True Blood News at The Nest

In other news, a blogger for the Dallas Daily News believes that True Blood (and other current vampire vehicles) “make a mockery of real civil right issues.” The reasoning here is that because True Blood’s vampires are striving for equal rights which parallels minority groups and unjustly stigmatized peoples, that the show is minimizing their struggle. She calls it “spoofing” the struggles of real life victimized groups; I call it using fictional oppressed groups to highlight the dangers and injustice that are omnipresent in today’s society.

Vampire dramas are like opinions these days; every network has one. The WB has ‘Vampire Diaries,’ ABC just premiered ‘The Gates,’ HBO is going on its third season of ‘True Blood ,’ and box offices everywhere are releasing The Twilight Saga’s ‘Eclipse’ tonight at midnight. And while Vampires are certainly nothing new when it comes to plot lines (I grew up during the ‘Buffy’ era) some of the issues they are now parodying are unique because of our nation’s current political climate.

In almost all of these Vampire dramas, the main blood-sucking character regales us with stories of their oppression — how they were forced into the coffin, made to deny their true selves and must live in secret because they are viewed as ungodly monsters by the (often times Southern & Christian) locals. You’d have to be oblivious not to see the underlying commentary here.

HBO’s True Blood, which is by far the most brazen in its spoofing takes it a step further by blatantly parodying the gay marriageissue, declaring that the vampire population should be able to ‘love freely,’ touting tolerance and fighting for equal vampire marriage rights. The shows fictional Vampire advocacy group even has a real website, AmericanVampireLeague.com, which has produced videos almost identical to those put out during California’s Proposition 8 vote, but instead of gay rights of course they are advocating for vampires.

And on their home page they broadcast this fake news bulletin, which in my opinion, makes light of violent crimes:

“Human Victim Battered by Hate Crime: In the early morning hours of August 30, a young Brooklyn woman was abducted, savagely beaten and left bound to a utility pole. Her assailants also left her with an ominous message, the letter “V” crudely painted on her chest, presumably as a warning to others. Her transgression? Sharing a drink with a vampire co-worker from her office…”

So my question is, in a nation so dead-set on being politically correct all the time, where is the outrage when an issue that’s so real to so many is being made fun of by a major cable network?

[Please note that the above question is not TB-N's question]

You can read it all here.

The “twisted” sex scene between Bill Compton & Lorena is getting a lot of commentary in the blogosphere since the True Blood season 3 episode 3 entitled, “It Hurts Me Too” aired last Sunday. The much discussed scene has recently been listed in the Hall of Shame on the National Organization for Women’s (NOW) website. The article urges the audience to write to HBO to “tell them what you think about this violent, misogynistic scene in True Blood.”

I know that there are various reaction levels: of justice being done, acceptance, outrage & disgust provoked by this one scene. One thing is for sure, nobody has reacted with indifference. The question I am pondering after reading their take, is what if the roles had been reversed and it was a male vampire being so in “love” with the female vamp, that he compelled her to have sex with him and she was the one doing the twisting? Would that affect how we all interpreted this act?

Offender: Television show True Blood

Media Outlet: HBO, first airing 6-27-10

The Offense: Vampire Bill Compton has violent sex with his nemesis/”maker” Lorena, during which he twists her head around backward.

NOW’s Analysis: Here’s a quick backgrounder for the uninitiated: HBO’s True Blood is based on a series of books about vampires and other super-natural characters. The show frequently contains explicit sex and violence. Bill is a main character and romantic interest for the female lead, Sookie. Currently Bill is going through a personal crisis about loving a human while being controlled by vampire Lorena, who turned him into a vampire long ago and keeps popping up despite his attempts to break away from her. Lorena is the classic “bitch” character who viewers are encouraged to hate. Bill definitely despises her, but vampire rules compel him to follow his maker’s commands.

In this context, Lorena asks Bill to make love to her. He says “never” but proceeds to throw her on the bed and rip off her clothes. Apparently, he can’t stop himself from having sex with her, but in a form of protest, Bill literally twists her neck, turning her face around backward. He continues to have sex with her as the camera provides us with a wide shot that is disturbing, to say the least. Facing the floor, with blood spilling out of her mouth, Lorena proclaims to Bill that she still loves him.

True Blood might be make-believe, but the parallels to real life in this scene are too horrifying to ignore. The scene taps into a hatred of women that still exists in our society — a revulsion toward women with power and a desire to punish them for making men feel weak. Yes, we’re supposed to be shocked. This is our wake up call that Bill might not be a suitable lifemate for Sookie. But let’s forget for a minute who or what these characters are: Here is a scene that was written and filmed to allow viewers to watch a man have violent sex with a woman he hates so much he twists her head around, and she loves him all the more for it. Remember, the character of Lorena is fictional, her persona and actions are the creation of writers, directors and producers. She is presented, simultaneously, as a hideous, controlling “bitch” and a pitiful, deluded stalker. And while we are supposed to be disgusted by Bill’s violence, aren’t we given permission to believe, just a tiny bit, that this woman got what was coming to her? Bad girls deserve to get hurt, and, besides, they like it — right? Thanks, but no thanks, True Blood for this messed up depiction of women, men, violence and sex.

