Since its inception on Sky in 2004 the FX channel has consistently brought quality American shows like The Wire and NCIS to a British audience hungry for riveting and unmissable television. Now with the TV adaptation of Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels, True Blood, FX has once again struck television gold.
The series opens with a man buying the beverage of the title at a local convenience store. This man claims to be a Vampire but is exposed as a fake by the owner of the premises, who is a bonafide night crawler himself. This opening case of confused identities lays the ground work for the rest of the series, where Vampires fit in seamlessly with mainstream society and where sexuality is an interchangeable commodity.
True Blood Stars Oscar Winner Anna Paquin
True Blood is a masterpiece of broadcasting, with its fantastic array of characters, each with their own secrets and hidden histories, drawing in the viewer to a world where Vampires, Werewolves and Shape-Shifters exist alongside humans.
The protagonist of the series, Sookie Stackhouse, is expertly played by the Academy Award winning actress Anna Paquin, who manages to capture the social nuances and deep insecurities that Harris endowed her heroine with in the original novels. Equally, the Vampire, Bill Compton, who is one third of the show's central love triangle, is convincingly brought to life by Stephen Moyer, the Essex born actor who made his name in the BBC show, Ny-Lon (2004).
Supporting Cast, including Ryan Kwanten, Steal the Show
However, the real stars of the show are the supporting cast of misfits and low lifes who inhabit Bon Temps, with Sookie's brother, Jason and her best friend Tara particularly warranting plaudits for their scene stealing presence. Jason Stackhouse, played by Australian Ryan Kwanten, is at first glance a card board cut out of a high school jock, but as the series progresses Jason's love of casual sex is a side effect of the absence of true love he has felt since the untimely death of his and Sookie's parents. Tara meanwhile is seemingly just a foul mouthed Southern jezebel, who, like Jason, seeks love through casual sex. But as Tara's background is slowly revealed, it appears that a lack of maternal guidance, due to her mother's alcoholism, has left an empty hole in Tara that she is desperately trying to fill.
True Blood richly deserves mainstream attention and will surely receive that with its imminent arrival on Channel 4. The fans that the show has already gained will not mind watching the scintillating darkness of series one for a second time.
