Black Blood Brothers – complete – review

Directed by: Hiroaki Yoshikawa

First aired: 2006

Contains spoilers

Black Blood Brothers is a 12 episode anime series based upon a short manga series. It is a purely vampire based series and eschews fan service and such devices for a full on action basis. However, it perhaps lacks the drama – due to a lack of characterisation… but we shall explore that as we look at the series.

The show begins in Hong Kong. The presence of vampires was revealed due to the appearance of a new Bloodline the Kowloon children. Normally a vampire would have to exchange blood to create another vampire. The Kowloon Children turn humans by bite alone and became a plague in Hong Kong. They also can convert a vampire from another to bloodline to theirs by bite alone. We begin as Jiro and others fight the Hong Kong crusade, trying to defeat the Kowloon King.

Cutting forward 10 years Jiro and his brother Kotaro travel to the special zone a purposely built city near Japan that is based on Hong Kong and is a place where both vampires and humans, secretly, coexist. I say secretly because humanity have been told that vampires have been wiped out. Those in the special zone hide their nature and the Order Coffin Company keep an uneasy peace, helped by the senior vampires. The special zone is closed off to other vampires by a barrier that they need an invitation to cross.

Jiro is a hero of the crusades but has been in hiding. His brother is actually a reincarnation of his “source blood” Eve. She was killed during the crusade and was reincarnated as a generally powerless (though utterly physically resilient) vampire child. Kotaro will not regain Eve's memories or powers until he reaches a certain age and consumes Jiro’s blood (as the only child of that line). As such Jiro wants Kotaro to meet others and make friends before he sacrifices himself.

However the Kowloon children are not utterly defeated and Cassandra, a former friend of Jiro and Eve and betrayer of Eve it seems, intends to bring the bloodline back. This coincides with Jiro’s arrival. His only ally, at first, seems to be compromiser Mimiko, an order coffin company employee whose job is to mediate between humans and vampires. However, as things get desperate the company are forced to turn to the silver blade, hero of the crusades.

Jiro is affected by both water and sunlight – but he seems to be the only vampire so affected and, we assume, this is due to him being the only member of his bloodline (Kotaro notwithstanding). However, his sunlight allergy does seem to be conveniently forgotten in the centre section of the anime. He is stripped of flesh and becomes a walking skeleton when forced to be in the sea for some time – though this seems rectified quickly.

All vampires are violently allergic to silver – hence Jiro using a silver blade. The more powerful ones have the power of the hide hand – a matrix like ability to stop bullets in their path. Eye Raid is this series’ version of eye mojo but it can be used on multiple enemies. There is a suggestion of aversion to garlic and to the cross. Certain lines have magical powers and one vampire, Cain, can certainly turn into a giant wolf.

The vampire bite gives great pleasure and to be bitten, generally, is safe as it takes a blood exchange – as I mentioned – for most lines to turn someone… that is, of course, unless the vampire goes too far. We discover later that it is against company rules for a compromiser to allow a vampire to bite them but, if they are bitten against their will, they will retain their employment.

You’ll be forgiven for thinking that this is a complex story but, as much as it may appear so on the surface, the problem I had with this was that it was fairly simplistic in places. It hinted much but delivered little. There is something special about Mimiko, but what is not revealed, the majority of characters are two dimensional.

This is most annoying when it comes to the character Zelman Clock, charismatic and yet sociopathic (at least by his own admission), there was a flirtation with making the character interesting but it just wasn’t explored enough. Ostensibly he is the leader of the Coven – an evil faction – and yet seems allied with Kotaro because he is interesting. He missed the crusade and so is itching to get into action with the Kowloon.

The series had so much it might have explored and didn’t – but for what it is it certainly is worth watching. It just needs expanding. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Book Recommendations

As many of you will be aware I created a Top 100 films/TV list, drawn from the reviews I have posted on the blog. An anonymous commentator asked if I would a top 100 books – unfortunately the answer is no as there are far too many vampire books out there to make anything like a fair stab at a top 100. What I did promise to do was list a few recommended reads that haven’t had a book review or a classic literature piece on the blog yet. This is no definitive list – just the books/book series that sprang to mind when I thought about it.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice seems like a good place to start. The beginning of her vampire chronicles this introduced the world to Louis and Lestat. The actual film of the book is quite accurate and so most will know the story. What I found astounding, when I read the first volumes long before the film, was how much you hated Lestat when reading from Louis’ point of view but how that feeling was flipped as, in the second volume – the Vampire Lestat, Lestat became the (anti)hero of the piece.

