The Vault – TrueBlood-Online.com

As 2009 winds down in a haze of repeats, Film.com took a look back at some of their favorite episodes of the year — limiting the choices to just one episode per series and they chose Hear-Hearted Hannah as the best of True Blood.

I particularly liked this episode also since I’m always interested in seeing Bill’s past and it was one of the most ground breaking episodes with the wonderful writing by Brian Buckner and direction by Michael Lehmann. Stephen Moyer did an exceptional job of portraying “bloody” Bill in the 1920′s and his singing and playing the piano showed us how versatile he can be.  Here’s what Film.com has to say as their reason for choosing this episode:

“Hard-Hearted Hannah,” True Blood (July 26): There wasn’t as much of Eric as a good hour of True Blood typically has, but this was a pretty representative hour of the series, featuring a flashback that was the most violent scene in its history, as well as a whole lot of orgying going on, as Sam Merlotte learned his new girlfriend was less perfect for him than he had hoped.

Here’s more about Hard Hearted Hannah that we have reported about previously.  And here’s a video from the episode.

22 fangbangers like this post.

As our viewers know, Stephen Moyer is in the UK during the holidays and last night he took the opportunity to catch the Christmas production of Roald Dahl’s The Twits, at the Brentwood Theatre where he is a Patron.

While at the theater with his family, during the intermission he was interviewed by Phoenix FM (listen to the interview below).

In the interview he talks about his 7 year contract with HBO and True Blood and his new found fame. He also discusses producing a new film himself next summer and about the films that he did during True Blood’s hiatus, The Caller, Ice, and Priest. Additionally, he mentions Master Class with Faye Dunnaway, one of the films he was to do while on hiatus that he says “fell apart”.

He goes on to mention the True Blood fans (including Trueblood-Online.com and our newest Stephen Moyer dedicated site, AllStephenMoyer.com) and the money they raised for coaches (buses) to transport children to the the Brentwood Theatre in order to see The Twits.  This was made possible  and organized by “http://truebloodnet.com” and was widely supported by all the True Blood fan sites and raised over 1500 pounds that paid for three coaches for this year and there is an additional $250 in the fund for next year.

Stephen leaves the UK to return to Los Angeles on Sunday, January 3 and will resume shooting of True Blood, Season 3 on Monday, January 4.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW BY CLICKING HERE

26 fangbangers like this post.

The Vault wishes HAPPY NEW YEAR
to the True Blood cast and crew and all the True Blood fans!

Shad and Lynn

28 fangbangers like this post.

Globemedia in Toronto, Canada has come up with the best 10 TV shows that mattered in 2009 and True Blood is smack dab in the center of the crowd at #5 on their list. They also site Stephen and Anna as the cutest couple on TV!

1. Glee (Fox, Global)
2. Battle of the Blades (CBC)
3. Being Erica (CBC)
4. Corner Gas (CTV)
5. True Blood (HBO)- Further proof that television can easily outpace film for cleverness, wit and originality. While the vampire craze caused by the Twilight movies at first made sense only to adolescents, True Blood strutted onto the air with an adult swagger. Dead sexy, funny and often sublimely satirical, it’s the best twist on soap-opera shenanigans since Twin Peaks. Even the opening credits are worth watching week after week. And Bill and Sookie (Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin) are the cutest couple in TV.
6. Mad Men (AMC)
7. Modern Family (ABC, CITY-TV)
8. Dexter (Showtime)
9. Nurse Jackie (Showtime)
10. Lost (ABC, CTV)

Click here to read the entire article.

16 fangbangers like this post.

Below is an evaluation of the last year of TV, specifically the portion about True Blood, which overall is positive, reflecting on the fact that television is providing us with the most solid entertainment that includes great writing and character development.  However, I just couldn’t let this one pass without a personal comment about the writer’s opinions, so here it is:

“While I totally agree and applaud the fact that Season 2 of True Blood was a great season that gave much to expand the already wonderful world of True Blood, I don’t agree with the evaluation below about Season 1.

It’s true that Season 2 had many monumental scenes and allowed Alexander Skarsgård to shine.  It also provided one of the best scenes of the entire year, Godric’s death scene. However, S2 would be nothing without the adventure we experienced in Season 1.  Season 1 was so groundbreaking, in my opinion, that it changed our perception of what could and couldn’t be done on TV.  Season 1 included many monumental and extraordinary scenes, quotes, and was essential to, and enabled Season 2, to be so powerful. In other words, one without the other just cannot exist and they should not be compared.

However, what I disagree with the most below is that anyone could think the story of Sookie and Bill was, ‘just too blah’, completely amazes me.” 

LYNNPD

Here is the portion of this article that relates to True Blood. After you’re read it, please comment to let us know your thoughts. Should S1 be comparet to S2 in this way? Is the Bill and Sookie relationship, just too blah?

The past year has offered an enormous array of exhilarating or challenging TV.

