The Remote Island : Alan Ball

Evan Rachel Wood Is Coming To "True Blood"

Jake Kalish — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:22:00 GMT

She's well-qualified for this role, considering the extensive vampire experience one surely gets from dating Marilyn Manson...

This from Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello:

Sources confirm to me exclusively that True Blood creator Alan Ball has tapped Evan Rachel Wood to play the pivotal role of Sophie-Anne, the vampire Queen of Louisiana!

Who dat, you ask? She's a 500-year-old vampire from France who is charming, wily, ruthless and wise...A True Blood insider tells me that Wood is booked for two episodes, both of which will air towards the end of the show's upcoming second season. But rest assured, if the show is renewed for a third season (and, please, it will be), Wood will be back.

We're pretty conflicted about True Blood - and just against that season finale - but this is a good get for Alan Ball's show. Now if Evan can only get her on-again boyfriend on the show, we'll really be psyched. He's already got the song.

PREVIOUSLY:

"True Blood" Spoilers: Sneak Peek Of Season 2 [VIDEO]

"True Blood" Teaser Posters: Sexier The Second Time Around? [PHOTO]

"True Blood" Wants "Blood Hookers" For Second Season (SPOILERS)

Life Imitates Art: Anna Paquin Dating Her "True Blood" Love Interest

The Five Worst Things About The "True Blood" Season Finale

Bryan Christian — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:29:00 GMT

OK, so, we quit recapping True Blood a few weeks back, as you might have noticed, because we were running out of ways to say "What the hell is going on with this show?" And yet, we still kept watching it, because we were a little wrapped up in the show already, and Nelsan Ellis is truly amazing in the very small role of Lafayette, and frankly we did kind of want to know who the killer was.

But now? Now that the first season is over, and the mystery is revealed, and every single character on the show (with the exception of -- surprise -- Lafayette) has wound up in a situation about which we could not give a shit if we snorted Metamucil and prunes... Well, now, we can safely say that we are never watching this misguided excuse for a chicken-fried Dark Shadows again, not even if our immortal souls depended on it. Fans of the show: maybe we'll hire someone who's into in time for Season Two -- but who knows. We might just have a special True Blood section of the job app from now on. "True Blood Season Finale: Fail or Epic Fail?"

So what was it about last night's episode that has so freed us from the curse set upon us by HBO and Alan Ball? Read on and find out.

1) IT TOOK FOREVER TO END
What was with dispensing with the killer halfway through the show -- and then doing all this godawful wrapup? We basically just got a chase between Sookie and [SPOILER!] Rene, and then that was over, and then, it was like Lord of the Rings or something: all this bleeding, endless "blah blah blah" and THEN a title card that said "Two Weeks Later"? And for what? What happened in that space of time that was so important, that couldn't have been shown happening in the space of just a few days? Nothing. FAIL.

2) BILL WALKING IN THE SUN WAS LAME AND DUMB
The guy just strolls out of the house into the daylight to save Sookie -- OK, sure. But aren't vamps supposed to be, like, superfast? At least, that's the impression we got when they jammed that special effect down our fucking throats every episode. And yet, here comes Bill, crisping in the afternoon sun and taking forever to get to the graveyard. He didn't even get a running start out of the house; he just stolled out like he was getting the paper. FAIL.

3) LAFAYETTE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN VAMPED BY BILL? WHATEVER.
Oh, well there was one thing that "Two Weeks Later" was supposed to do for us: make us concerned for Lafayette, who was last seen getting chased by something behind Merlotte's -- on the same night that Bill came back from his walk in the sun. And then disappeared for a couple weeks. Hmmmmmm. Oh, sorry, we meant Snooooooze. OK, yes, we're a little worried about him, or would be if we ever planned on watching this show again. Mostly, we're worried that Nelsan Ellis has some sort of iron-clad contract that will never allow him to star in some other, less idiotic series. However, back to the matter at hand. May we point out that Bill Comton is supposed to be some sort of good guy, and we feel like although Stephen Moyer's tried real hard to make Bill work as an anguished, genuinely nice fella -- but not even he can make Bill go "Why yes, Sookie, I ate your friend" and make that work. And we're pretty sure this show wouldn't ask him to. Which is why we say that this is obviously a red herring, and a crummy one, and thanks Alan Ball, we'd forgotten that because stupid people like genre stuff you can treat us like we're stupid for watching your genre show that really isn't. FAIL.

