Update: My feelings on HBO's True Blood
Let us begin with a quote from an anonymous commentor on a Hollywood trade blog:
And Alan Ball really should have gotten a Louisiana person to consult on the script - he clearly has no feel for the state’s culture: No town with a Cajun name like “Bon Temps” would be anywhere near the northern town of Monroe, which is pronounced “MUN-roe,” not “Mun-ROE.” The only restaurants in Louisiana selling Mexican beer are Mexican restaurants, and still most folks never order it. And the Civil War pretty much did not happen in the state except for one brief skirmish - true to their French heritage, Louisiana folks surrendered at the first sight of a blue uniform, so descendants of Civil War veterans are few and far between there.
This is one of my main problems with the show. The horrible inaccuracies of outsider views on the state of Louisiana really pisses me off. The only thing they managed to get right is that we are not all sweaty all the time. But the conflation of north and southwest Louisiana really bugs me. Why would you randomly drive 5 hours south for a trip to LSU in Baton Rouge? There is LSU-Alexandria but that's not really the same thing. And the accents! GOD THE ACCENTS. Are Terrible. I really don't recall Lousiana accents sounding similar to Georgia-which is where Alan Ball should have moved the show's location to since his cast seems to find those accents easier.
And that's just the first part of why this show gets on my nerves. Last night's episode was so ridiculous because there was no plotline. Nothing much happened. The weekly cliffhangers are more and more like the writers crying wolf..eventually when they actually have a real damn cliffhanger no one will believe them!
And then there's the black people: Lafayette (which they pronounce INCORRECTLY FOR SOUTH LUZZIANIANS Lah-fye-ette when it is pronounced Lah-fee-yette) and Tara. Apparently there's only three black people in Bon Temps; the two of them and Tara's mama. And Tara and Lafayette do get some witty zingers that position them oppositionally to the whites in the town ("that vampire owned slaves..he could have at least apologized to me.") but I haven't quite seen what there use value is on their own outside of their activation by the white leads.
Anyway, I don't really like Anna Paquin's Sookie and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out why week after week the show has to have Sookie's brother Jason pulling off some death defying sex stunt with random person #33434883. It's a trope that is slowly getting old.
I've been told to hang on till at leat the 5th episode. I only have 2 more..Thank Goodness. If it doesn't get better I'll feel no shame about quitting. And it's so unfortunate that the show has already been renewed for a second season. HBO series is very clearly in a dark period in terms of quality and substance. Sad.