There is a problem with the books… certainly the first three – up to and including Queen of the Damned are excellent books. For me, however, the quality began to vary through the series. This was down to two things – firstly Anne Rice was clearly in love with Lestat and he became altogether too powerful for the books to maintain an overwhelming interest – to the point that he ceased to be the focus of several of the books eventually – and that, as a writer, she did have a bad habit with descriptive passages that could be summed up as 'why use 1 paragraph to describe something when 20 pages will do?' That said there is still much to be enjoyed in the entire series.

Another classic book is ’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. This spawned two mini TV series, one in 1979 and the other in 2004. Both summoned the basic story but neither fully captured the book. The joy of ’Salem’s Lot is the minutiae of small town America that King explores before dashing it all apart in an extraordinary supernatural event. The illustrated edition has a few photographs scattered lightly through the pages but, more interestingly, it has two short stories – one after the fall of the town and one (very Lovecraftian) before the events.

When I picked up S P Somtow’s Vampire Junction in a second hand book store I simply bought something about a vampire and, to be honest, suspected I would hate it. It was about a young boy rock star – Timmy Valentine – who also was a 2000 year old vampire. Then I started to read… After a few chapters I forced myself to put the book down and rushed back to the store to buy Valentine, the sequel, as I knew it was there and then ordered the third book Vanitas online. Extremely well written but, most interesting is the fact that Timmy himself seems to be a Jungian archetype – existing within our world. Somtow does very interesting things with the religious icon motif that dovetails with the Jungian aspects.

Richard Laymon wrote a few, unconnected with each other, vampire books. I have previously mentioned Out are the Lights as an Honourable Mention. There was Bite and the Stake but I have chosen to list the Travelling Vampire Show. Dwight and his friends Rusty and Slim want to go to a travelling show to see Valeria – a captive vampire – of course the fact that the show is for over 18s, it costs $10 each to get in (which they don’t have) and the show is at midnight – past curfew – is all a problem. The reason I have mentioned this book is that the vampire and the horror are secondary, what Laymon wrote was a powerful coming of age novel – well worth seeking out.

It is worth listing a vampire book that has no vampires in it, indeed it doesn’t even mention vampires. Tim Lucas, author of the book of Renfield, brought us Throat Sprockets and I understand he had vampires in mind when he wrote the book – but the book is about throat fetishism. However we have an almost plague like spread of the fetish through a medium of film and a perfect capturing of the hunger the vampire feels redefined into a sexual fetish. So without having a vampire at all we have a nigh on perfect vampire book – kudos to Tim.

Most will know of George RR Martin through his high fantasy series but he wrote a vampire novel entitled Fevre Dream. Those who do know his work will know what an excellent and evocative writer Martin is and this book is no exception. Set on the Mississippi and the paddle steamer the Fevre Dream, financed by a man with – shall we say – odd habits but he is not the one to fear.

The World on Blood by Jonathon Nasaw is a very different take on the vampire genre. Centred around a 12 step group for blood drinkers – a concept not too unusual in the genre – what makes this different is that our vampires are just ordinary people. However for these people blood is an actual drug, offering a very real and very potent high with aphrodisiacal effects and it is just as addictive for them as any other narcotic might be for the rest of the world. And someone really doesn’t want them to fall off the wagon…

Leaving the more real world books behind, Freda Warrington wrote a series of books beginning with A Taste of Blood Wine and followed by A Dance in Blood Velvet and the Dark Blood of Poppies. These have an unusual lore basis – the turning process for instance is very different – but what they are at the core are three of the most richly gothic vampire novels with a rich, passionate undertone. I have to say that the copy of A Dance in Blood Velvet, signed to me by Freda Warrington, is a pride of my collection. Warrington also wrote a Dracula sequel entitled Dracula – the Undead.

Last to be listed in this article, but not least, is Necroscope by Brian Lumley. This was the first of a five book series, which spawned several spin off series as well. The Necroscope is Harry Keogh and a Necroscope can speak with the dead. This volume follows Harry’s life from childhood to being a young adult, of him being drawn into e-branch (Britain’s paranormal spy agency) and issues with a KGB necromancer who gets infected with vampirism. However the vampire threat is much more dangerous and insidious than this volume might betray and as the series moves on we meet the Wamphyri – some of the deadliest vampires committed to paper. This is bloody, gory pulp and, as such, the books are a joy to read.

