Archive for December, 2008
LikeTrue Blood Marathon
On December - 31 - 2008
Remember the True Blood marathon tonight starting at 6 pm est!
Vampires want more than just blood
On December - 31 - 2008
Article on The Boston Phoenix
2008 might have been the year of the nerd (according to us at the Phoenix), the rat (Chinese astrology), and the potato (United Nations), but there’s no question that it was also the year of the undead. In these trying times, we’ve shunned wizards for vampires, in effect exchanging hopeful, magical fantasy for something much darker, much bleaker — and much more romantic. Three pop-culture elements of this phenomenon — the blockbuster popcorn movie Twilight, HBO’s True Blood, and the indie flick Let the Right One In — are evidence of our embrace of the undead. Watching all three back-to-back leads to some interesting comparisons, as well as insights into the vampiric world.
ATTRACTIVENESS OF LEADING ACTORS I have to give this one to True Blood. I’ve thought Anna Paquin was strangely hot, with her toothy smile and too-big eyes, since she Rogued it up in X-Men. And Stephen Moyer, who plays “Vampire Bill,” is just about perfect — like a cross between Viggo in LOTR and Hugh Jackman (god, I sound like such a fangirl), only slightly more effeminate. That’s the thing about vampire movies: the aesthetic leans toward androgyny. Consider the boyish attractiveness of Let the Right One In’s main vampiress, Lina Leandersson, which is both striking and disturbing, given her age (12). And Robert Pattinson, the much-worshipped actor who portrays vampiric Edward Cullen in Twilight, is more beautiful than brutish — delicate, pale, and glittering in the sun. (Kristen Stewart, who plays Bella, is somewhat less arresting, but certainly not your typical blond ingûnue.)
SOUNDTRACKTwilight’s will appeal to tweens and teens (representative artist: Paramore); Let the Right One In’s will draw in hipsters (the eerie soundtrack was composed by Swede Johan Söderqvist); True Blood’s will attract country/rockabilly types (the first episode features Lucinda Williams, Josh Ritter, and Little Big Town). More music-related trivia: the title of Let the Right One In is taken from a Morrissey song!
SPECIAL EFFECTS/GORE FACTOR There’s a fantastic scene in Let the Right One In that involves severed body parts and a swimming pool. Another shows crazed felines attacking a recently bitten vampire. Both scenes are so obviously fake (the cats look like something from a sinister version of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood), yet so totally enjoyable. There’s other bloody deliciousness (including a particularly grotesque scene in which blood squeezes from all of Eli’s facial orifices) sprinkled throughout. The special bits in Twilight and True Blood are slightly slicker, but also slightly more predictable. What’s amazing about all three of these artistic endeavors — and this speaks to the extent of their pop-culture penetration — is that the special-effects type stuff for which vampires are known (um, sucking people’s blood, as well as possessing uncanny strength, and being vulnerable to sunlight) is presented as secondary to their emotions. Never mind that they can fly; vampires have feelings. (Jason Segel sang movingly about vampire feelings in Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s vampire-puppet-musical “Dracula’s Lament.” I’m serious.)
ROMANCE/SEX Much has been written about what the successes of the Twilight books and movie say about modern (particularly female) adolescent sexuality; Caitlin Flanagan explores that theme in this month’s issue of The Atlantic.
“The Twilight series is not based on a true story, of course, but within it is the true story, the original one,” she writes. “Twilight centers on a boy who loves a girl so much that he refuses to defile her, and on a girl who loves him so dearly that she is desperate for him to do just that, even if the wages of the act are expulsion from her family and from everything she has ever known. We haven’t seen that tale in a girls’ book in a very long time. And it’s selling through the roof.”
Indeed, while Twilight (the movie) and Let the Right One In are on the surface very chaste, there’s a terrific current of desire and want that runs through their veins. Their plots depend on newly discovered, unfulfilled wants.
True Blood, on the other hand, tackles these cravings head-on; as if to symbolize the lack of control that comes along with human-vampire interactions, show creator Alan Ball gleefully inserts wanton lust throughout his episodes.
“Certainly, sexuality, I think, is a real window into somebody’s psyche, so I’m not as freaked out by characters being depicted in sexual situations [as] maybe some other people are,” Ball said in a recent interview. As opposed to Ball’s other famous HBO series, Six Feet Under (which he says was “all about repression”), True Blood “seems to me to be something that’s about abandon.”
But even more important than sex, in vampire movies, is love. The main couples here — Edward and Bella, Oskar and Eli, and Sookie and Bill — are shockingly, intensely drawn to each other. Perhaps these forbidden, confusing loves are even scarier than the whole blood-sucking thing. After all, love is the emotion of the heart, and the heart pumps blood, and vampires can’t live without blood. Like us, vampires just wish everyone would try a little tenderness.
