What would happen if vampires "came out of the coffin" to expose their existence to the world is the unique premise of an already very successful new cable drama series.
"True Blood," which HBO recently renewed for a second season after the airing of its first two episodes, is set in a world in which a Japanese company develops a synthetic drink that provides vampires with the dietary requirements they attain from sucking the blood of humans to survive, so it allows them to live openly among prejudice humans.
A promising spin on the longtime vampire genre, the new show is like "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" in that it is about a seemingly normal, yet ditzy young woman, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), but who has a not-so-secret extraordinary ability that makes it possible for her to become infatuated with a tall, dark and brooding newcomer in town with unusually long canines, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer).
Sookie likes the more than 100-year-old creature enough to invite him into her home. Like in "Angel," he cannot come in otherwise.
The show is also like the continuation of New Line Cinema's "Blade" movie series in that these silver-fearing vampires find a final solution to their need to hunt humans for sustenance. Not only that, lobbyists argue in support of equal treatment for these former neck biting creatures, an accusation they confidently deny because of a lack of evidence.
Though she does not set out to slay all of his kind, Sookie connects with Bill in that she is unable to do to him what she unintentionally does to others, that is, read the thoughts running through his mind. If anything, her open-mindedness allows her to defend Bill, and vice versa, from people looking to hurt or exploit him in Bon Temps, a fictional town no doubt placed in Louisiana because of how writer Anne Rice made the region a vampire haven in her novels.
Suffice it to mention that the vampire in question is suspected when the police find a woman's dead body in her home.
Add to the aforementioned premise that humans secretly find the prospect of having sex with vampires very alluring, and because it is an HBO series undead prostitutes provide them with their unique services.
Sookie's brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten), in particular, is so fascinated with the act that he watches a vampire porno tape while he has rough sex with a woman of the breathing variety, which makes him another prime murder suspect when police find her body.
Not yet halfway through its first season, "True Blood" is an auspicious cable series that exploits the campy Hollywood vampire stereotype to explore the touchy subject of confronting bigotry in the South. That and more than sexually suggestive interaction between Sookie and Bill should make for at least two seasons of riveting television. Bill himself and the long life he has lead as a vampire should prove to be interesting.
What threatens to drive a stake through the heart of the new HBO drama is a reason to exist beyond having an original spin of a hackneyed premise and the potential loss of the romanticism associated with vampires in a world in which they have nothing or no one from which to hide.
Viewers might tune out if if becomes a vampire version of "Days of Our Lives."
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