Welcome to your Friday morning television briefing. Last night was quite a busy telly-viewing evening here in the Televisionary household, with brand-new episodes of Ugly Betty, The Office, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, which once again managed to make me laugh until it hurt. Green man!
We may have our very first cancellation of the season on our hands with FOX's comedy Do Not Disturb. Series, which starred Jerry O'Connell and Niecy Nash and struggled in the ratings since its launch three weeks ago, has been preempted next week and will be replaced with a repeat of 'Til Death. (Ouch.) There was no official announcement as of press time from studio 20th Century Fox Television or the network about the fate of Do Not Disturb, but Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello claims that inside sources at the network have confirmed that the series has been cancelled. Let the guessing games about what the second cancelled series of the year will be begin! (Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
Sarah Michelle Gellar has signed on to star in HBO's half-hour comedy pilot The Wonderful Maladys, about the dysfunctional lives of three adult siblings who lost their parents at an early age. In the project, from writer/executive producer Charles Randolph (The Interpreter), Gellar will play a character described as having "a king of zealous immaturity -- like a drug addict with a to-do list." Character was created by Randolph with Gellar in mind; pilot will likely be shot in early 2009. (Variety)
Melissa George (Alias) is in final negotiations to join the cast of ABC's Grey's Anatomy, where she will play an intern who is intended to be a potential love interest of their Sara Ramirez's Callie or Brooke Smith's Erica. (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
TNT has ordered two procedural cop drama pilots, including an untitled project from writer/executive producer Doug Jung (Big Love) and executive producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Danny Cannon (CSI) about a squad of young undercover police officers as they find themselves torn between performing their duty and being seduced by corruption and cash. The other project ordered by TNT is Bunker Hill (formerly known as Morse Code), which stars Donnie Wahlberg and explores the "crime, corruption, and deceit" of the Bunker Hill neighborhood of Boston. Project comes from writer/executive producer Walon Green and executive producers Donnie Wahlberg and Jon Avnet, who is set to direct the pilot. (Hollywood Reporter)
FOX is developing an untitled single-camera workplace comedy from writer/executive producers Moses Port and David Guarascio, who created last season's CW comedy Aliens in America. Project is about a young man who takes a mood enhancer that breaks him out of his funk and he applies for a job at a pharmaceutical company, where he must deal with working for his high-powered female boss who is nicknamed "The Velvet Hammer." (Variety)
Could Jason Ritter be joining the cast of ABC's Brothers & Sisters as Ryan Walker, the secret child of William Walker? (E! Online's Watch with Kristin)
In other FOX news, the network is developing a The New McToms, a single-camera half-hour comedy about a "conservative matriarch who must face the reality of her three children marrying ethnically diverse spouses." Project comes from ABC Studios, executive producer Salma Hayek, and writers Boyce Bugliari and Jamie McLaughlin. (Hollywood Reporter)
Julie Bowen is set to return to ABC's Boston Legal in November in the series' tenth episode. Just don't hold your breath waiting for Mark Valley to return... (Entertainment Weekly's Ausiello Files)
True Blood has upped four actors to regular status when the series returns for its recently ordered second season. Former guest stars Mehcad Brooks (Desperate Housewives), Todd Lowe (Gilmore Girls), Deborah Ann Woll (The Mentalist), and Michelle Forbes (Battlestar Galactica) are all set to appear in the season finale, which airs later this fall. (Hollywood Reporter)
MTV has renewed reality competition series From G's to Gents, ordering ten episodes to run early next year. (Variety)
David Tennant is said to be suffering from Doctor Who withdrawal while acting alongside Patrick Stewart in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, joking that "Shakespeare's all right, but he's lacking in spaceships." He went on to say, "It's nice to know that I'm coming back. I'll be reminded of [Doctor Who] in some shape or form pretty much every day until I start filming again in January." (Digital Spy)
ABC Studios has extended director Gary Fleder's overall deal; he's said to be developing a project with Jericho creator Jonathan Steinberg and is set to executive produce and direct CW pilot Light Years. This past development cycle, he directed the pilots for ABC's Life on Mars (launching October 9th) and Finnegan. (Variety)
Oxygen has acquired off-network rerun rights to the CW's America's Next Top Model, which it will begin to air in January. The cabler has purchased the rights to the full library of the series, including its current and future cycles. (TV Week)
Steve Valentine (Crossing Jordan) will sereve as host on Sci Fi's new reality competition series Estate of Panic, which follows seven contestants seeking hidden cash on an estate filled with all sorts of unexpected challenges. Series comes from Endemol and will launch on November 12th. (Variety)
Stay tuned.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: The Mentalist (CBS); America's Toughest Jobs (NBC); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? (FOX)
9 pm: Presidential Debate (CBS; 9-11 pm); NBC News Special (NBC); Presidential Debate (ABC); Presidential Debate (FOX)
10 pm: Dateline (NBC); 20/20 (ABC)
What I'll Be Watching
Um, I think I'll just go out instead...