4) WE DON'T CARE ABOUT WHATEVER JAM TARA'S GOTTEN HERSELF INTO WITH MICHELLE FORBES
Listen, we are impressed with Michelle Forbes for pulling together the resume she has. Just in the last year, she's been involved with not one but two of our favorite shows: Battlestar and Lost, winding up an integral part of some of both show's most excellent episodes. AND she was on Homicide! But whatever she's supposed to be here -- demon, shapeshifter, sister or old gf of Sam's, something something witch, blah blah blah der der der? We don't care. We just. Don't. Care. Why? Well, because Tara -- who's wrapped up in Forbes' storyline -- is a compulsively self-involved, self-destructive idiot with a lousy accent and no sense of fun, and whereas on a show like Six Feet Under that might be interesting because that's all that there is in the world, really, here -- in a world with vampires and shapeshifters -- people who make their own trouble are only good for getting gutted in grisly fashion. Otherwise, we just can't get worked up about that kind of crap. FAIL.

5) ANOTHER DEAD BODY IS NOT ENOUGH TO KEEP US COMING BACK. NOR IS ANY OF THE REST OF IT.
We're supposed to wait a whole other year to find out who it is that's found themselves dead in the back of Andy Bellefleur's car? No. That's not suspense; that's abuse. In a show like this, we're supposed to know who's dead, because then we care enough to come back. Yes, there are exceptions to this rule, like Lost's not revealing who was in that coffin at the end of season three. As we remember it, that finale gave us plenty bigger fish to fry. And this one gave us nothing. Nothing but some screaming idiots and a drunken loser and some dead gal in a car. And a guy going to church. And a shapeshifter stealing money from his own restaurant. And a vampire with the everliving equivalent of a teenager on his hands.

FAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLL.

"True Blood": Is There Anybody Who Ain't Fucking Vampires These Days?

Bryan Christian — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:31:00 GMT

Yet again a lot of yapping on True Blood this week, but the final 15 minutes of last night's episode were punchy and funny enough to keep us coming back, despite all the clunky and repetitive exposition. ("Don't ever sneak up on a vampire!" Puuuhhhhleeezzzze.) So a mixed bag -- but we think we've figured out the best way to improve this somewhat unfocused show: make it all about Lafayette.

The Creepshow vibe that we liked so much in the pilot came back a bit this week, with Sookie being menaced by d-bag redneck vampires in the opening scene and finding her coworker Dawn dead in the final one, but all in all this ep had sex on its mind way more than monsters. Tara and Sam -- who are having a pretty awful time of it, what with her being in love with Jason and having a crazy drunk mom that wants to kill her and him being in love with Sookie and not hiding his lycanthropy to Jesus Christ ANYBODY with half an eyeball -- decided to let off some steam by getting it on, which was a development that we liked because, well, reminded us of college. Jason and Dawn continued their purely physical thing as well, though it seems unlikely that they'll continue what with him not being able to keep it (yeah, *it*) due to his growing vampire obsession and her being dead now and all. (Second gal to get humped by Jason and buy the farm, huh...)

And then of course there's Sookie, who basically spent her time this week dreaming of having sex with Bill and touching herself. Apparently the fact that she's a virgin makes her that much more delicious a prospect to Bill's sleazy vampire pals, which makes us think that they should just get to the fangbanging as a precautionary measure, right? Sure. Still, we're not expecting that to happen till at least the end of the season, particularly if Bill keeps yapping about all this vampire shit and how he wants to kind of go straight and blah blah blah. We'd sort of hoped that what with Anne Rice leaving New Orleans and all that there'd be a little less of this vibe in True Blood. Alas.

The best thing about this week without a doubt was that we got to spend a bit of time with Lafayette, who we realized was that cousin of Tara's that went with her to that party last week -- not sure why we missed that, other than it's sort of unbelievable how much his guy gets around -- and who we learned this week is, in addition to being a short order cook and a road crew member, also a drug dealer and occasional escort. (See what we mean?) So, when Tara had to flee from her drunken mom's crazed, abusive behavior, she went to his place to crash and smoke a little herb, pausing only long enough to say 'hey' to the congressman on his way out the front door. And when Jason decided that he'd had enough of his little fang not extending and Dawn kicking him out of her bed, he went to Lafayette's place to pick up a little v-juice -- and wound up gyrating in his underpants on video as a down payment. All the while Nelsan Ellis, the truly gifted actor who plays Lafayette, was tossing zingers and finessing language with skills that not even Little-Miss-Oscar-Winner has yet matched. (Also, he used the word "looka", as in a Creole version of "lookie here," which made our New Orleans-born wife giddy.)

