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