So I watched 35 minutes of True Blood...

[Deckerd]

Oh, and more importantly, it's fun. And has great music.

And Alexander Skarsgard.

An excellent point, but I must mention that Skarsgard is considerably better looking in Generation Kill. Haircuts work wonders.

It was because of True Blood that I discovered Generation Kill. It's the first war series for a while that I found highly entertaining, since they're not usually my thing. Skarsgard was very easy on the eye of course, but the whole cast were excellent.

 

[DevilEyes]

Oppressed foreigners/minorities who are seen as "low-minded savages", etc.

But the Prawn were depicted as low-minded savages; incapable of taking care of themselves, impulse-driven, filth-scrounging, thieves, murderers, etc., with only a few who actually had the werewithal to do anything about it (and Christopher Johnson may yet have been a member of the theoretical ruling caste). In fact, quite a few people who wanted to see a direct allegory to racism in South Africa in the film were pissed that the 'minority' engaged in the kind of stereotypes that had been directed against such groups for decades.

True Blood's vampires are much the same; a few 'good' individuals amidst a larger population that falls into stereotypical patterns.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

The Prawns for the most part had spent twenty years living in total filth while being fed mostly stuff that was like crack all the time and being forced to fight and scrounge for basic life necessities while most of the humans who spoke badly of them were already pretty racist and xenophobic to begin with (plus they were from MNU's interviews which wouldn't have been favorably towards Prawns). Under those circumstances human beings would mostly act like that as well.

The TB Vamps don't have that abuse as an excuse.

Actually, they have a much better excuse - they are biologically compelled to drink human blood. (At least they were for centuries before anyone created "true blood".)

 

[Anwar]

Yeah? That doesn't excuse the sadism, nor the non-blood drinking killings. Which nearly all of them possess and perform. Except for the "new Vampire" Jessica, because they want her to be sympathetic .

 

[Deckerd]

You watched True Blood and all you saw was vampire sadism?

 

[Dorian Thompson]

Godric acknowledged that the fellowship of the sun arose because of vampire's predatory, brutal nature. The show isn't saying vampires are blameless.

 

[Checkmate]

It's also not like all the vampires came together and voted whether or not they wanted to go public. Most of them were forced into the situation, and a large portion are clearly against it and acting out as a result.

 

[Peacemaker]

The whole vampires as an oppressed minority thing really falls apart when it becomes clear most of them are unrepentant vicious killers who'd gladly slaughter humans by the droves...

That strikes me, having also read the books, as a commentary on the hypocrisy of our society, viz. it highlights the difference between the public image the political types like to project and the truth underneath. In short, the lie behind, "the oppressed minority is 'just like everybody else,'" with the "just like everybody else' some sort of wholesome ideal that nobody on either side of the divide really lives up to anyway.

Put another way, gays like to portray themselves as "just like everybody else" (when "just like everybody else" = Ozzie and Harriot / Leave It to Beaver life) when the truth is they have their own sets of values and subcultural mores that have developed over time, and frequently those values are contrary to that 1950's "Father Knows Best" ideal that heterosexuals like to pretend exists for themselves and the rest of us must live up to. Both sides are trying to project that sort of ideal, but the truth is neither side lives up to it. That's the point, I would think, that the first book makes very clear...it's not the vampires who are on the killing spree,even though their values would allow for it and may license it...it's a human.

 

[stj]

There are many dubious aspects to True Blood.

Consider Sookie'sfetish for men whose minds she can't read. The notion that no one could forgive the filthy depravity of human thoughts reflect a bigoted world view in which purity of soul, so esteemed by God, is of greatest importance. Forgiving offenses to the purity demanded by God is itself unforgivable as well as undesirable.

Sookie is a mind reader but can't solve the mystery without heaping helpings of luck and rescues by men. The backwards notion that women don't operate by intellect is lurking in here.

Sookie thinks she loves Jason but there is very little to substance to that. People who are really down on sluts who sleep around instead of waiting for True Love don't notice this.

Tara is a character in her own right, fortunately, because her relationship with Sookie is uncomfortably close to Sookie's Magic Negro.

The Fellowship of the Sun is a nasty little group primarily because they're lower middle class strivers. Servile minds don't like the uppity, but the failed uppity inspire withering contempt. Roman Catholic/Orthodox/Jewish/Muslim have no role to play because they are not associated with a lower class of people. Some half-assed version of voodoo makes it in, but we discover in a world with vampires and shape shifters that voodoo is just a fraud. How odd.

When "God hates fangs" shows up on our screens, vampires are gays. Then, when they really are monsters, the viewer has two possible reactions. She or he can be nonplussed by the ludicrous way the manifest satirical meaning is undercut. Unfortunately, she or he can miss the obvious because, basically, the notion of gays as monsters worse than murderers is in their psychological comfort zone.

Taken as erotica of a peculiarly wide-ranging variety, i.e., in its own terms, True Blood makes sense and is competently done, and to be appreciated for what it is by those with low tastes. Taing it as some sort of meaningful drama, is purest dumb fuckery.

(By the way, since there is no vampire equivalent of coming out, nor the closet, nor intermediate states, no one ever claimed a point to point allegory. Further, the denial that allegory can ever be a valid literary technique is childish. It relies on the refusal to read subtext, which is contemptuous of the very notion of literary or dramatic art, but it somehow takes offense at the temerity of the author or dramatist daring to have a point of view. It takes a very narrow and rigid world view plus an authoritarian personality offended at "defiance" to reject it so completely.)

 

[Dorian Thompson]

When "God hates fangs" shows up on our screens, vampires are gays. Then, when they really are monsters, the viewer has two possible reactions. She or he can be nonplussed by the ludicrous way the manifest satirical meaning is undercut. Unfortunately, she or he can miss the obvious because, basically, the notion of gays as monsters worse than murderers is in their psychological comfort zone.

Nobody who actually thinks gays are monstrous would enjoy True Blood. They're too busy going to tea parties. Lighten up a bit.

 

[startrekwatcher]

I watched the first 2 seasons and while it started out okay it ultimately wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't care for the campiness of it, it isn't very well-plotted, season two was very weak and the only highlight was Michelle Forbes. The characters are also very hit or miss. The attempted allegory is pretty thin and the villians aren't that compelling. Sookie and Bill have some decent chemistry but overall it just isn't enough. The only reason to watch it is to see some cute guys' bare asses.

For vampire drama I prefer the much better The Vampire Diaries.

 

[stj]

Nobody who actually thinks gays are monstrous would enjoy True Blood. They're too busy going to tea parties. Lighten up a bit.

Denying that the vampires on True Blood don't stand in for gays (sometimes) is how a bigot can tune out unpleasantly progay implications.

What's next, denying that sometimes True Blood romanticizes drugs? Taking this stuff seriously is absurd. Lighten up.

 

[Deckerd]

Godric acknowledged that the fellowship of the sun arose because of vampire's predatory, brutal nature. The show isn't saying vampires are blameless.

Someone mentioned this on the Forum Which Dare Not Speak Its Name (Possum, I think) but I didn't know what he was talking about at the time. I finally got the season 2 DVDs last week and got around to the rooftop scene last night.

Trash TV it surely is and season 2 has not grabbed me like the first season did. Sukie's sugary persona sets my teeth on edge and there just wasn't enough plot to carry a full season this time round, so it was filled with... uhhh... fillers (mostly sexual).

HOWEVER, all is forgiven for the rooftop scene. All the flaws were worth it when trash TV suddenly reached Shakespearian levels. One part of my brain was saying they're actors doing their job. The rest of it totally believed their grief. Marvellous television.