An archive of articles about US television programmes and production.
US TV
Preview: True Blood
In the US: HBO, some time in the Fall.
Vampire series, hey? Apparently, we can’t get enough of them. Well, we can, otherwise Moonlight wouldn’t have been cancelled.
But as soon as one dies, others swoop in on bats’ wings to take their place: BBC3’s got the partly vampiric Being Human on the way (YouTube trailer) – as soon as they can sort out cast scheduling issues – and HBO has True Blood due in the Fall.
What’s up there? It’s like they’re proxies that enable repressive societies that won’t allow proper sex on tele to explore desire and the id in a semi-fantastical, metaphorical and therefore safe way.
But it can’t be that. Don’t be silly.
Vampire shows largely fall into two categories: group one, by far the more popular, is when vampires are secret. They skulk in the shadows, occasionally popping up to say things like "I want to suck your blood." Then they suck your blood.
Group two, in which True Blood falls quite neatly, is when vampires aren’t secret. They creep around in the exact same way rock stars don’t, take on the language of oppressed minorities and promise to be good.
"Don’t mind us," they say. "We’re just vampires".
"Really?" the humans respond. "You don’t want to suck our blood?"
"Oh, no," reply the vampires. "That’s a terrible, terrible stereotype."
"Ah," the humans nod sagely. Then they pause. "Excuse us, but aren’t you sucking our blood?"
"Oh yes. Sorry about that. We’re vampires. We lie. Don’t mind us…"