No Screenshot I’m afraid

Whilst I was away in Brighton last week I had a couple of trips to the cinema. On the night we arrived, myself and my work colleagues went to see Star Trek and it has been a long time since I have been in a cinema that packed and heard a cheer of appreciation go up at the end of the film.

On the Tuesday we went to see Coraline in 3D, which is the reason for posting. I have been scouring the net for a screenshot of this, but to no avail, so you will have to take my word for the fact that there are – for a brief moment – vampire bat Scottish terriers, yup an amalgam of the Scottish terrier and the infamous crap bat. I enjoyed Coraline – it wasn’t quite the Gaiman book but it was definitely worth seeing – and the soundtrack was wonderfully haunting.

Vamp or Not? Pocong Vs Kuntilanak

This 2008 movie, directed by David Purnomo and hailing from Indonesia was a particularly difficult movie to watch as the subtitles on the VCD I looked at where some of the worst, most literal subtitles I have ever had the misfortune to struggle through. Worst, because of the endless spelling mistakes and variants that made trying to grind through the actual meaning of the literal translations even more of a chore.

Be that as it may, we are looking at this in a vamp or not way and you can see that this is a ‘versus’ film. The actual creature that put the film on my radar was the kuntilanak. There isn’t much out there regarding the kuntilanak, but if you look at the Wikipedia entry for pontianak we read “The Pontianak, Kuntilanak, Matianak or "Boentianak" (as known in Indonesia, sometimes shortened to just kunti) is a type of vampire in Malay folklore, similar to the Langsuir. Pontianak are women who died during childbirth and became undead, seeking revenge and terrorizing villages.” The article does not mention the kuntilanak further, concentrating on the pontianak and langsuir.

This film starts with a man running through the forests in fear. He enters his home, a woman lies (dead) on the bed. He hides in a closet but suddenly the kuntilanak is at the window. We see him fall from the closet dying, a child is under the bed and he warns the child to not unlace his pocong. Now the pocong suit is a shroud that Indonesian Muslims use to cover the body of the dead person. In common with many religious lore, it is believed that the soul of the person will remain on Earth for 40 days following the death. If the ties of the pocong suit are not released after the 40 days the soul remains trapped in the body causing the body to jump from the grave. These are a type of physical ghost and they hop as the shroud ties their feet.

Cut to modern day and we have three girls, apologies in advance if the names are wrong this was due to poor subtitles, but I think they were Bi, Noo and Vonny. Vonny is descended from the Dutch colonial Von Klingen family. Noo has a boyfriend Sa, who in turn is friends with the tattooist Big and his boss Marcel Soekotjo. There is an attraction between Marcel and Vonny. However neither is aware of their family history.

It seems that the man, at the beginning, was Raden Soekotjo. He was in love with Nyi Soroh but it was decided that she should marry into the Von Klingens. They had a kuntilanak as a guardian, one would take responsibility for it. The kuntilanak would then defend the family, attacking those who would slight it. Obviously the kuntilanak killed Raden who gave orders for the pocong shroud to remain unlaced and thus transform him into the pocong.

The families have thus waged a supernatural war through the generations. It is time for Vonny to take responsibility for the kuntilanak. Sa has a Jelangkung – a sort of fetish with which to call ghosts – that he plays around with but that succeeds in drawing the pocong to them. Both the kuntilanak and the pocong seem to be able to possess the youth they are associated with and the shroud of Soekotjo cannot be unlaced whilst the ghost controls Marcel or it will kill the boy. Sadly, all I could think of when I saw the pocong was Frank from Donny Darko, but there you go.

Until Vonny agrees to take control of the kuntilanak and learns how to control it, that creature will also be out of control. It looked rather good, incredibly tall with a flow of hair and a look that passed to Vonny and her mother (as the previous owner, for want of a better word) when it took control of them. The problem was it didn’t really do anything that vampiric – from our point of view. There was an attack, for instance, that left a petrified corpse (or so it seemed as we only saw a hand poking from a sheet.)

Given that the kuntilanak is a type of vampire, traditionally, this film is certainly of genre interest. It could do with proper subtitling being done as it is a chore to watch and, I have to say, I am not the biggest fan of the 'versus genre' that has emerged as most fall a little flat (some more than a little). The background to this was really interesting but the run of the film was standard teen involved horror, the deaths were off screen and the kuntilanak didn’t do anything too vampiric in nature.

