Consequnces of Taste....

First Taste can be considered the first main episode of the series. At this point, the plot begins to move forward and now we are seeing all the main characters’ stories starting to either take form or intertwine within each other. The basic story is in a world where Vampires live among humans beings as normal citizens, there is a town called Bon Temps which has a vampire move in as a new residence, meets a local waitress on the very same night a murder occurs in the sleepy town.

Last we saw of Sookie, she was badly beaten from the Rattrays who had come for revenge for the previous night. While she is beaten, this scene has a lot of mystery to it since the camera works in a fast pace where the audience is seeing the events through Sookie’s hazy vision of a dog following a shadowy wind coming to her aid. Later on the mystery behind this scene is fully revealed but even while watching and then knowing the truth behind, the audience still has a feeling that the moment where Sookie is being beaten then saved by Bill continues to have more questions than answers that may never be fully revealed.

Elsewhere, Jason is at the police station re-watching the tape of him and Maudette the night before where the final scene appears revealing that Jason had not choked Maudette at all but in fact was a carefully orchestrated prank. If I were Jason, I would have sued the Bon Temps police department because they not only did not read him his Miranda Rights he was under the impression of being arrested so had he confessed; his confession was going to be proven inadmissible in court since his 5^th Amendment Rights was violated. The benefit of this discovery immediately results in Jason’s release where he continues his sexual escapades this time with one of Sookie’s co-workers resulting in an interesting match. Meanwhile, Sookie wakes up seeing Bill licking her head clean in order to heal her after she had been slowly healing from the effects of his blood being administered to her.

Throughout the time she is healing, Both Bill and Sookie began form a connection as to explain why they are both so attracted to each other in which Sookie reveals to Bill her condition of telepathy and the limitation of her powers which prevent her from obtaining a normal social life in the rural South. This scene not only is an importance in the story but is quite a visual experience where very little flashbacks and even dialogue are given. Just by the expressions these two characters show towards each other as the night sky and lake reflect on them, shows that they each themselves in the other character or what they hope to become. When Sookie becomes fully healed, we then learn that Bill is in fact 173 years old where he was turned into a vampire at the human age of 30 shortly after the American Civil War. At this point, Sookie then explains her favor to Bill that her grandmother would like to speak to him about his experiences during the war which is not a subject Bill feels comfortable talking about but will do his best in order to make Sookie happy.

The next day, Sookie and her grandmother are preparing the house in order for Bill’s arrival where Sookie begins to notice strange occurrences such as she is able to have heightened senses from her surroundings all while trying to completely normal of the fact a vampire will come to see her family while those around her constantly warn her of the dangers. Bill comes over that night as promised revealing another vampire secret that he can only come into a human’s home with an invitation extended.

The first meeting of Jason, Tara and Adele towards Bill varies differently with Jason still suspecting Bill being dangerous solely because he is a vampire causing a challenge of masculine authority (at least in Jason’s eyes). Whereas with Tara, there is a challenge in her eyes not with gender but with race. The first question Tara asks of Bill is whether he owned slaves although despite bill stating he did not own any slaves; to Tara, Bill as a living representation of the Old South which was still Romanized as the ideal way of life were someone like Tara fits in this life as belonging to another human being. With Adele, she is not threatened by Bill but charmed by him because he represented everything a true Southern gentleman appeared and behaved that it did not matter whether or not he was a vampire.

As the night drags on, Sookie and Bill go out for a stroll where they continue to become better acquainted in which more secrets are revealed the first was that while Sookie had been healing, Bill had killed the Rattrays but draining them and covering up the murders by making it look like a natural disaster had occurred. The second secret comes where because Sookie was so badly beaten, she drank a lot of Bill’s blood causing the mysterious sensations from earlier that can allow Bill to always sense Sookie, her senses will heighten and her libido will become more active. Sookie while asking Bill the full extent of his powers, reveals when she first became a telepath where they both state each have lost important loved ones. As they both head towards Bill’s house, Bill begins to clearly see Sookie for the first time where when asking her to take off her hairclip, reminiscing memories ensue where Sookie’s sun smell exactly like sunlight. This scene gets more romantic where perhaps it was because of the blood or from Sookie’s own attraction to the vampire, she passionately kisses but their moment ceases as Bill’s fangs extended revealing to both Sookie and to the audience, as much as Bill can pretend to be a human, he is still very much a vampire.

The rest of the episode focuses on the vampire politics outside of Bon Temps where the conservative elite instruct the public vampires are dangerous while vampire politicians continue their propaganda of being completely harmless due to the synthetic blood. The vampire politics along with the lives of the Bon Temps residences are not completely important but are shown through television segments as theoretically putting the ideals of American Vampire League in practice. Another part of the episode though briefly gave attention to Tara’s home life where despite being a no-nonsense woman, she cannot enjoy life where it can drag depression onto those around her. At Merlotte’s, Sookie continues to get harassed mainly because she is a woman in a redneck bar as well as Sam asking about the state of her telepathy whenever she is with Bill. The final scene arrives where Sookie goes into Bill’s house; she meets not Bill but three vampires who are ready to kill her at any given moment.