Channel Surfing: "Do Not Disturb" Checks Out Early, Sarah Michelle Returns to TV, "Boston Legal," and More
In a surprise move, pay cabler HBO has ordered a second season of drama True Blood, shortly after airing the series' second episode earlier this week.
Production on Season Two of True Blood is set to kick off early next year in Los Angeles with HBO slated to air the sophomore season of the Alan Ball-created series during Summer 2009.
“We are absolutely thrilled that the critics and our viewers have embraced True Blood,” said HBO's Michael Lombardo, president of the Programming Group and West Coast Operations, in a prepared statement. “Alan Ball has done it again – made an addictive series that is unlike any other.”
“I am thrilled to be able to continue to work with such a talented group of writers, cast and crew to explore the characters and world created by Charlaine Harris in her novels,” said Ball. “It really is a joy to go to work every day and I couldn’t be happier to be back home at HBO.”
Stay tuned.
Good morning and welcome to your Wednesday morning television briefing. I hope that most of you decided to stay in last night and watch the premiere of FOX's new J.J. Abrams project Fringe; I watched the second episode of 90210 and was decidedly less-than-impressed again. Sigh.
If you did miss Fringe, fret not: FOX will be reairing last night's series premiere on Sunday evening at 8 pm... along with a sneak peek at the first four minutes of Episode Two, as well as an extended scene from feature The Day the Earth Stood Still (the Keanu Reeves version, natch) and a preview of the two-hour 24 movie 24: Redemption. (Variety)
Regardless of how Fringe did in the ratings last night, it will have done significantly better than the launch for HBO's vampire drama True Blood from Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball. The pay cabler only drew 1.44 million viewers to the series premiere of True Blood, significantly less than the axed John from Cincinnati did in its initial outing (3.4 million) in June 2007, following the series finale of The Sopranos, and without the marketing and publicity support that HBO has given True Blood, which scored numbers lower than the last new installment of Big Love, which brought 2.88 million viewers to the pay cabler. (It originally launched with 4.56 million viewers; Deadwood attracted 5.79 million.) Ouch. HBO will be watching the cumulative numbers from the rest of the week very carefully. (The Los Angeles Times)
Attention Lost fans: ABC has cast the other half of its upcoming deadly duo of new characters for Season Five of the drama. Saïd Taghmaoui (Traitor) will play Caesar, a mystery man with "an innate intelligence, intensity, and danger we really responded to,” according to Damon Lindelof. Look for the character to play “an important part of the setup for the final act of the show in season 6," according to Carlton Cuse. Hmmm. (Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider)
NBC Universal has returned to iTunes after a year-long war with Apple over pricing. The resolution to their feud was announced yesterday by Steve Jobs; iTunes will begin selling standard-definition episodes of NBC Universal's series for $1.99 but will also offer HD versions of The Office, 30 Rock, and Heroes for $2.99 a pop. (Variety)
BBC One is kicking off Season Two of Doctor Who spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures on September 29th. The Beeb has commissioned twelve half-hour episodes of the series, which will feature the return of Elisabeth Sladen as former Doctor's companion Sarah Jane Smith after her recent adventure with the Children of Time over in Doctor Who. Also on board for Season Two: Thomas Knight as Sarah Jane's adopted son Luke and Daniel Anthony as Clyde. Sorry, Maria fans: Yasmin Paige won't be back. (BBC)
