Southern Vampire Mysteries

To start off, I thought I might comment on the what Alan Ball's popular HBO vampire drama is based off. A series of pseudo-mystery/romance novels called the Southern Vampire Mysteries or the "Sookie Stackhouse Novels" as fans most likely associate with them. There are currently 11 of these books out at the moment with 2 more set to be in store within the next two years as well as 2 companion series that show the in-between stories of the heroine Sookie Stackhouse.

Like the show, the Southern Vampire Mysteries also revolves around the life of Bon Temps telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, as she shows us a world in which vampires (and as of Book 9) and two-natured creatures publicly live among the humans. Also like the show, we see that all the characters are not what they appear to be. This difference of character gives a fair amount of enjoyment for the reader and viewer since it brings complexity to each character and the situations which they are confronted.This is where the similarities end and the differences are entirely on how the person reads the books or watches the show.

When the show does it famous opening credits, there is a still that says "based off the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charliene Harris" meaning that the show is not going to be word for word from the books yet since the first episode, many of the books readers have complained Alan Ball had destroyed the books by making so many changes to the show...some famous ones include

1. Introduction to Bill's progeny in Season 1 Episode 10, Jessica Hamby played by Deborah Ann Woll. Her character does not exist in the books but had had an impact in the show with several major characters ie: Bill, Jason, Hoyt, Sookie, Pam and Eric
2. Lafayette surviving: The character of Lafayette Reynolds in Dead Until Dark had about a few lines but was a colorful character from little we saw of him. He dies in the beginning of Living Dead in Dallas by being found in Andy's car at the parking lot in Merlotte's and since Book 8 has had a cameo where in Merlotte's the popular meal there is the "Lafayette" burger (regret your decision Mrs. Harris?). The fact that Lafayette is still alive toward the end of Season 4 only occurred due to Nelsan Ellis' portrayal of this entertaining, flamboyant yet tragic character and the storyline that Alan Ball made with this character back in episode 1.
   
3. Bill killing Londshadow: In Dead Until Dark it was Eric that killed Longshadow not Bill and was given a fine but had consequences from this in Dead as a Doornail. In the show, Bill was punished by creating Jessica which forever alter the course of several main characters perhaps even the start of when the show began to derailed from the books.
   
4. Sam's background: This one annoys me with how many people complain of it. Sam didn't have a story until Book 9 and by then the show was already ready to be aired with Season 1 giving us a hint that Sam was adopted by a well to do family who we later find out in Season 3 adopted him from a white trash family. Cannot see how readers had a problem with this one when Mrs. Harris hadn't written a story for Sam when Alan Ball was coming up with his ideas..
5. The "shower" scene: Will not go into much detail about this one here because it will have its own post in the future but basically Bill got a shower scene in Season 3 and Eric got a Narnia mind trip with a bed and sun.

Whenever a book is turned into a film or a television series, there is always a set of high expectation and almost bitter disappointed because the filmed adaption does not meet the standards that the book had. For the case of Southern Vampire Mysteries, it is a mediocre book series at best which got adapted into an acclaimed television program. I began to read the books during the 3rd season where I was not quite sure what direction the books were going but naturally I had assumed that it was almost the same so I never thought anything of it. The first that noticed is that the books are all in the viewpoint of Sookie Stackhouse where in the show it is given in the third party omniscient presence so we see the lives and thoughts of all the characters. Since it is in the view of Sookie Stackhouse, we are not aware of what goes on until Sookie knows and because she tends to take everything at face value, it may not always be true what she is told so we as an audience can also be lied to. One problem that the books have in being in the viewpoint of Sookie which is noticeable in the show is that she has a rather boring life, where the author spends about nearly 3 pages in several books talking about Sookie's daily chores. At some point, you cannot wait until it turns after sunset because then she is able to interact with Eric, Pam and Bill.

The characters and story settings are creative and there was a lot of thought put in on how the supernaturals have different hierarchies even where certain histories are given about the lives of the vampire politics. One section that comes to mind was in Dead in the Family where Eric explains to Sookie that the different sections in the United States are made up with the different forms of heavens from different ancient religions and that states such as California have three different kingdoms. Charlene Harris does a great job in explaining about how the her universe is run as a feudal system and that every vampire must know their place depending on how their age ranges but are able to contribute if they have some sort of special skill that the older vampires might find useful. We also are told that the shifters have many forms of creatures and according to Sam are in some kind secret society that has a blog online in order to connect with the rest of the world. The fairies with what little we know about are shown in both good and evil connotations that these characters might be the closest that Charline Harris has personally done to actual character development in the Sookie Stackhouse series.

The downside to the explanation of the supernatural is that because the world of these books revolve around Sookie, she is not interested in it. So we are told very little on it because if it does not matter to Sookie then it should not matter to the audience. I don't know whether Charline Harris does this intentionally or she just has a short attention span but I cannot say how many inconsistencies are presented in the series that at times it has been difficult to count. One example is that in the beginning of Dead Until Dark, Sookie explains to the audience that it has been almost two years since the vampires have come public to the world and this book came out in 2001 so naturally we all assume that this book takes place in a pre-September 11 world since there is no hint on it. After All Together Dead, we are told that it has been five years since the vampires are made public to the world which is told with Katerina but in Dead and Gone, Sookie says to the audience that her grandmother has been dead for nearly two years and she died in Dead Until Dark.This type of inconsistency does add a lot of confusion that was due to Katrina being added as a the start of the events in the later books, the timeline of the books are skewed but it doesn't matter in the long run although when reading the first few books, the confusion begins to add up.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries are in itself interesting readings for a weekend of relaxing although each book has many problems that I think just seeing the main problems in the books as a whole are sometimes never shown. The changes of the show are given much more attention simply because they were not in the books but when reading the series, it is usually better explained or shown as to why the changes of the show were done in the books.