What are you going on about? Where did I call anyone dumb? It's the first episode of a new series with a supernatural theme. If you don't establish the rules--and lord knows, vampires have a pretty convoluted and inconsistent set of rules--then viewers won't understand the world the characters are living in. That has nothing to do with being dumb. How is anyone to know that werewolves don't exist or that vampires can be filmed without until it's explained to them?
Then again, I suppose I do think it's ridiculous to assert that are no dumb people watching TV whatsoever.
What are you going on about? Where did I call anyone dumb? It's the first episode of a new series with a supernatural theme. If you don't establish the rules--and lord knows, vampires have a pretty convoluted and inconsistent set of rules--then viewers won't understand the world the characters are living in. That has nothing to do with being dumb. How is anyone to know that werewolves don't exist or that vampires can be filmed without until it's explained to them?
Then again, I suppose I do think it's ridiculous to assert that are no dumb people watching TV whatsoever.
I don't believe that viewers can't handle ambiguity. Look at the numbers Lost still pulls in, and that's the poster child for convolution and consistency. Just because something isn't spelled out doesn't mean viewers can't handle it.
To me, the statement you made strongly implies viewers are dumb. I would hazard a guess you didn't mean it, but that's how it comes off.
I don't believe that viewers can't handle ambiguity. Look at the numbers Lost still pulls in, and that's the poster child for convolution and consistency. Just because something isn't spelled out doesn't mean viewers can't handle it.
The premise of Lost was/is an enigma to viewers. Vampires, OTOH, are massively overexposed in fiction to the point where any new fiction about them is burdened with a host of preconceptions. And yes, many people like to know the ground rules.
To me, the statement you made strongly implies viewers are dumb. I would hazard a guess you didn't mean it, but that's how it comes off.
"Viewers" is a term that encompasses a broadly heterogeneous group of people. I'm certain quite a few of them are as dump as fenceposts, but even an intelligent person can be misled by preconceptions.
I got the first episode off a Chinese site, so I watched the unaired pilot and then watched the real one. Did you know that they recast and reshot the role Rutina Wesley plays, Tara? The prior actress was thinner, of lighter skin and much, much more uppity. It's a real shame that they didn't keep the casting. (She probably didn't test well with audiences.)
They made a more expensive opening title sequence. It's now more lush and establishes setting; the prior one had a lot of filler shots of dental surgery, x-rays and MRIs, as if to "prove" that vampires exist. They also cleaned up the audio and added that viola and piano score for Bill.
The pluses for me with this series is that it's lush, it's got a nice bayou locale, they aren't afraid of sex, and the lead character. In addition, they confine the "vampires are real and I have superpowers" to the back story, which is good. The bayou should have an opportunity for them to delve into both Southern gothic and Vodun. (And, actually, Lovecraft's stuff too, as he had a cult situated in this area in "The Call of Cthulhu.")
This Southern vampire book series is plowing ground started by the Anita Blake series 8 years earlier--vampires come out of the coffin, face distrust, commit lots of crimes, are sexual catnip, etc. Since I liked that concept, I'm hoping that this series can expand on that concept. (OT: The first book of that Blake series had great potential to be fantasy noir with a touch of badass, especially when the protagonist uses silver shells in her shotgun. Unfortunately, it went into soft-core romance by book 3. Not my thing.) My thing is exploring the consequences of making this one alteration to the world.
The "their blood is an aphrodisiac" is new, however.
I really like Anna Paquin... but they've not really found anyone else. (They recast the other actress who was doing something interesting with her role.)
This series also gets into the real headaches of mind-reading. BtVS, as a series on broadcast TV, had to fade out the nasty sexual thoughts when Buffy walked down the school corridor. This show rubs your noses in it.
And,
it's disappointing that Sookie hasn't tried to profit off her power to aid her family, get a better job for herself, or find out what people think of her. I think they'll likely explain that in the backstory or part of her moral decline, instead of curiosity and excitement. The thrill of discovery is what's lost when you put the tedious "magic is real" bit in there. I'm most interested in figuring out what effect this power would have on people. I hope that the series will not simply make it a Paquin ex machina device.
Now, I'm hoping that Alan Ball did his homework on the special issues that the fantasy genre has when it comes to world-building. Because right now, my first question is
how vampires came out the closet and successfully avoided the military-industrial establishment using them as super-soldiers or perhaps test bunnies for medical research. Remember how BtVS made sure to mention this possibility as early as "Out of Sight, Out of Mind"? I'm going to set a similar deadline on this series.
The teaser's revelation of the vampire face on Billy Joe Bob Yokel... is not really intimidating or strange or uncanny.
Also, I'm not loving the camera swirling around the telepath/smart person while they think. You get to do that once per season and they blew that shot in the premiere.
The Bill Maher guest spot as exposition was good and really fit how the media might respond to this issue once the shock wore off.
The bartender is clearly
a werewolf. Dog that just watches out for Sookie. An unexplained inability to find them in his parking lot. And they hung a lantern on "werewolves don't exist," which only ensures that they do.
I'm not loving the fact that they threw away the discovery of a
love triangle when Sookie says that she can't believe that Tara can't see that he doesn't love her. That's just wasteful.
Perhaps Ball thinks that such narratives are cliche, but I think he'll find that he needs some B story lines. Then again, he has some experience with that.
