Bite me?

It was only a matter of time before HBO cashed in on man's twisted fetish for Vampire lure. My brother says that rubbernecking puts us barely above the animals, but I think that Vampire culture really proves that the gap between man and animal is marginal at best. We fear and envy their ability to openly act upon greed, lust, malice, and thirst. There are plenty of day-to-day human pastimes that border on blood sucking--just take a look at our Sarah Palin feeding frenzy. With a good vampire movie/show/book, we are allowed to pretend that we are more human than we actually are, only because our fangs aren't literal.

I never really jumped on the bandwagon of zombie and vampire culture, even when Buffy the Vampire Slayer was all the rage. Though, a few weeks ago, when I gave True Blood a try, I found myself mesmerized by the truly dark disturbing nature of Vampires. When the main Vampire, Bill, stalked into the bar in the first episode, I realized the true allure of a tall, dark, handsome vampire. Stephen Moyer plays Bill with eerily beautiful bone structure and pale skin, effortlessly going back and forth between devastatingly handsome and hauntingly creepy. His character acts just chivalrous enough for us to want him to call on Sookie--as he says in his Civil War courtship way. (He was bitten on his march home after fighting for the South.) But, he has enough vampire characteristics to make him far more interesting than the average Joe. True Blood really presses the point that human men really aren't any more gentlemanly than vampire men.

In True Blood, vampires have become a sizable demographic and are attempting to "mainstream" and normally live among humans. Discrimination is nothing new in the show's Southern setting, and vampires get the brunt of it these days. Again, humans fear the vampire's twisted nocturnal activity, but one wonders if those who wore white sheets and lynched African Americans were any better than vampires? The exploration of humanity is even more thorough since the protagonist Sookie (Anna Paquin) can hear people's thoughts. (Hey, this is a Vampire show after all, so telepathy isn't so hard to believe within the context of blood sucking people.) The window into people's real sentiments and thoughts is often far more candid than she'd like--it's the ultimate "too much information". Bill, whose mind is unreadable to her, wins her over by not bombarding her telepathic ear with TMI.

The show cleverly has expanded upon vampire culture, making their blood as addictive to humans. Vampire Blood, or "V" as it is known on the streets, has become sort of like crystal meth, in that users' lives immediately and dramatically down spiral. The drug makes people just as vicious and lustful as Vampires, or maybe it just allows humans to act on their underlying vampire inclinations.

HBO has a true knack for casting, and the actors in True Blood continue this trend--aside from the occasional accent slip up. I forgive Stephen Moyer when his British accent comes through, mostly because of that bone structure I mentioned before. Also, if an actor's real accent comes through, it helps that it's not the standard American one. Anna Pacquin seems to be trying too hard at times, but I think that might just be her take on Sookie, who is always trying: trying to block out the voices, trying to be a nice friendly waitress, trying not to fall in love with a Vampire, trying to be a good southern girl. Her brother Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten) often steals the show as the dimwitted sex addict, but his future isn't looking so bright now that he's addicted to "V." I knew I was a True Blood fanatic when Ryan Kwanten stopped by the Men's Health office and I got all giddy. I'm campaigning to get him on the cover.

For all the vices it highlights, True Blood itself is a sick guilty pleasure. Each episode pits vampires and humans against each other in a race to be more disgusting, with the occasional hurdle of, not good intentions, but less evil intentions. The series of murders is another source of intrigue and, obviously, the humans assume vampires are to blame. We all know, however, that humans are perfectly capable of mass murder, so I'm pretty sure True Blood writers are going to throw us a curve ball. There's also signs of a werewolf, which often come hand in hand with vampires. All in all, between Dexter and True Blood, Sunday night has become a deadly evening of television.