Tru Blood is Back Baby!!!

Reader Warning Advisory: Some of the following content may be a bit more descriptive than what some gentle readers are accustomed to reading from me and might not be appropriate for younger readers. If you continue reading and feel offended or shocked that something like that could come out of my brain down to the blog, I accept no responsibility. You have been duly advised.

I have read vamp lit since I was 10 or 11. While my classmates were deciding what to wear to 6th grade graduation, I was memorizing the methods to kill the undead in case of an attack. I specialized in Vamps, Weres, and exorcisms. If zombies attacked, well I was going to be SOL and have my brains eaten. You have to go with what you know, and with my parents' line of work, I felt confidenct I could do battle with SOB's from hell and demon spawn. You have to go with your strenghts and mine lay in holy water, stakes, crosses and holy writ. Chain saws and sawed off shotguns just weren't my style.

I started with the Queen of All Vamp Lit - Anne Rice's Interview With a Vampire. I must have read it 10 times before I got out of high school. I read other vamp lit, and believe me when I tell you it has progressed 1000 times since the '80's. The Reagan Era wasn't kind to the undead. People were too caught up in greed, being yuppies, and getting a head - not protecting themselves from vamps, wolves in people clothing and slime spewing demons. I was one of the few that when the day came and the nighstalkers came to take over humankind, I would be ready to protect me and mine.

Of course my parents looked at this with equal parts horror and humor. Guess you really don't want to belittle a child who is practicing to stake things. Might not work out too well. But I digress....

A few years ago I discovered the Sookie Stackhouse series. Most people who know me know that I generally go for something a bit more cerebral. I am more a Pulitizer or Booker Prize winner kind of gal. Still, filled with a bit of ennui and the need for something not quite as turgid as all I that, I picked up the first in the Sookie Stackhouse series. I read through them all without coming up for air.

Then came the news that I dreaded. HBO was going to make a series from the books.

I am not a purist. Books can be made into film. What is bothersome is that a great story told on the page often times gets hacked to bits on the screen. What is even more bothersome is that a great story told on the page in a series that is still active can be ruined by its audio-visual adaptation.

This happened with Interview with a Vampire. Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise as vampires was so ludicrious. I mean, come on. The person in charge of casting could have made a blockbuster had they only picked up the phone and called me. After I stopped laughing at their choices, I could have recommended some actors with a tad more schadenfeude. Being a vamp isn't just about sucking people's blood and looking good while doing it. Unfortunately, I have been unable to read Interview with a Vampire since. Each time I have tried, I have hippie blond dye job Pitt (With the same hippie blonde dye job, Pitt was most excellent in Legends of the Fall. Read the novella, then watch the movie to get a stunning example of what can happen to the written word reinterpreted on screen. The casting was superb and the narrative straight from the novella.) and Scientology crazy faced Cruise in my mind. (No, I will not apologize about linking scientology and crazy. I have my reasons.) Good book ruined by Hollywood.

So, two seasons ago when Tru Blood, the HBO adaptation of the Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series aired, I was prepared to be underwhelmed to disappointment. Then I saw the premiere episode. OMG!! It was bloody fraking awesome. I sat staring at the end credits upset that I had to wait an entire workweek and a Saturday before the next episode. That pain was nothing compared to waiting for a new season to start.

Last night was the premiere episode of season three. I rarely say this about a television series, because if I like a series two things happens - it will get cancelled after three shows or they will "tweak it" (a Hollywood euphemism for FUBAR) until it sucks and then cancel it, but season three looks like it is going to be more incredibly awesome than seasons one or two. All I have to say is that Allen Ball knows how to write good television.

Some of the lines were so brilliant I am going to start using them in everyday conversation. Lines like, "less conscience more cojones", "I don't have time for your lesbian weirdness" (that one is going to be a little more difficult to include in my daily conversation), there are a couple of others, but some readers might not appreciate them as much as I do, because my inner child is a 14 year old boy.

So for the next few Sunday evenings from 9 - 10 pm don't call me. You can text me, but only if you are also watching Tru Blood and want to share the experience. Oh, and trust me, the only knitting I will be doing is one very plain, gianormous sock because I am so team Eric. Sometimes it the vampire hunter who gets staked.