Charlaine Harris explains why she choose Alan Ball
On December - 30 - 2008
found via Loving True Blood in Dallas
Interview with Graham Shiels
On December - 30 - 2008
“True Blood’s” Graham Shiels (Liam) on Vamps, Fangbangers and being the “Scary Boyfriend” in Jim Carrey’s New Movie … on TVLand
Vancouver transplant Graham Shiels has made a cottage industry out of leaving some nasty hickeys that only an industrial-strength base could hope to cover up. As an outlaw vampire who refused to cleave to the delicate détente established between the undead and humans on the hit TV series “True Blood,” Shiels caused quite a bit of menace before he was finally dispatched.
When we talked, the rangy actor said that kind of mayhem is only prelude; he’s just getting started.
TJ: Tell me about your four-episode arc as bloodsucking baddie, “Liam,” on “True Blood.”
GS: I was a vampire who was definitely not into “mainstreaming” (nomenclature on the show for trying to fit into society by living with humans and not feeding on them). Liam and his cohorts (“Malcolm” and “Diane” had absolutely no desire to live by the rules. We were happy killing random people; having sex with men and women alike. It was all about the bloodlust when we home-invaded the old Antebellum mansion where Bill lived. Malcolm was the brains, I was the brawn and Diane was a very fatal femme fatale.
I got a few people in trouble before I got “offed.”
TJ: How do you prep for a role as a vampire on puncture patrol … I mean, c’mon, that’s pretty off the beam!
GS: I met Alan Ball (“True Blood’s” creator) and came in with my choices. He gave me his direction for the role. They called and said they wanted to see me again and gave me new direction over the phone to prepare. And then I went in again and got direction 180-degrees different in tone. By the time I was cast and got to the set, it wasn’t a question of the last directional cue as being the right way. I think all of them were the right way. It was just a chance to go with my instincts. It’s stressful for an actor to get so much different direction, but to Alan’s credit, it also freed me up. It all comes down to playing a guy that doesn’t judge himself and has no qualms about killing people.
True Blood: Truly Anemic or Just what the doctor prescribed?
On December - 29 - 2008
With all the holidays there hardly is any news about our favorite tv shows to be found. So I have been googleing (how do you spell that?) around to see if I could dig up some older article that I missed the first time.
I found a review of True Blood on Buzzine.com written by Mark Amato. The piece this Mark wrote is a good example of judging and criticizing before you have seen and understood the big picture. For example, he sees it as a mistake in the script when in the pilot Sookie goes out to save Bill and Sam runs after her, but is not seen again until Sookie returns to the bar. Mark wonders what Sam did in the meantime. “Woof, woof”, do I need to say more?
His conclusion is: “Clearly, HBO was hoping for another Six Feet Under here but ended up with something that should have been buried six feet under. My advice for you Mark, go back to writing your “succesful” sitcoms and let the rest of us watch True Blood happily ever after.
True Blood: Truly Anemic by Mark Amato
The Television Academy really needs to start a category for best ad campaigns. HBO would undoubtedly be the perennial winner. Take the launch of Alan Ball’s (Six Feet Under) new vampire series, True Blood, debuting this Sunday. Billboards and buses have been sporting sexy ads for the vampire beverage, “True Blood.” Other ads feature a sexy shot of a woman with sanguine lipstick licking a droplet of blood off her lips.
If only the series was half as intriguing. At Thursday’s worldwide premiere in Hollywood, audiences were dished up two episodes of the series launch.
Interview with Carrie Preston
On December - 29 - 2008
Interview with Carrie Preston (Arlene) on About.com, september 2008
Q: When did you start pursuing a career in acting?
Carrie: “I started doing plays when I was 8-years-old. I was born in Macon, Georgia and my parents were 
very supportive. My brother started doing plays, so I wanted to start doing plays as well. He and I are both still pursuing it professionally. I studied it in school; I went to college for it and then grad school. I ended up at Julliard in New York and just stayed there and started working pretty much immediately after getting out of school. It’s definitely something I’ve always wanted to do with my life. I was lucky to have a supportive family.”
Q: As you pursued this path, were there any actors you dreamed of working with?
Carrie: “I know it sounds sort of cliché, but Meryl Streep has always been my acting guru. I met her when I was doing The Tempest on Broadway with Patrick Stewart and she said the kindest things about my work. Recently, I got cast in the movie Doubt and Meryl Streep is in it. We don’t have any scenes together, but I was there when we did the read-through and just being in the room with her and watching her read through the script is pretty thrilling.”
Q: Tell us about True Blood….
