True Blood
By Elizabeth Buehring · 0 Comments · Leave a Comment
Sunday night ended up being a HBO-palooza with the new series of True Blood premiering and the new season of Entourage starting up right after. After reading almost all of the Charlaine Harris books containing the Southern Vampire series, I was excited to see the new show come on by Alan Ball. Being a fan of Six Feet Under, I was given this book after he had signed a deal with the author to create a series that followed along with the books. After watching a few teaser shows before Sunday and then finally the first episode, I was really impressed.
It is so hard to read a book and then watch the adaptation on screen and really be happy with the outcome. In either situation you think “Wait that doesn’t follow the book” or your own thoughts of how the set should look because of what you imagined in your head, doesn’t match up. In some ways you are let down by the poor choice in the actors, the story doesn’t flow the same as the original author and ends up going off on a trail that you feel lost. This episode, and hopefully the series, is the first time I have experienced a book and adaptation to screen be achieved pretty seamlessly. The choice of the actors match what I had envisioned (though their over done southern accents becomes a little nauseating since most are Australian or actors from the UK), the set for the house that Sookie lives in and the Merlotte’s bar where she works fit into my head as I had, as well. The only part that didn’t seem to match up is how Sookie’s ability to read people’s thoughts is something she wants no one else to know besides her co-workers and family. In one of the opening scenes she blurts out to the customer a reply to the thoughts in the customers head, which was something that really never happened in the book. Of course it’s more comical this way and see why it would be added into the script.
All in all, I will definitely be paying attention to this series. I would highly suggest reading the books as well… or maybe not? Might ruin the fun of it!
