Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer in a scene from True Blood.

Last night, I watched the premiere of Alan Ball's (Six Feet Under, American Beauty, upcoming Towelhead) new HBO drama True Blood.  If the first episode is any indicator, we're going to see lots and lots of teeth-bearing vampire sex.  Ball is clearly interested in vamping up (sorry) the whole dirty-sexy-dangerous aspect of the vampire/mortal dynamic. While erotica has always been a staple surrounding vampires in pop culture, the depiction of graphic sex usually takes a back seat to the spookiness, violence, or (as in the case of Buffy), ass-kicking.  The sexual aspect is subtext, implicit in the act of vampirism, but rarely materializing because the vampire is often "satisfied" first.  The more graphic deptictions of vampire sex are the purview of B-movies and adult entertainment.

With True Blood and the censor-taunting HBO, vampires in pop culture just got a little freakier. 

The premise of True Blood (based on the popular books by Charlaine Harris) includes a synthetic blood developed by the Japanese and available at your local Piggly Wiggly.  Vampires can buy a six pack to get their blood fix and therefore abstain from the pale, inviting necklines of humans.  This allows vampires to integrate into society -- they can come "out of the coffin."  And believe me, Ball is not shy about equating vampire rights with gay rights and those of other marginalized communities. But as you might expect, not everyone is keen on vampires assimilating. 

One person who definitely doesn't mind is our heroine, Sookie Stackhouse.  Sookie, played by Anna Paquin, lives with her grandmother in a swampy and hot Southern town in Louisiana called Bon Temps. Sookie is a pretty blonde who tans by day and works at a bar called Merlottes by night.  She is gifted - or she might say cursed.  Sookie is telepathic, which means she can hear what others are thinking.  The only minds she can't read are those of vampires, which makes them even more mysterious to Sookie, a spunky, champion of the underdog. This mystery, along with the allure of "the other", makes Sookie a prime candidate to fall for Bill (Stephen Moyer), a brooding chap whose been alive since the Civil War.  Vampire Bill is a mix of courtly manners (he asks if he might "call on" Sookie) and inappropriate sexual advances (he tells Sookie there's a vein in her groin he'd like to take a bite out of).  Their courtship will obviously be the centerpiece of the show as well as its moral battleground.  Sookie is a virgin and, as we all know, first love is tough enough without the whole undead thing.  But if Bill and Sookie hold off on the sex, everyone around them will likely make up the difference.   In fact, we learn there is a whole group of fetishists who like having sex with vampires. They're called fangbangers. 

Overall, I have mixed feelings about True Blood's first episode.  The tone of the show bounced all over the place - sometimes it was earnest, sometimes it was scary and disturbing, often it was funny and absurd.  It almost always felt... overcooked.  But I'm not sure how it couldn't, what with vampires and swamps and southern stereotypes and telepathy all in the mix.  HBO has never shied away from graphically depicting sex, most notably in last season's raw and stripped down, Tell Me You Love Me.  But in True Blood, the writers seem to walk a fine line between camp and drama, and that's a difficult balance to strike when you add eroticism and violence.

I'd hoped to be more transported in this first introduction, more curious and invested in the setting and character potential.  Paquin does a fine job with a character that has to be a lot of things at once.  She is expressive and open.  Paquin is not so pretty to be distracting and her face skillfully registers confusion, fascination, and anger.  But when the show ended, I didn't have a handle on Sookie and that may have been intended.  I'll need more from her as time goes on. 

I'm going to stick with the series for more episodes because there is much to like about the premise.  Also, I was such avid fan of Six Feet Under, I want to trust in Ball's ability to draw compelling relationships and then mess them up.   Also, True Blood's opening credits are terrific - definitely the best part of what I saw last night.