Carrie: “It’s about a telepath who lives in rural Louisiana, she’s played by Anna Paquin, and it’s right when the vampires come out of the coffin [so-to-speak], and they’re walking amongst us and we’re very aware of their existence. They’re fighting for their rights and their place in society. They’ve developed a synthetic blood, so they no longer have to kill humans to live. The blood of the vampire is very much like a cross between ecstasy, heroin and crack for humans. Humans are starting to get addicted to it and if you take too much of it, you can go mad. The blood is called “V” and it’s very much sought after by some of the characters on the show. There’s other supernatural stuff that happens as the show goes on.”
Q: And about your character….
Carrie: “I play Arlene Fowler, she’s a friend of the main character, and I work at the local bar and grill where some of the action takes place. I have a fun character…. she has two kids and is looking for her fourth husband. I’ve got a lot of the spice and humor of the show gets lobbed my way, which I’m happy about because I like to do comedy. The show is based on these books, so they’re really trying to make them look like they do in the book. As a result, I have a long, red wig, fake tan, fake nails, tons of make-up, short shorts, high heels — we go all out with these characters.”
Lesbian Vampire Killers
On December - 29 - 2008
Lesbian Vampire Killers? Huh? WTF?
That’s what I thought when I saw this movie title.
It is a British action comedy about… yes, you guessed it right: Lesbian vampire killers. It is to be released in the UK on 20 March 2009, a North American or European release date has not yet been set.
The trailer is funny. I am a big fan of British humor, but this is unlike anything I have seen before.
With their women having been enslaved by a local pack of lesbian vampires thanks to an ancient curse, the remaining people of a rural Welsh town send two unlucky young lads out onto the moors as a sacrifice.
True Blood: Enter at your own risk
On December - 29 - 2008
The Christian Manifesto published a review of True Blood. The conclusion was not what I expected, the writer of this piece thinks it might do some Christians well to watch the show.
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HBO’s True Blood is a series that…well, I’m not sure how I really feel about it.
To begin, the series is full of nudity, sex, profanity, and violence. For many discerning Christians, this is enough to spell the show’s doom. If you are willing to stop there, well and good. I will be the first to admit, the nudity, sex, and profanity does not really help drive the story forward. Being a narrative about vampires, the violence seems merited, but it is sometimes a bit graphic and overwhelming.
There is also the very overt references to the vampire struggle for equality being the same struggle for equality that the GLBT community is struggling for in mainstream society to contend with. The vampires, who are now attempting to assimilate into society after the invention of a synthetic blood substitute called “Tru Blood,” are treated as “second-class citizens.” We are treated to such mottos as “God hates fangs,” moral dilemmas such as vampire-human marriage legislation, religious bigotry from the Church, and hate crimes against the vampire race. The parallels are not even thinly veiled. The agenda of this show is clear from the outset.
While I do not believe Christians ought to expect Christian behavior from non-Christians, I still believe it is fair to expect some modicum of decency, discretion, and/or a willingness to present both sides of an argument in a fair light. I suppose the job of scoffers and mockers is to scoff and mock. That is all they know.
At the same time, while all of the aforementioned items turn my stomach and soul, I was drawn in by the story. The performances weren’t Emmy-worthy or anything like that, but they were believable. Oscar Winner Anna Paquin’s portrayal of Sookie Stackhouse is multi-leveled and nuanced performance. By the end of the first episode, I had forgotten all about her portrayal as Rogue in the X-Men films. I was completely immersed in the life and times of this young lady blessed/cursed with the ability to hear the thoughts of everyone around her. Stephen Moyer’s portrayal of mainstreaming vampire Bill Compton is equally interesting. A man turned into a vampire against his will, Bill is one of the few vampire who embrace the idea of no longer depending on human or animal blood for sustenance (much like Edward in Twilight). It is his only means of feeling human again, until he meets Sookie. Moyer plays this role well and you feel his pain and longing to be something he will never be, despite his best intentions.
There are a few dramatic flaws, however. The season features a murder mystery that unfolds over the 12-episode season. As the body count begins to rise, the FBI never gets involved. They’re not a character in the story at all. While I know the idea of vampires ought to have already informed my suspension of disbelief, the series is attempting to keep as much to reality as humanly possible. But, come on. Even if all these similar murders were taking place in a backwater town like Bon Temp, Louisiana, it wouldn’t be left to the two-man Bon Temp police squad and their coroner/mortician to piece together what was happening. The FBI would be crawling all over it.
True Blood isn’t for kids or teens. In fact, its not even for a lot of adults, as many individuals have no idea how to be discerning about what they are watching. However, as long as this show is being used to push a decidedly homosexual agenda, I think it might do some Christians well to watch the show and consider the satirical aspect of how the church often blindly treats those who need Jesus most. Some of the ways Christians are portrayed in the show makes me cringe, not because it is untrue, but because it is authentic. Of course, you’ll have to wade through some otherwise worthless smut to get to the important stuff. Enter at your own risk.