In other Doctor Who news, David Tennant is reportedly very keen to play the Doctor in a big-screen version of the cult British series, according to The Sun, who claims that Tennant wants to sign a new deal that would cover a fifth season of the drama and a spin-off feature film. Tennant has yet to commit to the role beyond the four "specials" that are slated to air in 2009. (Digital Spy)
Cabler Style Network has signed a partnership with Marie Claire magazine; they'll launch the unscripted series Running in Heels, following the lives of the editors, writers, and interns of Marie Claire, in March 2009. (Variety)
MTV is doing a series based on Rock Star 2 with Mark Burnett. (Craigslist)
Rod Lurie has sued Touchstone Television, claiming that the studio owes him at least $1 million for his ABC series Commander in Chief and that it stopped paying him under his conctract for the series by using the WGA strike as an excuse. (Hollywood Reporter)
FX has announced that Nick Grad will remain as EVP of original programming at the cabler--he developed Damages, Sons of Anarchy, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia--and has promoted Eric Schrier to EVP of FX Productions/SVP of series development, replacing Matt Cherniss who left FX for FOX, and Danielle Woodrow to SVP of original programming; she has overseen Damages, Dirt, and The Riches in the past. (Variety)
Stay tuned.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: Greatest American Dog (CBS); America's Got Talent (NBC; 8-10 pm); America's Next Top Model (CW); Wife Swap (ABC); Bones (FOX)
9 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); 90210 (CW); Supernanny (ABC); 'Til Death/Do Not Disturb (FOX)
10 pm: CSI: New York (CBS); Law & Order: Criminal Intent (NBC); 20/20 (ABC)
What I'll Be Watching
8 pm: America's Next Top Model.
On tonight's episode ("The Ladder of Model Success"), Benny Ninja drops in to give the models some tips on posing and the girls are tasked with swinging on a rope ladder during a photo shoot.
9 pm: Project Runway on Bravo.
Season Five (the final season on Bravo) of Project Runway continues tonight. On tonight's episode ("What's Your Sign?"), the designers are put into pairs and tasked with creating a garment inspired by their partner's astrological sign and some stargazing.
I've been going on about HBO's True Blood for nearly two years now. (Yes, seriously, it's been that long since I first read the pilot script.)
You read the advance review of the original pilot that I wrote in May... as well as my advance review of the revised pilot and second episode of True Blood written a little while later.
But, thanks to the magic of pay cable, you've now seen the premiere episode of True Blood for yourself, if you (A) subscribe to HBO and (B) tuned in last night for the first episode of the Southern Gothic vampire dramedy, based on the novels of Charlaine Harris, and written and executive produced by Alan Ball, creator of HBO's Six Feet Under.
You've listened (or read, anyway) to what I had to say about the series, so I'm curious to turn the stand over to you: What did you think of True Blood? What worked for you and what didn't? Do you agree with Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker, who said that Ball "has never seen a comic-dramatic premise he can't flatten with leaden metaphors"? (Ouch.) And, most importantly, will you tune in for a second episode?
If there's one thing you can say about True Blood, it's that everybody has strong opinions about this series. So talk back here.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: The Big Bang Theory/How I Met Your Mother (CBS); Deal or No Deal (NBC); Gossip Girl (CW); High School Musical: Get in the Picture (ABC); Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (FOX)
9 pm: Two and a Half Men/New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS); America's Toughest Jobs (NBC); One Tree Hill (CW); CMA Music Festival: Country's Night to Rock (ABC; 9-11 pm); Prison Break (FOX)
10 pm: CSI: Miami (CBS); Dateline (NBC)
What I'll Be Watching
8 pm: Gossip Girl.
