True Love for True Blood: A Conjoint Confessional

Written by: The CinCitizens

It isn’t long now until the third season of True Blood will come to our Summer TV screens. And because we are all getting antsy with excitement, here is a look back at a special convention of the minds of four TV-obsessed female CinCitizens for the HBO series, which they wrote while Season 2 was still in full swing.

True Blood fans rejoice, it’s almost bloodsucking time again!

These were the questions the four women kept in mind while writing:

1. Why do you love the show? What makes it stand out to you?
2. What don’t you like? What would you change/improve?
3. What are your hopes for this season? What would you like to see or not like to see?

In their responses the ladies go deeper than the skin in their analysis of the appeal of the down and dirty vampire show and revel in the danger and detriment Season 2 currently brings to their TV screens every Sunday.

First up is CC2K Book Editor and resident Twilight-expert, Beth Woodward.

It took me a few episodes to get into True Blood last season.  Having just finished the horrendously disappointing final act in the Twilight saga, I thought to myself, “Oh wonderful, yet another romance about a nice girl and a neutered vampire.  Just what the world needs.”
But I stuck with it.  And boy I’m glad I did.

Unlike the mostly G-rated Twilight series, True Blood is not just a romance.  Instead, it wraps its plot around a mystery–last season it was a serial killer who was offing women who had sex with vampires.  True Blood allows its vampires–even the “good” ones–to indulge their darker sides.  (Even romantic lead Bill, who is committed to coexisting with humans by drinking Tru Blood–the nutritionally rich blood substitute–has no objections to feeding off humans once in awhile when it benefits him.)  Whereas whatever sense of danger Twilight has is external to the Cullens–c’mon, did anyone ever really think Edward was going to hurt Bella?–the danger in True Blood is here-and-now.  Our heroine, Sookie Stackhouse, spent most of last season with a serial killer on her ass.  And we never forget just how easily Bill could–and might–hurt her.  Whereas the vampires in Twilight…played baseball.  Seriously.  

And with vampires in the True Blood series standing as a metaphor for an underclass minority–homosexuality is the most obvious comparison, but you could make an argument for others–the characters get to be richer and more emotionally compelling than they are in Twilight.  Nice-guy sheriff Bud Dearbourne may seem like the most reasonable cop they have in town, but he hates vampires and believed that a vampire was behind last season’s serial killings–even when evidence seemed to contradict that theory.  And Sookie’s pretty-boy brother Jason may dislike vampires, but that didn’t stop him from befriending vampire Eddie–and being horrified when his own girlfriend murdered him.

True Blood star Stephen Moyer recently commented that Edward Cullen was the “Slim-Fast, Diet Coke of vampires.”  Quite frankly, you could probably extend that comparison to the whole Twilight series.  And quite frankly, when you’re indulging in vampires, you might as well have the real thing.

Season 2 is already off to a strong start, and this season, it looks like the supporting characters may get the juiciest plot lines.  Flamboyant Merlotte’s cook Lafayette Reynolds has been kidnapped by vampire sheriff Eric and, in a last-ditch effort to survive, Lafayette pleads with Eric to turn him.  This could be a very interesting development; so far, none of the characters we’ve come to know and love as humans have been turned into vampires, so it would be interesting to see how the already manipulative and sexually-charged Lafayette experiences that transition.  And Jason’s time at an anti-vampire church retreat has been very different than his man-whore antics of last season, but we’re getting to see a greater depth to his character because of it.  Jason’s portrayer, Australian actor Ryan Kwanten, has been playing the hell out of his scenes (the scene in the June 21st episode where Jason roll-plays a confrontation with a vampire supporter is a prime example).  I, for one, look forward to seeing more of Kwanten’s…acting.  (What did you think I was going to say?)

So what would I like to see this season?  When it comes to True Blood, I always want more: more sex, more violence, more nudity, more of all that naughty stuff that makes True Blood the anti-Twilight.  And if the first two episodes are any indication, True Blood will certainly deliver.

— Beth Woodward

After the page break Kristen Lopez, CC2K Staff Writer, echoes some of the Twilight-related feelings.