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True Blood: The First Taste

Bill: "What are you?"
Sookie: "Well, apparently, I'm not dead."

So vampire blood is better than just about anything. It can heal a devastating spinal injury, enhance your senses, and turn you on at the same time. And of course, it's a metaphor for forbidden sex. Yum. I think.

Vampires can move very fast, and they're very strong. Bill crushed the Rattrays's bodies under their trailer; that's pretty strong. They also seem to commit murder fairly often. Bill taking out the Rattrays was completely understandable, considering they tried to kill him as well as Sookie. But according to the TV, the minister from the "Fellowship of the Sun," an organization that thinks vampires don't deserve "special rights" (shades of gay marriage), died mysteriously in a "freak accident." Meaning a vampire did it.

And yet, Bill seems to be quite a guy. I liked Sookie and Bill together. Their encounter by the water where he healed her (and also licked her all over) was quite sexy, and the way they flirted as they walked through the cemetery reminded me of Buffy and Angel. Bill seemed bemused by Sookie's innocent fixation on him -- and I mean "innocent" as compared to fangbangers and blood-drainers. Sookie doesn't want more from Bill than Bill himself. And you gotta love a guy who goes out of his way to be kind to your grandmother. (I liked Sookie's grandmother, too. She's sweet as well as open-minded.)

I liked Sookie's friend, Tara, too. I loved the way she freaked out the guy who was hitting on her at the party. Tara, like Sookie, is choosy. Unfortunately, Tara has chosen Jason, who is clearly not worthy of her affections. It's probably a good thing that he's busy screwing everyone else in sight and hasn't realized that Tara is a sure thing. Jason is prejudiced against vampires. Maybe he's prejudiced in other ways, as well.

You'd think his experience at the police station would have slowed him down some, but no. We got yet more of Jason having kinky sex. This time with another Merlotte's waitress, Dawn, who also had fang marks on her. Clearly signaling that she'll be the next victim.

Bits and pieces:

-- The credits contain some powerful images: prejudice, predators, sex, religion, death. Every time I watch it, I see something else. Pretty fascinating.

-- Sookie's mind-reading talent sometimes manifests as images.

-- If you share blood with a vampire, you can "feel" each other. Vampires can "glamour" their human victims, but interestingly enough, it doesn't work on Sookie. (Because she's special and different from other people.) And vamps in this 'verse have invitation rules. I like invitation rules.

-- After Bill and Sookie kissed, his fangs popped out. You can make a pretty obvious analogy there.

-- Bill was vamped in 1865, when he was 30. He fought in the Civil War, and lost his wife and children. Sookie lost her parents when she was seven. They have loss in common.

-- Tara and Lafayette, the cook who also works on Jason's road crew, are cousins. Tara's mother is a serious alcoholic.

-- There was a picture on the wall of Sam's office of a dog watching over a sleeping girl. And that dog from the previous episode kept showing up, watching Sookie with Bill. Um. Could the dog be jealous?

-- Loved the National Inquiry headline: "Angelina adopts vampire baby."

-- Another cliffhanger ending: Sookie went to Bill's and some dangerous-looking strange vamps answered the door and immediately started licking their lips. Loved the bumper stickers on the car; they were right out of Dead until Dark. See? I got all the way to the end of the review before mentioning the books, so good on me.

-- Speaking of which, I'm not going to be able to speculate about whodunit or what's coming like I usually do in my reviews, since I know. It sort of limits me as a reviewer of this series, but I'll do my best.

Quotes:

Bill: "May I ask you a personal question?"
Sookie: "Bill, you were just licking blood out of my head. I don't think it gets much more personal than that."

Sookie: "I don't think Jesus would mind if somebody was a vampire."
Gran: "I don't either, honey."

Jason: "Thanks for making me look like a fool in front of him, Gran."
Gran: "Jason, you don't need any help looking like a fool."

Interesting,

Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

5 comments:

  1. I wasn't a huge fan of this episode, either. It was an improvement from 1.01, but I just wasn't that interested. I had to start it over again a few times because I lost attention.

    However, I have also seen 1.03 and 1.04 and am happy to say that the series is improving at a nice rate.

    Btw, Jason is pointless. I heavily dislike him ;) On the other hand, Tara is frickin' fantastic.

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  2. I'm not sure why, perhaps its the actor. But Jason strikes me as a character that has potential. And to give the actor credit I like him despite being utterly unlikeable.

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  3. Very exciting second episode. Nice to pick up from where everything left off.

    So did Bill kill the Rattrays? I did think it might have been Sookie art first and without sounding like a sadist, I really have no sympathy for their deaths.

    Do the law in this town have it in for the Stackhouse family? Jason might be a dick but Andy waited twelve hours to tell him there was no proof that he killed Maudette. Now that's cruel.

    Plus the Sherriff wasn't all that nice to Sookie either about Bill. Anyone notice how incredibly hostile she was with the Mike as well?

    Sookie and Bill's scenes certainly were overly sexual without actual sex. Licking blood out of her head, his fangs making an appearance when they kissed.

    I did like both of them discussing their own abilities but I hope that Sookie isn't too trusting of Bill just yet. Just listen to Tara, who despite having a thing for Jason does seem to have a good brain in her head.

    Loved Gran humiliating Jason during the dinner with Bill. If you're going to act like a belligerent jackass, then you shouldn't be surprised when it backfires on you.

    Jason was still doing the kinky sex stuff with Dawn, even after Maudette. Dawn had bitemarks on her as well.

    That dog popped up again. That's more than a coincidence in my opinion and Tara had me in hysterics with the way she rejected a potential.

    Not a lot of Lafayette or Arlene in this episode and it was nice that Rene stepped in the way he did for Sookie.

    Poor Sam really can't take a hint, can he? The girl's just not that into you, which is a shame because I certainly wouldn't kick Sam outta bed, 9/10.

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  4. Really good episode and I really liked how it started immediately after the ending of the pilot.
    I really like the tension between Sookie and Bill, we can sense the heat between them!

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  5. yeah that ending where those vamps started fanging out and the one guy turned his pupals inside out just made me laugh i mean seriously that isnt scary

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