Product Description

TRUE BLOOD chronicles the backwoods Louisiana town of Bon Temps... where vampires have emerged from the coffin, and no longer need humans for their fix. Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin, Academy Award®-winner for “The Piano”) works as a waitress at the rural bar Merlotte's. Though outwardly a typical young woman, she keeps a dangerous secret: she has the ability to hear the thoughts of others. Her situation is further complicated when the bar gets its first vampire patron - 173-year old Bill Compton (Steven Moyer, "Quills") - and the two outsiders are immediately drawn to each other. Delivering the best of what audiences have come to expect from Creator and Executive Producer Alan Ball (writer of Oscar®-winning Best Picture "American Beauty", creator of the Emmy® Award-winning HBO® series “Six Feet Under"), TRUE BLOOD is a dark and sexy tale that boldly delves into the heart - and the neck - of the Deep South.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #203 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2009-05-19
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
• Number of discs: 5
• Running time: 720 minutes

Features

• TRUE BLOOD chronicles the backwoods Louisiana town of Bon Temps. where vampires have emerged from the coffin, and no longer need humans for their fix.Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin, Academy Award?-winner for ?The Piano?) works as a waitress at the rural bar Merlotte's. Though outwardly a typical young woman, she keeps a dangerous secret: she has the ability to hear the thoughts of others. Her sit

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Alan Ball’s True Blood series works well for television, as it has enough sensationalism to tantalize and enough story girth to make the viewer care about the characters. That one can finally invest emotion into monsters, including an undead Civil War victim, a transformer who can shapeshift into various animals, and a female mind reader, speaks volumes about America’s willingness to accept fantasy. Of course, television has always produced good fantasy shows (I Dream of Genie), but True Blood’s Southern Goth brand of fun horror is more macabre and more perverse, not to mention gorier, than most shows of its kind to date. Adapted from Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse novels, True Blood thrills because of its equal blend in each episode of erotica, humor, tragedy, mystery, and fantasy. 

Set in a rural, swampy Louisiana parrish, the show centers around Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her clan, sweet grandmother Adele (Lois Smith) and air-headed brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten). Illicit love is spawned early on, when Sookie saves vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) from having his blood stolen in the parking lot of Merlotte’s diner, owned by Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) who completes what will form a complex love triangle. As tensions between Sookie’s suitors loosen or tighten, many side plots, such as her African American best friend Tara’s (Rutina Wesley) struggle with an alcoholic, Bible-thumping mother and her brother’s dangerous crush on drug addicted hippie, Amy Burley (Lizzy Caplan), keep one wondering who will succeed in this podunk place. The main tension throughout, however, is a race war waged between vampires and humans. As murders of “fang bangers” occur (human girls who let vampires bite them) and dumb policeman Andy Bellefleur (Chris Bauer) fails to find clues, one sees the metaphorical implications of vampirism and feels deeper resonance with what can be a downright trashy show. Gossip galore, especially about what kinds of babies interbreeding will produce, is rampant. One of the funniest characters is Tara’s flamboyant cousin, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis), who deals drugs, works as a fry cook, and services the local white politicians, while making sure he’s always up in everyone’s business.

What makes True Blood smarter than pure soap opera is the parallels it draws between its monster mash and actual, familiar societal problems. Sookie and her friends watch the news, where Evangelicals bash vampires and prohibit mixed marriage, and everyone is addicted to V, a.k.a vampire blood, that effects like psychedelic heroin. Even its gore reflects a mix of serious and silly, as vampires explode into red, sticky goop. Though it may not be attempting to qualify for the best vampire footage ever shot, True Blood is as addictive as that substance the town’s youth obsesses over, which is a metaphor in itself. --Trinie Dalton

Stills from True Blood: The Complete First Season (Click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

A Blu product review from a non-follower
I usually watch everything HBO, but I have fallen behind of late. I had customers asking about this since last year so I was interested in what Ball's latest foray was about. I had to spend a fair amount of money to risk having Blu depth on these TV on Blu sets - but this one did not disappoint me in any way. The story has been reviewed plenty here, so I dissected the features and quality.

The picture looks very professional, and there was plenty to go wrong with the majority of it being filmed at night. The colors of the outdoors in each night landscape look vivid, and the special effects still appear adequate considering the difficulties of getting it right (darkly lit interiors). There is some sparse grain depending on the location, but it was a pleasure to see everything - plenty of flesh tones (yes there is lots of sex) that all look clear and porous.

The sound is what sells this though. The DTS gets used extensively in each episode. Sookie's thought reading can be overwhelming at times, you almost want to isolate one of the channels and listen to that one thought as all five channels are sometimes filled with conflicting voices. Even the low-key scenes had some nice outer channel usage - loved every minute of it.

The special features are catered to both the lay True Blood person like myself and the avid followers. Your player has to be enabled appropriately to handle all of the PIP and text boxes that appear in the enhanced viewing. The hints were somewhat corny at times, but I still learned some interesting things about the characters. The PIP is a solid 1080 and appears just little enough to not be that distracting on a first watch. The commentaries from Ball are the best, and provide some decent insight on his creative process while still getting a few slams in there on the critics and story changes.

I think it is a great investment for the followers, and might be a worthy rental for those that are sitting on the fence about trying this. Odds are though, after watching everything there is to offer on just disc 1 - you will be buying it.

Oh Sookie!
I won't go into great detail about the series itself, except to say I got hooked quite by accident on this excellent show one night when I caught in on HBO. I only saw a show or two after that, but knew I had to have it if it ever emerged on Blu-ray!
Well, after just completing the last of the Season One blu-rays, I have to say I'm amazed at the quality of both sound aand picture. This is quite a step up from how it was broadcast in HD on HBO. There is a lot of fine detail I just never noticed on the HBO showings! Colors pop, blacks are deep, and there is no compression or artifacts like you get watching cable broadcasts.
Audio was also right up there, and again, a huge improvement over what I was hearing on the cable broadcast in HD.
I was so impressed with this, I just did a pre-order on Season 2, even though I have not experienced any of the second season. If the show quality and audio/video quality meet this one, it's going to be well worth it!

A Vampire Tale for Grown Folk!
I have HBO, but only caught bits and pieces of it on the channel. If a show gets enough positive buzz, I make the leap of faith and buy it on DVD or blu-ray for the extras. I enjoyed it so much that I watched the series in record time -- and it would have been faster had I not made a commitment to watch it with my husband. He really enjoyed it too, he just doesn't have my ability to completely OD on a show. True Blood is very good at cliffhangers and that pretty much compels you to watch the next episode right away.

The show is definitely adult and every episode is packed with adult themes and activities. (While Sookie and Bill the vampire head towards greater intimacy at a fast pace, the show still milks the slightest reason to break them up, like any show.) It's nice to wrest the vampire them away from children and teenyboppers, although they probably watch this too, yeah? The concept is supposed to be dark, sexy, dangerous, and wrong. The dark humor is also welcome.

I've watched the commentary for the pilot featuring Alan Ball -- pretty good -- but no other commentaries so far. The shows also feature an option for enhanced viewer. What this means -- and it is meant for subsequent viewings, but the show is rewatchable -- is that maps pop up to show you where the characters live, facts and hints are given, and Lafayette (a character on the show) pops in to give you some gossip or wisdom. It was an interesting way to make the world seem even more real and to fill in back story.

Recommended for fans of the vampire myth, dark humor, the occasionally cringe-worthy moment, and the demented sensibilities of Alan Ball (Six Feet Under.) And, of course, for fans of the Charlaine Harris books.

(I watched on my PSP with no issues.)