HBO takes an inside look at “Beautifully Broken.” They have more characters than you can shake a stick at. True Blood writers talk about the enormous new cast and taking on the task of balancing it all.

Who needs Chicken Soup for the Soul, when you have True Blood? Since we are human, things tend to happen in one’s life may it be a tragedy, the economy, or it could be simply the stress of buying regular food or organic. Everyone has their ticks. This is why we want, need – an escape from reality; and True Blood gives us just that and more.

It’s not only the allure of vampires and shifters. The show’s ability to wrap its storyline around well developed characters that we are now vested in is uncanny. And we can’t deny that the characters in some way, match something in our own inner self that makes us cling to the show. True Blood gives us something we need beyond just entertainment – it has a healing quality.

We have all had those days where we just want to dive into a bowl of ice cream, watch a movie that makes us cry or laugh – something, anything to wipe out whatever hell we are going through in our mind.  We need some type of vice that keeps us from shoving a pen through the guy’s head in the next cubicle because he cracks peanuts all day or snapping at the drive-thru cashier because once again, they forgot the cheese. There are times we need an escape from reality.

There are so many interesting characters that we can relate to in True Blood, sometimes it’s hard to choose a favorite. Sookie, the protagonist: who can deny in some way or another that she has provoked emotions from us? Whether you cried with her as she devoured Gran’s pie or you screamed at her for slamming the door in Bill’s face, Sookie Stackhouse has the ability to poke us where we need it. We can thank the talented Anna Paquin for making Sookie such a heartfelt character. Sookie’s character along with Tara’s played by Rutina Wesley have the most affect because they are grounded in the human world, for now.

Who likes True Blood? Why does it appeal to so many? The folks over at DarkWaveDoom have a few ideas.

Who knew that regal southern gentlemen vampires and demure human ladies could make for the greatest show to hit HBO in quite some time? Getting geared up for a third season, fans are buzzing about what could possibly happen this time around. So far, the series has managed to make household names (and major crushes) out of random Swedish actors, revived Alan Ball’s relevance, and provided spin-off potential for everything from soda to new versions of the books that the series is based on in the first place.

There are a number of reasons that “True Blood” is one of the best things to hit satellite tv in quite some time. First, it manages to appeal to people looking for very different things in an HBO series. Those who want the fantastic and the slightly gloomy will be really into the vampire back story as well as the crumbling Gothic southern homes being filmed expertly by Alan Ball. Fans of camp and kitsch will love the show’s funnier moments, with a fast-talking and truly sassy gay drug dealer stealing every scene he’s in, and markedly hilarious exchanges between midlevel vampires and higher-up sheriffs. “True Blood” is also one of those shows where those who need to swoon at romance can do so right next to partners who are more interested in gory fights or more racy scenes of romance.

Read the entire article at the source

So, I’m driving home and there’s a bunch of traffic but all of a sudden I am hearing Bill Compton saying he’s not as warm as the men that I must be accustomed to… WHAT? That’s right, Bill Compton was on NPR today. Seems Margot Adler put together a segment on vampires and what they reflect in the popular culture of their time. Here’s the part where they mention True Blood:

“How do you treat someone you love, for example?” she says. “The core question is always: Does might make right?”

The question comes up again and again in True Blood, the HBO series based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris. In True Blood, vampires have emerged from hiding to become mainstream citizens drinking a form of synthetic blood. Bill Compton, who was turned into a vampire after the Civil War, is trying to re-embrace his humanity. In one scene, he voices his envy for a teenager who’s become a vampire just recently, in the modern world, and doesn’t have an evil and violent past to confront.

“It’s so different for her,” he says with sadness and yearning. “When I was made, one had no choice but to live completely outside the human world, as an outlaw, a hunter.”

Whether it’s Bill Compton wanting to embrace his humanity in True Blood, or the entire Cullen family rejecting humans as nourishment in the Twilight saga, these modern vamps are all struggling to be moral even though they are predators by nature. Which brings us to a question: Who are we?

Read the transcript here. The audio will be up at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Bring on the zombies

Hah! Ok, I have to admit that I laughed pretty hard at this article. Breaking down why dudes like zombies and chicks dig vampires seems pretty simplistic to me. Hell, I dunno, maybe there’s truth here – decide for yourself. It’s still pretty funny.

John DeVore over at the Frisky writes:

When I try to explain my ardor for HBO’s trashy-fabulous soap opera “True Blood” to my dude friends, they either shrug and change the topic, or question whether I’ve been writing for ladyblogs for too long and am suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome.

Dudes just don’t dig bloodsuckers, since vampires pretty much look like girls. We prefer zombies, because we love chainsaws, flamethrowers, and samurai swords.

And because, on some level, we know that besides being vehicles for sperm, our other important, if lesser, genetic imperative is to defend our loved ones from hordes of unthinking, flesh-eating metaphors for current social anxieties.

To most guys, vampires are the monster movie equivalent of that sensitive man-sponge in college who plays acoustic guitar in order to seduce chicks. They’re what you get when you cross your average Renaissance Fair enthusiast with a mosquito.