The imdb page is here.

Are you Afraid of the Dark? – The Tale of Vampire Town – review (TV Episode)

Directed by: Mark Soulard

First Aired: 1999

Contains spoilers

“Are you Afraid of the Dark?” was a Canadian kids TV production where a group of kids, the Midnight Society, would gather in the woods to tell scary stories. The story would be the meat of the episode. The first run of the series was 5 seasons long and ran from 1990 to 1996, a new set of Midnight Society members were seen between 1999 and 2000. This was from season 1 of the second run, later described as season 6.

The episode begins with the owner of the Wisteria Funeral Home, Carl Mueller (Michel Perron), closing up for the night and heading into a storm. Just out of the door the phone rings and so it is back inside where the call is from his wife asking if he is heading home yet! When the call ends he hears something in the home. He searches through, eventually coming to the embalming room and a tray has fallen. As he picks it up a corpse rises and knocks him out (all we see of the assailant are fangs). Ripping his shirt open reveals a cross that causes the vampire to flee.

We see a journal being written about Wisteria, the vampire town, and the vampire master Dreyfus (Greg Dunley) who is allegedly buried in the town’s catacombs. The journal is being written by Adder (Kyle Downes). He is dressed in Goth type gear and has a magazine reporting the ‘vampire attack’ and mentioning Dreyfus. Mom (Danielle Désormeaux) and dad (Michael Rudder) are taking him to Wisteria as it is his turn to choose the family outing – dad would rather be at a game.

Adder sees himself as a vampire hunter and dresses in Goth gear as he is trying to act like a vampire to catch a vampire. He only eats red meat, won’t leave the car until nightfall and has a vial of smelly liquid from Romania that is allegedly raven’s blood mixed with nightshade and mandrake – a vampire delicacy. Mom and dad leave him in the car and book in the local hotel, the clerk, Stanley (Richard Jutras), is less than impressed with vampire talk.

When Adder finally comes in he asks Stanley about the catacombs and is told that they are sealed off. Stanley seems suspicious of the boy and when he goes to his room he phones Carl to ask about the attacker – could it have been Adder? There is an entrance to the catacombs in the inn’s basement and Adder sneaks down at night, unknown to him Stanley and Carl are following with stakes and mallets.

Adder finds a stone sarcophagus with a wooden stake sticking out of a hole in the lid. The coffin says Dreyfus and Adder is taking pictures when Stanley and Carl get there. To escape the men he pulls out the stake and throws it at them. Of course, when they have all left the room smoke begins to billow out of the hole – Dreyfus is being reborn. Soon Adder has a couple of vampire slayers and a rather thirsty vampire after him.

Dreyfus looks not too well following his incarceration in the tomb and I liked the idea that he did not come back whole and handsome. Lore wise we have had reference to stakes through the heart, of course, Dreyfus can turn to smoke and we also discover that vampires do not cast reflections. Further to this we also discover that the raven’s blood concoction is a delicacy and is more tempting than actual human blood.

Adder uses this to distract Dreyfus and open the curtains, which causes the vampire to be destroyed by the sunlight in a flurry of bad cgi. Talking of which, when Adder goes into the catacombs a couple of bats fly out – just bats, nothing vampiric about them – but they are total crap bat syndrome. Of course, a vampire attacked Carl prior to Dreyfus being reborn and perhaps, for once, we will not get the typical kid show happy ending.

The episode was okay but I found the town, with the electric light festooned catacombs too much of a stretch for an adult sensibility. I didn’t particularly buy the Adder character, perhaps Kyle Downes was lacking a little experience at that point in his career to carry the lead. Richard Jutras came across as almost Anthony Perkins meets Peewee Herman and I think that underlines the problem that they kept veering from the horror for a more comedic aspect that was unnecessary. Not as good as the Tale of the Night Shift, kids will undoubtedly get more from it than adults. 4 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans – review

Directed by: Patrick Tatopoulos

Release date: 2009

Contains spoilers

After watching the DVD of this, and before committing my review to word, I decided to reread the first impression I wrote having just watched it at the cinema. Now, I might have linked that but please don’t go and read it as my opinion really hasn’t changed. Therefore what you get here is going to be fairly similar with a score at the end.

However, having made some notes – a luxury not available in the dark embrace of the cinema experience – you might get a few continuity points that have reared their ugly heads.

