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.