Nate's DVD Collection ~ True Blood The Complete First Season

Two years after vampires finally “came out of the coffin” the fictional Louisiana town of Bon Temps has it's very first vampire citizen in former Southern Confederate soldier Bill Compton. Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress at Sam Merlotte's bar couldn't be happier, but the town folk of Bon Temps regard Bill and the phenomenon of vampires with varying degrees of acceptance and contempt.

Based on the Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries by Charlene Harris, True Blood is an HBO TV series complete with the budget and creative freedom that comes with airing on a channel that people have to order to view. Thanks to the miracle of DVD's all one has to do is wait for the season to appear in a boxset.

Directed by Alan Ball

Stephen Moyer as Bill Compton

Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse

  Disc 5 contains:

In Focus: Vampires in America, A mock-u-mentary about vampires in America starring a Chris Hansen like TV host

TruBlood Beverage ads: French and American “Tru Blood” beverage ads.

TruBlood Service Ads: Ads for vampire dating, vampire hotels and lawyers that service vampires.

Public Service Announcements: Both Pro- and Anti-vampire rights.

Six audio commentaries with Alan Ball, Anna Paquin, and Stephen Moyer.

True Blood is the answer to everyone who has ever asked, “Can we finally have a vampire series where the vampires aren't whiny high school kids that sparkle?”

Having only read one book out of the Sookie Stackhouse series I can't tell you that the series is faithful to the books. After all this is a DVD review, not a book review. But what I can tell you is that as a hardcore vampire lover, True Blood breaks some ground that I have never seen tread.

Humans getting high off of vampire blood? Snorting it as opposed to “drinking it from a wine bottle? Overweight vampires that barely leave the house? This show covers it. There are very few cliches in this series and we learn from the very first episode that anyone could be a vampire. There are no cookie cutters so whatever assumptions you have about “who” should be left at the door.

It doesn't stop with vampires. True Blood leads us to discover that even though vampires, shape shifters, and telepaths exist, the human world is still just as scary if not scarier. With vampires you're either food or your not, with the human characters you truly never know what to expect.

Since this is a mystery the year long story arc revolves around a series of murders and when you learn who the killer really is it blows your mind. The writing is so good that unless you're familiar with the story, or you're genuinely that good at putting mysteries together, you will not see it coming.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. True Blood is what Twilight wants to be when it grows up.

What's not to like? This is one of those “Can Win” columns.

Season Two will be out on DVD very shortly, so if you don't own it all ready, I would wait. Some store like Barnes N' Noble or Borders is bound to sell this one at half price along with the second season as a part of a promotional deal.

This is basically Sex in the City and The Sopranos meets Moonlight. If you're shy about letting your kids watch any of those shows you'd best send the kids to bed before popping True Blood into your player.