (although, check out the trailer on the "official" Medellin website - it's sweet). It just dragged on way too long, and the fallout of it being a bomb is just plain boring.

The initial appeal of the show, at least to me, was that it was pretty light-hearted. Kind of a fun insiders' look at young Hollywood and how ridiculous the lifestyle is. But now I feel like it's starting to take itself a little too seriously, especially after all the comparisons of it being the male equivalent of Sex and the City. So they're going to try and build Vince up to be some sort of serious actor. Bah. This is one of those times that I wish I could hit fast-forward on the tivo and jump ahead like, 3 episodes to when it gets good again.