True Blood

Strange things always happen when you transfer things from one form of media to another. In a post not too long ago I expressed that I did not want to read the "Watchmen" graphic novel because I wanted to be able to judge the movie for it's own merit. When it came to "True Blood" I did the precise opposite. I was so excited about the upcoming serious that I went out and I read all of the Sookie Stackhouse novels.

I'll admit it I am a big fan of the Vampire Genre. I have seen tons of vampire movies, am an avid follower of several vampire book series, and a number of my favorite TV series have been of the fanged persuasion. I loved of the witty one liners in "Blood Ties," a huge fan of Buffy, and hell I even watched "Moonlight" despite the fact that it was only average. When I heard that a network like HBO was taking on a vampire series I knew that they would be able to do it with great production values, good actors, good scripts, and enough promotion to help the series get noticed in the first place.

So far the series has changed a number of things yet still remained true to the books. Of course it's HBO so it added 10 times more sex then was in the original novel, but for the most part their additions to the series have been good ones. I was happy to see Lafayette playing a bigger role, and I absolutely love Tara who really didn't exist in the original series. Would you believe that in the books Tara doesn't appear till the second book, is not black, has no anger management problems, does not work at the bar, and most certainly does not have a fling with Sam Merlotte. Jason is not into V, and aside from the rumors around town about the murders he isn't in the book that much.

So far I have really enjoyed "True Blood." It's got a lot of twists and turns, it's funny, it's sexy, it's action packed. It stays true to the books, but really adds a lot of depth to the world now that we can see it through eyes other then Sookies. It's clear they are taking different directions with the plot, especially to how the book ends and what happens to some of the characters. But I must say with only one episode left I will be very disappointed if one thing does not make the jump from the book into the series.

This is without any important spoilers so don't worry.

My favorite thing about the Sookie Stackhouse novels is one character which has yet to be introduced yet in the television series, and that is Bubba. In the Sookie Stackhouse universe the truth about Elvis is fully explained. All those years ago Elvis really did overdose, and he was dead except for the tiniest spark of life which still existed. The person working at the morgue was a huge Elvis fan and a vampire, so he turned Elvis. It was some combination of the amount of drugs in the mans system, and the fact that he was more dead then alive when he was turned, but Elvis did not turn out right. Nope, in the Sookie Stackhouse novels Elvis is a mentally challenged, cat eating vampire, who has to do small jobs for other vampires because he can't be seen in public. Every time he gets seen somewhere they make a big deal about the elvis sighting, not to mention Bubba has a tendency to freak out violently when people call him Elvis.

Bubba is such a brilliant funny character, I will be pissed if the King does not make an appearance in the season finale next week. I'm still holding out hope that he will appear. In the book Bill hired Bubba to look after Sookie while he was out of town. Yet, the show has changed the order and the way in which so many things have happened in the show, I suppose it's possible he could still show up. All the same I hold out home for another Elvis sighting.