The first half of this episode was well paced and developed an idea from the pilot into one of the main points of the story. Going into episode two, this show is already a love story between Sookie and Bill at the same time also Sookie tries to adjust with the new changes in her life while still struggling with her telepathy. The courtship between them is a combination of satire and gothic romance where Bill who is naturally seductive towards women becomes slightly nervous whenever he is around Sookie by the questions about his powers even revealing the extent of his blood. Sookie is the one who initiates their first kiss where Bill stops because of his fangs. The gothic romance portion comes from the moments that do try to be serious in their courtship from the beginning as Bill heals her and while they are walking along Bon Temps cemetery. These are two people who should be associated with each other yet they are both drawn to one another that helped the attraction become stronger when they each first tasted the other’s blood.

Another new point in this episode was we got to see more the impact of vampires have on a society such as Bon Temps. The whole town knows about their new neighbor to even suspecting him of a being a murderer, there was even more focus of the vampire politics outside of the television segments with Jason and Bill stating about the Vampire Rights Amendment being the ultimate form of equality among vampires and humans, Dawn is revealed to have also been intimate with vampires and the end of the episode shows three new vampires who are not seductive or harmless but rather the stereotypical behavior of vampires from the Hammerfilms Studios.

The latter half of the episode was more filler where it does not really help the plot of this episode but sets up the events for the next episode and for the rest of the season in general. When seeing First Taste in itself, the latter half can be either boring or unimportant to the events that are going on. One theory is because these events occur in the daytime, the vampires are not shown therefore the focus on humans in a small town will be explored which can lead to problems if the characters were not explored correctly but this episode’s latter half focused still on the problems of their lives as now realizing that vampires now live among them was executed rather well. Although when seeing the season as whole, parts that were at times unimportant or completely random show significance in regards to character development and story arcs.

True Blood Pilot Episode

Since Season 5 will be premiering about 5 months give or take, thought I would make a review about each episode starting with the first one.

In the beginning of Strange Love, the show begins with two drunken college students going into a convenience store in what appears to be a Post-Katrina Louisiana where in this world, vampires are not only confirmed to have exist but also live among us as regular everyday people. In the background of the television screen, we see Nan Flanagan (played by Jessica Tuck) in a nonchalant matter trying to persuade Bill Maher that vampires are no longer a danger to humans because of the synthetic blood drink known as True Blood that does substitute a vampire’s nourishment for human blood. During this, the college students get scared off by a vampire threatening to eat them for insulting vampires by asking about how to obtain their blood. This scene might seem pointless at first but it introduces the fact of the show that not everything is what it appears to be. The vampire was not a scary looking figure but a hillbilly character that seems to blend in with the rural setting also showing that vampires are not where you expect them to be.

After a color introduction song (which will have its own article in explanation) that reveals the seduction and mystery of the show along with Southern cultural with rather disturb images; we are then shown the town of Bon Temps, Louisiana at a bar called Merlotte’s Bar and Grill where the business seems to be having a somewhat normal night with customers coming in for dinner, drinks and good company. One of the waitresses that is introduced as the main female protagonist Sookie Stackhouse (played by Anna Paquin) who happens to be a telepath and this happens to be one of her “problematic” nights because she is able to hear the thoughts of her most of her customers causing some awkward situations for her. The next character introduced is Tara Mae Thornton (played by Rutina Wesley) who is shown to be blunt, loud and rude towards other where she quits her recent job. Cut to the a scene between Sookie and Tara talking on the phone revealing them to be best friends another character introduced is Sam Merlotte (played by Sam Trammel) who shows great concern over Sookie to where Tara speculates that he may have a slight crush on Sookie. The next scene shows a man giving a woman a cunninglus revealing the man to be Jason Stackhouse (played by Ryan Kwatten) who realizes his one-night stand recently had sex with a vampire. The first introduction we have of Jason shows that he is a womanizer that might have gotten more than he bargained for but he might not be thinking the consequences of his actions. While going back to Merlotte’s we are then introduced to other characters such as: Arlene the brash redhead waitress (played by Carrie Preston) and the flamboyant cook Lafayette (played by Nelsan Ellis) who are given the funniest introduction on the show where they embarrass Sookie with their humor about who is the sleaziest person on the staff (it might be either Dawn or Lafayette it’s never been completely confirmed).

