I know I'm in danger of going too long on vampires, but this week's home theater slots were totally eaten up by HBO's brilliant vampire series, based on Charlaine Harris's fabulous mystery series.
Problem was, we resigned up for HBO because of the On Demand system now offered by Comcast (Xfinity), which ends up being cheaper than buying series on DVD and you don't have to go through the nearly year-long wait. I love the system because it means I can peruse whatever Showtime and HBO series I like at the time of my own choosing.
The Sookie Stackhouse series is a way-cool resetting of the vampire story so as to make it a venue to tackling all sorts of social issues, due primarily to the plot device of the Great Revelation--or when vampires finally came out to humans and negotiated a peaceful coexistence--of sorts. So on top of the usual stuff, you've got all these larger political issues (Vampire Rights Amendment, religious reawakening in response, drug abuse scandals based on humans taking vampire blood, biotech advances because vampire blood can basically save humans from deep medical emergencies, and so on).
Plus, Alan Ball does such a great job, according to my wife, in expanding the show beyond the book series with new characters and plot lines. Last season got a bit tiresome with the witch and orgies and what not, but this year, with the vampire king of Mississippi dueling the vampire queen of Louisiana, it was stunningly good. The addition of the werewolves storyline is especially cool, and the wolves here are much better rendered than in the "Twilight" series. But Ball gets all the visual details down so right as a rule, that you expect nothing less.
This show has too many fascinating character to recount, with Russell Edgington, the vampire king of Mississippi being my clear villain favorite this season. No other vampire series or movies come close to the complete entertainment package here.
Again, to me, On Demand is the way to go, because then you just wait til the series is over and watch the episodes bang-bang-bang one a night.
Sidenote: at recent mystery writers conference, Vonne spent a couple of hours with Charlaine Harris and really enjoyed peppering her with questions.