True Blood and Society’s Vampire Fascination

Peter Bowes from BBC News looks into society's fascination with Vampires in his article titled "Vampire Show Goes For The Jugular".  He looks into the genre using True Blood as an example for the continuing fascination we have with, as he calls it "bloodsuckers".   In his overview he starts with a synopsis background of True Blood:

"In the wake of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel, society's enduring fascination with vampires has spawned another US TV show about bloodsuckers. Based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is the brainchild of Alan Ball - best known for writing the Oscar-winning film American Beauty and producing Six Feet Under. Set in Bon Temps, a fictitious small town in northern Louisiana, it is a coming-out story in which vampires are striving to be accepted in normal society. Having recently emerged from their coffins, the bloodsuckers co-exist with humans with the help of a synthetic blood substitute."

Anna Paquin (who plays Sookie Stackhouse) talks about her feelings on "the crazy ride" True Blood takes:

"All sorts of odd, weird, creepy and scary stuff starts happening as soon as vampires start emerging," explains the 27-year-old, who admits her violent, sexually explicit show is not for the squeamish. "If you have a weak stomach you may need to close your eyes a few times."

On the author's intellectual perspective of the show:

"The storyline focuses on the conflict between man and vampire and the varying degrees to which the monsters are accepted in society"

To which Stephen Moyer (who plays Bill Compton) responds:

"I was just blown away by how funny and brilliant the script is," says British actor Stephen Moyer, who plays Paquin's 173-year old boyfriend. "Alan has built this framework which just looks like a vampire story. But underneath it's a very intellectual take, in a very popcorn way, on what the vampire mythology is."

On Mr. Moyer's perspective of the parallels of Twilight and True Blood:

"By the very nature of the overused term 'zeitgeist', when two things are thought of at the same time there's a friction in the air and everybody jumps onto it,"

Nelsan Ellis who plays Lafayette Reynold gave a bit of a different perspective stating:

"That True Blood "is not a family show".  There is a lot of blood, a lot of guts and a lot of nudity," he says. "Twilight is very safe and you can bring the kids."

Stephen Moyer shares his take on what the attraction is for vampires:

"They are incredibly powerful," says Moyer. "They have a magnetism and they can hypnotize."Women are treated quite well but quite roughly at the same time. I think that's very romantic and sexy."

Anna Paqiun finishes up with her opinion on the subversive story line of True Blood:

"I didn't set out to push the boundaries, but I've never been particularly conservative in my taste," says Anna Paquin. "If you're going to commit to a job for possibly seven seasons, it had better be something like this where there's a lot to engage."

To read the for the full article: news.bbc.co.uk (photo credit: HBO)

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