If you haven't read my review of the first three episodes of Gossip Girl's sophomore season, shame on you. Season Two continues tonight with "Never Been Marcused," in which Blair is ecstatic to be dating a royal but Chuck isn't quite as pleased with this latest development in Blair's love life; Serena and Dan try to keep their newly rekindled romance a secret; Nate discovers that a secret affair has its downside.
10 pm: Weeds on Showtime.
On tonight's episode ("Till We Meet Again"), Nancy goes to the DEA when she has had enough with the tunnel; Celia attempts to make rehab work and tries to make amends with her family.
Don't expect any blue light, contact lenses, or opera music in the upcoming HBO vampire drama series True Blood. So says creator Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) who won't be using any of the familiar vampire cliches in his new series, based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire novels. (For my advance look at the first two episodes of True Blood, click here.)
What Ball does want is to appropriate Charlaine Harris' use of the supernatural as utterly mundane and accepted by the general population, now that vampires have "come out of the coffin," as it were.
While he'll be hewing closely to the plotline of Harris first novel, "Dead Until Dark," which introduced telepathic waitress Sookie Sackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her vampire paramour Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), Ball plans to open up the novel's focus to include the world of the other characters while still remaining true to the spirit of Harris' original creation. (Ball himself stumbled onto the books by accident at a bookstore and couldn't put them down.)
While Sookie and Bill's relationship will remain a focal point for the series, Ball plans to draw on other aspects of vampiric life in the American south, from the rise of "fangbangers" (regular humans who enjoy sex with vamps) to a political group fighting for equal rights for vampires.
Ball plans on drawing inspiration for the first season from Harris' first Stackhouse novel, "Dead Until Dark," and using the second book for the sophomore season. Fans of those novels will be happy to learn that there are plans for characters Bubba, Eric, and Quinn to show up later in the series. (Ball hasn't yet cast Quinn who was Harris' "personal homage to Vin Diesel.")
And will we be seeing the werewolves and maenads (beings from ancient Greek mythology) in the series? Ball confirmed that we will see a maenad before the end of Season One but fans will have to wait to see werewolves until at least Season Two... and the mystery of why Sookie is telepathic won't be revealed until at least then.
Ultimately, fans of Ball's Six Feet Under will encounter a very different beast in True Blood. "After Six Feet Under, I was tired of people talking about their problems," said Ball. "I wanted to do something fun."
True Blood is set to launch September 7th on HBO.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC;); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); America's Funniest Home Videos (ABC); Anger Management (FOX; 8-10 pm)
9 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); Dateline (NBC; 9-11 pm); Duel (ABC)
10 pm: Swingtown (CBS); 20/20 (ABC)
What I'll Be TiVo'ing
9 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi.
Season Four of Doctor Who comes to a conclusion tonight with Part One of its two-part season finale ("The Stolen Earth)," in former companions--including Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) and Jack Harkness (John Barrowman)--and old and new allies alike must band together to save the world, while the Doctor and Donna confront the Shadow Proclamation, and an old enemy waits in the wings...
10 pm: Swingtown.
On tonight's episode ("Puzzlerama"), Trina throws her annual Puzzlerama party, where the clues for the game are in fact the neighbors' dirty little secrets. Not exactly the same sort of fun achieved by playing, say, Candyland.
Back in May, I wrote a pretty negative review of the original pilot for HBO's upcoming Alan Ball vampires-in-the-South drama True Blood, based on the novel series by Charlaine Harris. (You can read my original review here.)
Since then, I was contacted by HBO, who asked me to take another look at True Blood's revised pilot ("Strange Love"), which recast one major character and altered a few scenes, and the series' second episode.
Always willing to take another look at something, I agreed, especially when the project in question is the next HBO Sunday night lynchpin and comes from such storied auspices. So did writer/director Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) and producers manage to fix some of the problems I had with the original pilot for True Blood? Let's discuss.