Of late, television has become the medium to turn to for solid entertainment. The writing is tops, the character portrayal is never disappointing and most importantly, we find ourselves connecting to them on a level whereby we end up sharing their varied emotions. Or maybe, we are just obsessive about our favourite shows. Anyway, with this realisation, also comes a great relief – many of our favourite series seem to get better and better with each season and we, the audience, in turn, savour them with great relish.

True Blood

While Spike from Buffy, The Vampire Slayer is still my favourite vampire, Alexander Skarsgård’s Eric in True Blood is fast becoming my second favourite undead. Hence, it’s great that the second season of True Blood revealed more about this massive and ancient Sheriff. In a cast of excellent actors, it is not fair to single out Skarsgård but hey, my list, my rules. One of the biggest problems I had with True Blood’s first season was the story of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) was just too blah for my liking, despite who these two individuals are (one can hear other people’s thought and the other is an immortal of course). In the second season, the focus shifts slightly away from them two specifically to shine more on the irresistible secondary characters.

So what if True Blood turns in ridiculous plot developments? It peppers it with plenty of delicious humour – as if almost daring us not to be sucked into its world. Bloody brilliant!

Click here to read the entire article about other TV programs.

17 fangbangers like this post.

The Orlando Sentinal has come out with their top 10 favorites of 2009 and once again, True Blood is on the list.  These lists are almost getting tiresome, but we’re not complaining, since we think True Blood is the best in TV.

Here are the 10 scripted series that provided the most entertainment:

1. “Mad Men”
2. “The Good Wife”
3. “True Blood” is television’s best vampire series. Its stellar second season featured fierce contributions from Alexander Skarsgård as the sexy, underhanded vampire Eric; Michelle Forbes as the mischief-making, orgy-throwing Maryann; and Ryan Kwanten as the surprisingly heroic Jason. Of course, Anna Paquin remains the show’s vital center as lovable, mind-reading heroine Sookie Stackhouse.
4. “The Big Bang Theory”
5. “Friday Night Lights”
6. “Lost”
7. “Breaking Bad”
8. “Nurse Jackie”
9. “The Mentalist”
10. “The Vampire Diaries” for being TV’s second best vampire series and for showing there is life in the struggling CW.

To read the article in it’s entirety, click here.

22 fangbangers like this post.

Stats Junkie has reported that True Blood, Burn Notice and Sons of Anarchy top scripted cable shows of 2009 with adults 18-49.

The first airing of new episodes of the second season of HBO’s True Blood topped all scripted cable shows for 2009 with adults 18-49 with an average 3.522 million (includes week’s worth of DVR viewing, and the rest of the numbers listed are Live+7, too).

True Blood was also the number one show with adults 18-34 with 2.013 million, followed by South Park’s 1.796 million and Sons of Anarchy with 1.655 million.

Among Men 18-49, Sons of Anarchy led with an average of 1.979 million followed by True Blood with 1.751 million and South Park with 1.742 million.

With Women 18-49, True Blood led the field with an average of 1.770 million, followed by Lifetime’s Army Wives with 1.655 million and Burn Notice with 1.606 million.

With Men 18-34 South Park led with an average of 1.292 million, followed by Sons of Anarchy with 1.058 million and Entourage with 1.007 million.

With Women 18-34, ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager led with an average of 1.037 million, followed by True Blood with 1.035 million and Army Wives with 796,000.

Source

21 fangbangers like this post.

As promised, here’s part 2 of Michael Ausiello’s interview with Joan Manganiello, who is to play Alcide in Season 3 of True Blood.

Alcide is about to put a major kink in True Blood’s polarizing Eric/Sookie/Bill triangle. At least that’s the word from the werewolf’s portrayer, Joe Manganiello, who makes a strong case for an Alcide/Sookie pairing in Part 2 of our exclusive Q&A.  The 33-year-old actor also weighs in on the length of his commitment to the show and why he isn’t afraid of those crazy Team Bill and Team Eric fans.

Will your Alcide be different from the Alcide in the books?
JOE MANGANIELLO: Alan Ball and I had a conversation about that at one of my auditions. I think it’s up in the air. I know that, at least initially, fans of the book will be pleased with my character.

What’s your take on Alcide?
MANGANIELLO: He’s really big. He’s giant. When Sookie first meets him, she opens the door and looks up, and then has to look up some more. So there’s this giant presence standing in the doorway with dark hair and dark features. He’s strong and protective. He comes from a construction background; his father is in the construction business. He’s heroic and romantic. I don’t think it’s a secret that he has a broken heart when he shows up. He had a really rough go of this relationship with Debbie Pelt, so there’s a lot of friction there. Debbie’s doing a lot of things to get back at Alcide.

How long are you committed to the show for?
MANGANIELLO: Right now we’ve just talked about this season.

What can Alcide offer Sookie that Bill and Eric can’t?
MANGANIELLO: Warm flesh and blood. That’s the neat thing about my character: Although he’s not entirely human, he is flesh and blood. He has a lifespan. In the books he hugs Sookie and she feels his skin and it’s just radiating heat. So I think the fact that he has some kind of sun burnt heat-radiating skin is just completely different. It’s [similar to when] she met Bill and what a relief it was for her to not to be able to hear his thoughts.

