Tuesday, 11 August 2009

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  TV via DVD
  
  My wife and I just finished watching the first season of True Blood on DVD. It's a wonderful series, full of hidden and insightful messages about human behavior, politics, religion, and even love.
  
  This is how we watch TV now, since the government-mandated digital switch forced our rabbit ears out of commission (the digital signals aren't strong enough to reach all the way out to little ole Seminole). Either on rented DVDs from Netflix or on Hulu.
  
  Not that we watched a lot of TV anyway, because most of the shows we could get over the air were either mundane and apparently written by brain-dead monkeys, or carelessly sensationalist.
  
  "True Blood" isn't like that at all. My only problem with it is that it's riding the current wave of populist vampirism connected to movies like Twilight and so on.
  
  Despite that it's part of a fad (I hate fads as a matter of principle), True Blood is quality TV. It's produced by HBO, so the producers and writers don't have to worry about censorship. So it's realistic.
  
  Set in southern Louisiana, the show actually feels like it takes place there. If you're like me, you're tired of movies or shows supposedly set in a certain part of the country that you've actually been to (and are therefore completely non-authentic). A lot of research went into this show's location -- though much of it isn't actually filmed there.
  
  The basic premise is that vampires "came out of the coffin" two years earlier, revealing themselves to the public and fighting for recognition as a minority. Of course, some vampires try to "mainstream," living as much as possible among regular humans, while others hurt their own cause by behaving in traditional vampire fashion.
  
  There's a well-cast group of characters from all sides of the tracks, and the show's story-telling skips lightly from one group to the next. Tiny plot lines are strung throughout the show, keeping all sorts of viewers interested.
  
  I get the feeling it's the kind of show that you have to watch every episode, in order, or you'll get lost. Which is another benefit of watching them on DVD.
  
  The downside is that it's not a family-friendly show -- strong language, nudity, sexual dialogue, drug use, and so on -- in other words, not the kind of DVD that I'd let my kids watch (or my parents, for that matter).
  
  If you haven't seen it or heard of it (and you're not easily offended), then give it a try.
  
  (See More of My Reviews)
  
  

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