For those of you who didn't read my original review of True Blood (and shame on you if you didn't!), here's the quick recap of the plot of True Blood: vampires have "come out of the coffin" thanks to the advent of a Japanese synthetic blood called Tru Blood but poor, misunderstood telepathic waitress/social pariah Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) hasn't seen a single vamp in her sleepy Southern town of Bon Temps, Louisiana... Until, that is, a vampire named Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) comes into Merlotte's, the bar Sookie works at, and changes her life forever, especially when Sookie realizes that she can't hear his thoughts for a change.
If that reads like the near perfect set-up for a series, you'd be right. However, the earlier version of the pilot jumps around uncomfortably in terms of tone, offering a mishmash of satire, soft-core porn, horror, domestic drama, supernatural thriller, and race relations metaphor. The revised pilot tones down these disparate elements slightly but still meanders a bit too much for my liking. While the pilot episode is an improvement over the original, there's still something... off about the production that I can't quite put my finger on. It's almost as though it's itself missing a soul.
Special effects still grate, especially the transformation from human to vamp; given how smoothly Buffy the Vampire Slayer managed this effect so many years ago, it seems both cartoonish and clunky here: the fangs themselves seem too oddly close together and when they drop into position, as it were, they're accompanied by a silly clicking noise. Another attempt at effects wizardry is the combination of sped up and slowed down footage when Bill "quickly" comes to Sookie's side. It's clearly intended to be spooky and jarring but it's just downright funny to watch. Not the intended result.
One of the major improvements, however, that the series has made is the casting of Rutina Wesley (How She Move) as Tara; she replaced the original pilot's Brook Kerr (Passions), whose shrill, unsympathetic performance made me want to smash my television to smithereens. Kerr's Tara was as irritating as nails on a chalkboard; Wesley imbues her character with a vulnerablility that she masks with hard-edged armor and gives her an added ironic twist: how is it that this strong woman who feels the need to tell everyone exactly what she's thinking at that moment can't bring herself to tell the truth about her long-standing feelings to Sookie's brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten)?
An added scene between Sookie, Jason, and their grandmother Adele (Lois Smith) adds a dimension of believability to their characters' connectivity, giving them a moment of domestic bliss before things start to go off the rails. It also allows Sookie and Jason to display some semblance of emotion towards one another, which was somewhat lacking in the original pilot.
The revised pilot also alters the climactic showdown between Sookie and the Rattrays, the trashy couple who capture Bill at Merlotte's and begin to drain his blood in the parking lot. After telepathically hearing their intentions and noticing that Bill has disappeared, Sookie sets off to rescue him. In the original pilot, a female vampire lurks nearby and appears to assist Sookie in her quest to free Bill and punish the Rattrays. In the revised pilot, however, this woman is removed altogether, leading us to believe that Sookie was somehow able to take down Mack and Denise on her own. Though there still is the matter of that dog that's always seemingly lurking about Merlotte's as well... Hmm.
As much as I still didn't connect with the pilot episode, I do have to say that the series' second episode ("The First Taste"), also submitted for review, is a vast improvement over the premiere installment.
Tonally, the series seems to have settled down a little bit and the characters all seem a hell of a lot more comfortable in their own skins. Additionally, the story kicks into high gear with Bill repaying Sookie by rescuing her in turn from the sadistic Rattrays when she is savagely beaten as payback for robbing them of Bill's "v-juice." This being a vampire drama first and foremost, Bill is able to save Sookie through some unconventional means that bring them much closer together than either could have possibly realized.
If there was a way to skip the first episode (which does, unfortunately, set up the series) and watch the second, I would definitely advise you to figure that out. The second episode is a clearer realization of Charlaine Harris' novels, blending together backwoods humor, underworld menaces, and homespun wisdom into a much more appealing package and we're given a much clearer sense of Sookie's world and how each of the characters interact.
Wesley's Tara and Paquin's Sookie definitely seem like mismatched best friends and we learn that Lafayette, the bar's drag queen short order cook, is Tara's flamboyant cousin. Likewise, the murder investigation of Maudette Pickens (who still, to me, looks way too old to have attended high school with Sookie) takes an interesting turn, especially once Jason Stackhouse gets to see the video tape that Maudette secretly recorded of their sex session, and Sookie finds herself in way over her head when she drops by Bill's house one night and discovers that he might not be the only vampire in Bon Temps.