So far True Blood seems to have a Cheers setting with Merlotte’s being a regular bar for the southern local to come by where trouble isn’t needed. The night appears to be fairly normal with Tara, Sookie and Sam discussing over how to make their day better and as everything seems to be completely still, a figure walks into the bar sits on the one of the booths of Sookie’s sections and begins to immensely stare at Sookie and vice versa. The mysterious stranger (played by Stephen Moyer) is revealed by Sookie right away that he is a vampire who happens to be the first vampire to appear in Bon Temps giving Sookie enthusiasm as a blushing school girl while she talks to him. The vampire then after flirting with Sookie, is then seen talking to the couple who was sitting behind him the Rattrays who were partially the source for Sookie’s frustrations for the latter part of the evening. As Sookie later on goes towards their table, she then overheard Denise Rattray thinking about how the vampire’s blood can be about $10,000 revealing the Rattrays are vampire drainers causing Sookie to go after them when realizing that no one will help her out after the couple and vampire have disappeared. Sookie then finds the couple in the middle of draining the vampire where Sookie then fights the Rattrays with a bizarre twist of the chain Sookie brought constricting Mac Rattray’s neck without any explanation or help from anyone (Sookie is telepathic where she hears people’s thoughts not telekinetic where one can move objects with their mind) causing her to have the upper hand and saving the vampire as the Rattrays drive away. Sookie and the vampire (at this point, he is revealed to be named Bill which is supposedly a strange name for a vampire) began to try to understand the situation that had just happened leaving Sookie slightly confident for standing up to a vampire and Bill slightly puzzled for his forms of seduction had not scared nor perplexed Sookie.

After a few scenes of the bar where Tara and Sam decide to give Tara a job as a bartender along with Jason appearing unsuccessfully flirting with Dawn, we are then cut to Sookie going home to her grandmother Adele (played by Lois Smith) explaining her excitement about a vampire. Then the next scene is Sookie being woken up hearing a noise outside in what looks to be something out of a Harlequin fantasy as Bill is waiting down below, Sookie then goes to him as he begins to take off his clothes where she nervously states that she is knew it would come to this just not right away but Bill supposedly has other ideas but we are never sure what they are since it was all revealed to be a dream.

Sookie and Jason are then having lunch with their grandmother who are told that Jason’s one-night stand from the previous night was killed giving the hint that Bill might have been involved because it was a huge coincidence that a vampire appears in a small town on the same night a woman is killed but also Sookie accidently reads Jason’s mind revealing that he might also be involved.. Later Jason is shown at his job in the Bon Temps road crew where the police question Jason to the point where Jason admits he was there but a hidden tape shown earlier states more of a confession causing Jason’s arrest. Later in Merlotte’s, all of Bon Temps finds out about the murder and Jason’s arrest annoying Sookie because she believes her brother may not be the most trusting person but is not a killer. Next Bill shows up striking a conversation with Sookie causing Sookie’s mind control to cease since it was revealed earlier that Sookie is not able to hear the thoughts of a vampire. As Sookie and Bill are then setting a date to meet up later that night, Bill continues to warn Sookie that she may be in over her head just by even thinking of associating with him. After Bill leaves feeling somewhat guilty, Sam takes Sookie away telling her he will not be responsible should anything happen to her. As Sookie hears Sam’s confession of love for her, Tara storms in pretty much stating the same as Sam but also thinks of Jason as innocent. The bar is then closed where Sookie waits in the back to meet up with Bill, all seems quiet as she believes Bill may nearby but is then met with a loud noise as Mac and Denise Rattray appear and begin beating her senselessly ending the pilot of True Blood with the Little Big Town’s Bones.

Strange Love was what a pilot should be; well-paced and introduces the main characters where one parts starts and moves on to another part with developed pacing to where the audience wants to see what happens with the cliffhanger ending. This episode seems to focus more in the latter half on Jason’s arrest and Sookie daily life whereas the first half gave the introduction of the secondary characters but are shown with enough screen time to where they will be remembered in future episodes. The characters for the most part are likeable; the workers at Merlotte’s are funny, people that an audience would probably know in real life and just there to lighten the tension when it was needed. Jason, Tara and Sam are characters that are given an amount of introduction to where we know who they are to Sookie even to their personalities but from the little we are given of them, it begs for these characters to be given more of a story in later episodes. Gran appears to be a sweet and caring grandmother who loves Sookie and Jason. She is also very considering since it seems almost unlikely for someone of her age and southern upbringing to be completely happy with the idea that her granddaughter is interested in a vampire to even asking Sookie to do Bill a favor for her should they meet again. Bill is probably the most interesting aspect of this episode since True Blood is about vampires but we aren’t introduced to the main male protagonist until about 20 minutes in and the other times he appears, we almost know nothing about him adding more the mystery of the vampires. Bill does at times seem a bit out of place where one minute he tries to be seductive and threatening, then appears to be confused and slightly nervous around Sookie. Again showing the mystery of these two characters who are trying to learn more about each other by trying to appear normal rather than being subtle with Bill constantly asking Sookie what exactly she really is. Since the episode ends with a cliffhanger, the questions that surface are what exactly is Sookie's fate since Bill appears to be nowhere in sight and Sam had already left for the day