Be that as it may, this is the third film in the franchise that first brought us Underworld and Underworld Evolution. This is a prequel to the first two films, set in some indeterminate Middle Ages type time, so goodbye guns with UV bullets and set pieces with helicopters and hello Lord of the Rings – for this owes a lot to Peter Jackson’s opus. Much of the story is already known – so how they managed to seemingly bollocks up the back story quite so well is unknown.

It is twenty years after the Children of Corvinus were infected. There are two bloodlines – werewolves and vampires. Now, these really are werewolves, they are not called lycans yet. The werewolves cannot transform (which was the whole point I thought) and become permanent ravening beasts. That is until a bitch, in captivity, gives birth to a human child – Lucian (Michael Sheen) the first actual lycan. Viktor (Bill Nighy) takes pity and we wonder at his soft hearted nature (given his general character through the film). We also wonder why the werewolf was held in a cell at all…

Anyway, the child grows and shows extraordinary resilience and strength. Viktor, who has a daughter Sonja (who will grow to be Rhona Mitra), decides to make others from his bite, throwing slaves into a cell with Lucian when the boy transforms and infecting them with Lucian’s lycan strain. These are then given locked collars with inwards pointing silver spikes – so, if they transform they will die. This is out with the thought in the first film that only older lycans could control the change outside (and during) the lunar cycle (a fact forgotten in this, and there can be no argument that older means generational, rather than age in centuries passed, as Michael in Underworld is turned by Lucian).

As the film begins proper we see a horse rider in armour heading through the countryside. In the vampires' council chambers a discussion is held about the human nobles who are attacked by the wolves. Those wolves chase the rider, who fights them whilst at full pelt. Lucian is a privileged slave, having a position as blacksmith. He realises what is occurring and manages to kill three of the wolves chasing the rider – who happens to be Sonja. His help is met by derision by her, and Viktor warns him to keep his eyes to the floor. She is in trouble with her father as she was meant to be in council and not patrolling.

Having intervened with a slave overseer as the vampire whips fellow lycans (leading to a dislike between overseer and slave that is slightly explored but could have stood expansion), Lucian manages to sneak off through a grate where he meets up with… Sonja… not a shock to those who have watched the first film and, to be honest, if you haven’t I can’t see why this prequel would have any draw but… her public displays of derision are a cover for their love and they have some naked rumpy. He has made a key for his collar but wants her to leave with him.

She won’t but, when she rides to escort human nobles… against her fathers wishes… he realises that there are an awful lot of werewolves out there, steals a horse and rides to defend her. The wolves seem a little more organised than beasts, using tunnels to ambush the nobles. Lucian rides to the rescue but they are outnumbered. With only human slave Raze (Kevin Grevioux), Sonja and himself still in the fight, Lucian removes his collar and transforms. He seems to have command over the werewolves who slink off, but removing his collar gets him whipped, thrown in jail and on route to execution. He has realised that the vampire Tannis (Steven Mackintosh) might hold the key to their freedom…

Long story, short… he escapes with some of the lycans. She is captured. He goes back for her. She is pregnant with a hybrid child and is killed by her father as Lucian is forced to watch. He is escaping again when the lycans and werewolves storm the castle. So… plot holes first… by the first film Sonja was blonde… her hair colour has been changed in this to make her look more like Selene (Kate Beckinsale). Talking of whom, the pendant Sonja had – that Viktor gave her as a child and Lucian steals following her execution – was part of the key to the prison of William (the original werewolf). Selene’s father built the prison (we discover in the second film) and so she should have been an adult and turned (presumably) at this point. However the first film suggests she was turned some considerable time after these events. This is the seemingly bollocked up back story, now I could come up with a convoluted rescue premise... its a shame that the writers didn’t.

I might also ask why Raze wasn’t given a collar when turned into lycan – he was the only one without collar. However, first we must ask what was the point in having the vampires in this at all? Sure they burn in the sun, have fangs and occasionally drink blood (one goblet and one bite) but generally they might have been anything… the vampire nature was almost secondary. To be fair the interesting premise of blood memories was used (once) but discussions such as, was Sonja born human and turned at adulthood, were not explored. I will state that Sonja’s eyes changing between brown and blue was not a continuity error – Selene’s did the same in the other films – turning blue at intense violent/emotional moments. One then wonders about Viktor's mental state given his constantly intense blue eyes.