Additionally, True Blood's second episode sets up a seedy underbelly of Bon Temps involving fangbangers, drugs, rough sex, and all sorts of illicit behavior, all of which mirror the inclusion of a literal underworld invading this sleepy town in the form of vampires. While at times a little heavy-handed with the metaphors for vampires as a recognized minority group (a subplot involves a racist preacher and an ACLU-type organization fighting for vampire rights), the inclusion of vampires and the ghost of slavery in the Deep South is an intriguing proposition and provides real sparks during a heated discussion between Bill and Adele as he talks about his family's slaves during the 1860s as Tara sits uncomfortably nearby.
All in all, I do think that HBO made some improvements to the open installment of True Blood but the overall effect isn't enough to salvage that pilot episode. However, I do think that they seemed to fix some of my issues in time for the series' second episode, which gives me a much clearer idea of where this series is going creatively and sets up a slew of intriguing subplots.
Based on the pilot, I don't know that I'd stick around to see True Blood take flight. However, the second episode's relative strength does make me a little more willing to come back again for another bite.
True Blood premieres September 7th at 9 pm ET/PT on HBO.
What's On Tonight
8 pm: Greatest American Dog (CBS); Last Comic Standing (NBC); Smallville (CW); Ugly Betty (ABC); Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? (FOX)
9 pm: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CBS); Last Comic Standing (NBC; 9-11 pm); Supernatural (CW); Grey's Anatomy (ABC); So You Think You Dance (FOX)
10 pm: Swingtown (CBS); Hopkins (ABC)
What I'll Be Watching:
8 pm: Greatest American Dog.
I think this looks absolutely cheesy but my dog gave me her saddest eyes when I was setting up this week's TiVo To Do List so I'll record it for her to watch when I'm not around.
9 pm: Dragons' Den on BBC America.
It's the US series premiere of the British reality series, in which inventors pitch a variety of products--like a machine that helps babies sleep--to a panel of multi-millionaires (a.k.a. the Dragons). I'm still feeling burned that BBCA cancelled my beloved MI-5 but I'll check this out anyway.
10 pm: Burn Notice on USA.
I wasn't crazy about Burn Notice's first season but I am crazy about BSG's Tricia Helfer and she joins the cast with tonight's sophomore season premiere ("Breaking and Entering"), in which Michael discovers he's been recruited by the very same people who burned him, tries to get to some intel that's being guarded by some mercenaries, and meets his new handler.
10 pm: Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List on Bravo.
Okay, I know, I know, but I find her acerbic overeagerness somehow calming. On tonight's episode ("Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace"), Kathy looks forward to performing at a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden and sets out for Manhattan to spend time with her friends. Something tells me not everything will go according to plan...
10 pm: Swingtown.
On tonight's episode ("Friends with Benefits"), the green-eyed monster rears its ugly head when Trina meets up with her high-school sweetheart, leading Tom to get jealous; Susan attends a ladies' lunch to try and help promote Bruce's career but Janet ends up making more of an impression on the organization.
It's funny how your expectations can completely derail your perceptions of a series' strengths or weaknesses. As longtime readers of this site know, I have been beyond excited to watch the pilot for HBO's upcoming series True Blood since I first read the pilot script during the winter/spring of 2007. (Yes, it's really been that long since I first started blathering on about it.)
So imagine my shock and chagrin when I sat down to watch the pilot for True Blood--written and directed by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) and based on the novel series by Charlaine Harris--last week and was royally disappointed. Consider me a vampire faced with the prospect of feasting on an anorexic: all of the pieces were there but it was just flat, empty, and remarkably tasteless.
Sure, Anna Paquin (X-Men) is absolutely cute as a button as telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse; she's a blonde, perky barmaid at Merlotte's, a backwoods bar in post-Katrina Louisiana, and a social pariah, rejected by most of the townspeople for the unnerving way she is able to hear people's innermost thoughts in a constant cacophony of sordid audio details. But her luck takes a turn for the better when a vampire--named Bill, no less, and played by NY-LON's Stephen Moyer--comes into the bar one evening.