Are you ready to be thrust into the Eric/Sookie/Bill fan frenzy?
MANGANIELLO: For me it’s fun. I could see how if I was a 100-pound Hollywood actress it would probably be pretty scary, but I’m a big guy, so people don’t necessarily scare me in that way. With that said, I’ve had to go to the police a couple of times for stalkers.

Really?
MANGANIELLO: They were really big… I don’t know how I want to describe it but they were guys. I’ve had two guy stalkers that I’ve had to go to the cops about. But other than that I think it’s a blast. It’s so fun to get caught up in that. It’s so fun to have fans care that much. It’s that whole Comic-Con, fanboy crowd. I love that. I started my career in Spider-Man, so I’m completely familiar with them and I love that kind of stuff. And you hear about love triangles all of the time, it’s going to be interesting to see how the love square works out.

43 fangbangers like this post.

Here’s the first part of Michael Ausiello’s interview with Joe Manganiello, who has recently been chosen to play the part of Alcide in Season 3 of True Blood. In this portion of the interview, Joe talks about the phone call that changed his life, the childhood incident that foreshadowed his casting, and the punishing “werewolf workout” that will turn him into a half-human heartthrob.

Here’s Part 1 of this 2 part interview:

How did you find out that you won the role?
JOE MANGANIELLO: I had three meetings with Alan Ball. [After the last one], I got a call from my agent and manager. And whenever you get a call from your agent and manager, you have a pretty good idea that something good is about to happen.

What was your reaction when they told you?
MANGANIELLO: I’m not afraid to admit that I started crying. I was just so excited. It’s a dream come true. When I was a little kid, the nun at my elementary school said if you pray for something hard enough, it’ll happen. And I would pray every day with all of my heart that God would turn me into a werewolf. And when it didn’t happen, I kind of thought, “You know what? Maybe this stuff doesn’t work. Maybe I’m getting gypped.” So here it is 25 years later and my prayers got answered and I’m going to be a werewolf.

What was it about being a werewolf that appealed to you?
MANGANIELLO: I just loved Halloween. When I was 4, my mother dressed me up as a vampire and brought me to a haunted house. When I think about it now, bringing a 4-year-old kid to a haunted house is pretty intense. There was a vampire in the haunted house that jumped out of a coffin and I went up and tried to climb into the coffin with him. He wound up picking me up and putting me in the coffin with him and closing the lid. I [just] always liked monsters. There was something interesting about having this thing inside of you that you can’t control that comes out when you get angry. There’s something cathartic about the idea of having a beast inside you.

Are you a fan of the show?
MANGANIELLO: Huge fan. I’ve seen every episode.

Have you met Anna Paquin yet?
MANGANIELLO: Not yet. They wanted me to read with her. That was going to be my final audition, a chemistry read with Anna. But she wasn’t available so they had me come in by myself… I think it’s going to be great. I’ve seen a ton of her movies going all the way back to The Piano. I’m excited.

When do you start shooting?
MANGANIELLO: Late January, so I’ve got some time. Every day right now is all about the Werewolf Workout. It consists of Krav Maga, which is an Israeli fighting technique, and Cross Fit, which is kind of a gnarly crazy high-intensity workout. And I’m doing a little bit of weights in between.

Was this something Alan Ball asked you to do?
MANGANIELLO: No. This is something I wanted to do on my own. I’m a big guy to begin with; I work out a lot anyway. In my mind, I see the character as having a big chest, big arms — ripped the way an animal would be. Vampires have a supernatural strength to them, so you can have a vampire that is a little slighter. But a werewolf is this big, powerful, half man, half animal. I want to get as close to that as I possibly can.

The second part of the Q&A will be published tomorrow morning!

Source

60 fangbangers like this post.

Mark your calendars: Another True Blood convention has been announced for the weekend of August 6 through August 8, 2010. The True Blood convention called “Bitten” will be held in the UK in Northampton and the cast attending so far include Sam Trammell and Krisitin Bauer and more are to be announced.

Bitten is a 3-day unofficial convention to celebrate the new HBO television series “True Blood” based on the best-selling novel series ‘The Southern Vampire Mysteries’ by Charlaine Harris. This event will be held from Friday 6th – Sunday 8th of August 2010. This unofficial convention aims to bring together fans of the series and books to enjoy various events over the weekend. There will be activities each day from the usual guest talks and photograph sessions to quizzes and late night parties – for more information on these, check out our events section. This event will take place in The Park Inn, Northampton for more information on this venue and room rates see our venue page. Registration will begin at 2pm and the Opening Ceremony will be at 7pm on the Friday evening!

If you do go, there’s plenty to do. We’re talking about opening and closing ceremonies, a wine reception, autograph sessions, and, of course, panel discussions.

Now get on your plane tickets, and see if you can get one of those fancy traveling coffins.

Source

16 fangbangers like this post.