The action sequences are marred by fast cuts and the attack on the castle was very reminiscent of Lord of the Rings – in fact the vampire armour looked suspiciously like elven armour. The film is not only referential to Lord of the Rings, however, Lucian meeting the werewolves was lifted from Alien visually. As pointed out, in the comments on my first impression, the Middle Ages provided Victoria Secret style figure hugging chainmail – I suppose an advantage of being a vampire is that you don’t have to worry about chaffing.

Nighy and Mitra chew the scenery with a seriousness that is amusing but Mackintosh and Sheen bring a worryingly large amount of skill to bear for a production of this nature and their skill shines through. One does get a sense that Sheen would dearly love to play Spartacus in a remake and his performance here indicates he would probably be rather good in it. The gore levels are nicely up, despite said fast cuts. The nudity is despairingly absent, strange given the fact that the gore ensures that this has an 18 certificate anyway.

The biggest problem with this is that there is absolutely no sense of tension. We know that Sonja will die – it was filmed for the first film with an inconsistent set. We know that Viktor and Lucian will survive – they were major characters in the first film. Hell we even know that second fiddle Raze (he was in the first film) and Tannis (he was in the second film) will survive. Even a sword through the back of the head doesn’t hold any interest because we know Viktor survives it. The only thing I was left wondering was how the evidently ineffectual vampires ever managed to get the upper hand by the time of the first film.

This is cheese, I said it in my first impression and I say it again now. But it is nice enough cheese if you know what you are going to get. It can’t hold tension, by its very nature, and the direction could have been so much better. It does remind one of the discredited philosophy of eugenics – for this seems to be Viktor’s basic philosophy – a landed class overseeing a slave class of workers bred for purpose, and controlled in their breeding, with no cross class breeding allowed. That fits with my bourgeoisie vs. proletariat theorum that I mentioned in the review of the first film and offers the film a sinister undertone that wasn’t explored in any knowing detail… the action fast cuts deemed more important than any subtext of sociopolitical commentary (if they even knew it was there).

4.5 out of 10, seems fair as it does what it says on the tin but fails to rise as the title would suggest. The imdb page is here.

True Blood – Season 1 – Review

Directed by: various

First aired: 2008

Contains spoilers

One of the really silly things about staggered international releases is that you can get to see things before their release in your own country. When it comes to bigger movies this is really silly – there should be one international cinema release date and one international DVD release date. Just my opinion.

Of course it gets a little more difficult with TV shows, if no station in one country has picked up the rights. However, with a show as classy as this – and now you know the direction the review is going to go in – you’d have thoughts the rights would have been picked up without waiting 12 or so months. So it is that I have the region 1 box set of this before it has even got onto UK TV.

True Blood is an Alan Ball creation based on the novels by Charlaine Harris. Now I have read as far as the novel Dead as a Doornail and fully intend to catch up with the rest of the series at some point. Before we go on, however, let us cover some of the online criticism I have read. I read it doesn’t follow the books exactly, changing events and characters – this is true and… so, what. The series treads a masterful line between taking what it needs and adapting aspects for a tele-visual medium. It is also pointed out that the TV series is more (blatantly) sexual than the books. No bad thing, it is an adult series and has sex, violence and gore… after all it is HBO. Finally I read a complaint about the accents, believe me… for someone not from the Southern States it sounded fine to me.

So the basic concept is that after the Japanese invented a synthetic blood there was an event called the revealing in which vampires, around the globe, revealed themselves to humanity and said that they were real but they were not a threat. This led to violence in some places, persecution in others and many sought asylum in America. This series is set two years after that when the American politicians debate the Vampire Rights Amendment and stores and bars stock the vampire nutrient drink Tru:Blood.

In Bon Temps, Louisiana lives Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) she is a waitress in Marlotte’s Bar and she is also telepathic. She spends most of her energy trying to keep people’s thoughts out of her head and, as a result of her ability, she is often thought to be mentally challenged and a little strange. When a vampire, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer who was also a vampire in Ultraviolet), comes into the bar Sookie is excited to meet her first vampire. Unfortunately he also meets the Rattrays.

Sookie overhears their thoughts and realises that they intend to drain Bill. In this world vampire blood is a potent drug and v-juice, as it is known, is both addictive and worth a lot of money. The vampires have tried to keep its nature off the radar as much as they can, so whilst it is known to be a high its medicinal properties are not common knowledge. The Rattrays overpower Bill with silver – which is one of the vampire myths that proves true – but Sookie saves him. It is the beginning of their relationship. Sookie and Bill develop an emotional relationship but it is true that he is fascinated by her telepathic abilities and she is attracted to the fact that she cannot read his thoughts, he being dead.