Sookie's amazed that she can't hear Bill Compton's thoughts and then is called upon to rescue him from some predatory lowlifes who want to drain him for his narcotic-like blood and sell the plasma to the highest bidder. (In this world, vampires have "come out of the coffin" and walk among humans, thanks to a Japanese-created synthetic blood called Tru Blood that's sold at most liquor stores.)
It's a convincing setup for a series that aims to be a mature, pay cable version of, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer-meets-Dark Shadows or similar, but the inclusion of graphic sex into the mix makes the entire thing play more like soft-core porn. A storyline involving Sookie's lothario brother Jason (Summerland's Ryan Kwanten) having sex with local bad girl Maudette Pickens (Dirt's Danielle Sapia)--a woman addicted to having sex with vampires and filming it--turns into a gruesome S&M-charged affair that doesn't jibe at all well with the innocence of Sookie or the off-kilter humor of the rest of the episode. Maudette is found strangled and a tape of her having rough sex with Jason is found at the scene and he becomes the chief suspect in her murder... even though we now know there are several vampires hanging around town, including Bill and a mysterious female vampire who comes to Sookie's aid after she tries to free Bill.
(Aside: It bothered me that Maudette and Sookie supposedly went to high school together; the woman playing Maudette looks like she has about twenty years on Paquin and that little revelation threw me for a loop and took me off page for a few minutes.)
What I loved about the script was the interplay between the characters and how well each of the supporting characters were developed: how Sookie's boss Sam (Sam Trammell) sublimates his obvious desire for Sookie even though he's shouting his love for her inside her head; how alternately attracted and repelled Jason is by the notion of vampire sex; or how Sookie's friend Tara (Passions' Brook Kerr, who was later replaced by Rutina Wesley) can't censor her thoughts at all, either inside her head or when they're spoken aloud. But intsead, in the filmed version of the pilot, I find that none of the supporting characters are particularly sympathetic. They're all loud, irritating, and shrill. It's like they're all shouting all the time inside Sookie's head. Only, like Sookie, we're doomed to hear them all the damn time. (Kerr is definitely hellishly annoying; her Tara won't shut up for a single second she's on-screen.)
Tonally, the pilot was all over the place: a sex-fueled drama, off-kilter comedy, and a serious exploration of class warfare in small-town Americana after the storm. Then you throw in telepathy, vampires, and murder--not to mention some seriously cheesy special effects (they make the vampire transformation in Buffy look like the work of CGI geniuses)--and what you're left with is a bit of a muddle.
It's a bit of a headscratcher whether this will be seriously reworked (or, hell, completely reshot) before True Blood launches... well, whenever it will inevitably launch after such a long delay. But given the recent regime change at HBO, I wonder whether Sue Naegle will step in to fix this bloody awful mess. Pun definitely intended.
Sharpen your stakes.
I can't tell you how excited I am to share this news. After months of waiting (and waiting), HBO has finally announced that they have officially ordered Alan Ball's latest series, True Blood. Ball (Six Feet Under) wrote and directed the pilot for True Blood and it is anticipated that he will write several episodes of the supernatural drama.
Based on the acclaimed Southern Vampire novel series by Charlaine Harris, True Blood will go into production this fall. However, the pay cabler still hasn't determined an episode count or launch date for the series. (I'd guess sometime in mid-2008 or as late as fall 2008.)
True Blood will star Anna Paquin, Ryan Kwanten, Sam Trammell, Stephen Moyer, and Brook Kerr. Paquin toplines as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress and social pariah, who falls for a seductive vampire (Moyer) in rural Louisiana. Vampires, having developed a synthetic blood, freely mingle with humans.
Ball's pilot script for True Blood was one of the best written ones from this past development season and I have been waiting with baited breath for HBO order the damn thing to series. This has just become a must-watch series.
Stay tuned as this project develops; I'm already trying to get my hands on the pilot that HBO shot earlier this year.