The reaction of the rest of the town is mixed. Sookie’s grandmother (Lois Smith) is supportive and, as a civil war enthusiast, fascinated to meet someone whose family helped found Bon Temps and fought in the war with the confederates. Her friend Tara (Rutina Wesley) is wary but has her own demons to contend with. Her boss Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) is pro-vampire rights but seems to have a view akin to equal but separate (he even states that they can be more equal so long as they remain separate) – equality is an underlying theme of the show.

Her brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten) is, as Sookie describes, somewhat of a ‘horn dog’ and is more concerned about having sex. However he seems squeamish when he discovers that some girls he sleeps with have slept with vampires and when they start turning up dead, strangled, suspicion turns on him. It becomes clear that there is a serial killer living in Bon Temps, targeting fang bangers – as vampire lovers are known – and Sookie is on the killer's radar.

We do meet other vampires including a nest, associates of Bill who live together. Bill informs Sookie that vampires in nests tend to become more evil/sociopathic then those who mainstream – which is what Bill is doing. Through these we hear that Hepatitis D is the only blood born illness that will affect a vampire – causing approximately a month of weakness. We also meet Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) – Sheriff of the area (in other words in charge by vampire custom) and owner of the bar Fangtasia, plus his staff. Our look into vampire culture shows us that many vampires do deem themselves a superior species to ‘blood sacks’.

Lore wise we discover that vampires do cast reflections and that they are not affected by holy items – ironic given the discriminatory undertones. Garlic merely irritates them. Bill suggests that much of what people know was invented by the vampires in an act of smoke and mirrors. Bill suggests that some vampires can transform into animals – though he cannot and we never see the truth of this – though shapeshifters generally are a part of the True Blood universe. Sunlight is a killer, however, burning the vampire. Vampires must be invited into a home and must leave if the invitation is recinded.

A vampire who dies, presumably through sunlight and definitely through fire or staking, turns into gunk. Indeed I was most impressed with the staking effects. The recent fashion has been to turn to ash. In True Blood the vampires vomit blood from their system and then melt into gunk. It is totally gory and leaves a nice obvious mess behind. On a positive side, for the vampires, they have the power of glamour – eye mojo to you and I – though Sookie is immune to this. Turning involves draining, feeding their blood, burying the new vampire with the maker (as the sire is known) so that he or she can share their lifeforce with the new vampire in a process the vampires themselves do not fully understand.

I mentioned that this is primarily a show about discrimination and some have suggested that the vampires are symbolic of either ethnic groups who are discriminated against or the gay community. I don’t believe this to be true, race issues and sexuality issues are tackled in their own right. If anything the vampires show us that anyone perceived different can face discrimination but overall this is about the discrimination meted out by fundamental religion – hence in the credits the “God Hates Fangs” sign that is based on “God Hates Fags” and the negative and wrong thinking messages of such groups as the Westboro Baptist Church. Indeed the Fellowship of the Sun, the anti-vampire group, is clearly an evangelical Christian group hence the irony of the fact that holy symbols do not harm or ward the vampires.

The show does cover other issues, however, including corrupt politicians and drug abuse and addiction. Amy (Lizzy Caplan), a girl and V addict that Jason meets and falls for, at one point suggests that “Nothing is real... everything is permitted”, a slightly corrupted quote of the philosophy espoused by the Hassan-I Sabbah and the hashshashin in the novel Alamut. She uses this to rationalise a selfish and, suggested, psychopathic or perhaps sociopathic lifestyle. Incidentally the vampires, in their own closed society, tend to have an eye for eye, tooth for tooth mentality.

A cracking show with some of the best opening credits I have seen in a long time – the song Bad Things by Jace Everett is just wonderful. The acting is strong throughout and the show itself carries some wonderful referential moments, be it Sookie running through a graveyard in a nightdress that was a nod to all films Gothic in nature, to her grandmother reading a Charlaine Harris novel or even the National Inquiry front page that suggested that Angelina Jolie had adopted a vampire baby. There is a black humour permeating the show - a highlight was when Jason overdosed on V-juice, leading to... well I won't spoil the joke.

Worth going out of your way for. 8 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.