We're starting to think this show is a mess -- too much yammering about obvious plot complications and the supernatural, a lot of red herrings, and not enough actual drama -- and it's tempting to say that it reminds us of Six Feet Under, with its spastic fits of oversharing and violence mixed with hours of navelgazing, the starts and stops of raw emotion that characterized that show. But in fact, what we were reminded of last night was creator Alan Ball's 1998 film American Beauty, which may have seemed like a daring social drama when it was released but now -- with its rat-a-tat insult gags, too-square suburban setting, and pat (if depressing) moral core -- plays like an overarticulate, not terribly funny sitcom episode. Which is what it is; Ball had just spent years toiling in comedy writing rooms, and the contempt that he felt for that style of storytelling was palpable. Ball's doing something similar here -- working with generic conventions familiar to many -- but his footing is far less sure in the world of vampires (and possibly the South) than in the world of wacky neighbors, and we suspect that he's more enamored of the vampire-as-metaphor than vampire-as-vampire. Which is too bad, because his cast isn't quite up to making up for his disinterest. Except for Ellis, of course, who we suspect could convince us to take our clothes off on a webcam too. As long as he's onscreen, True Blood is a living, breathing thing; when he's away, it's like the living dead, going through the motions.

but what Ellis is doing with his role should not be missed.

Did "True Blood" Tank?

Ben Kallen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:25:00 GMT

Fans of True Blood may want to start worrying. With 1.44 million viewers, the premiere of HBO's Louisiana vampire drama had half the viewership of the first episode of John From Cincinnati on the network a year ago. (Of course, that one followed the finale of The Sopranos.)

On the other hand, it's still a little more than watched the premiere of HBO's Generation Kill.

Meanwhile, creator Alan Ball says he tries not to think about ratings anyway. "My job is to do the best type of show I know how to do, and let other people worry about what it's going to do for HBO."

Previously:
True Blood: HBO Gets a Cool Adult Comic Book Show After All
True Blood: A Haiku Review

Top Ten New Shows: #2 - "True Blood"

Bryan Christian — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:30:00 GMT

The new fall season is almost here. Starting next week, the cable and broadcast networks will begin rolling out their new shows to see if they take off like castaways on an island or singing casino managers. Here, then, are the top ten new shows we're most looking forward to seeing.

Loyal readers will know that we've been skeptical of HBO's original programming department the last few months. But we hope you understand: we'd really like for them to get back on track. Is True Blood gonna get 'em there? We think maybe. If we were to line up our favorite HBO dramas -- Sopranos, Deadwood, The Wire – we'd say that the most important thing they share in common isn't crime or profanity. It's their obsession with how criminals and outlaws mangle and subvert the language. Remember all those half-finished jokes on the corners and in the squad cars of Baltimore, or those misheard references marblemouthed by agitated Jersey hoods? There's an angry intelligence behind those gags, one that wants to know what makes you so smart that you talk like a normal person, huh? We love that, and it something that's been sorely missing from the HBO lineup of late.

Which leads us back to True Blood, a series that not only promises some kick-ass vampire effects and a showrunner who was responsible for assembling one of the finest and most surprising acting ensembles of the decade – but also holds the slim possibility that vampires will become the next subculture we find ourselves obsessed with every Sunday night. As fans of the "Southern Vampire" novels will already know, in the world of True Blood, many vampires are basically trying to go straight, living publicly in the world and surviving on a Japanese-produced synthetic blood substitute – and occasionally being hunted for their own blood, which produces narcotic effects when ingested by humans. That's a complicated setup, playing on what we know about junkies, criminals, and any number of other subcultures. We got high hopes that their take on the culture clash between humans and the undead comes with plenty of blood, sure... but maybe it's own juicy patois to boot.

True Blood (Sundays at 9PM EST) premieres Sunday, September 9th at 9:00 PM EST on HBO

TOP TEN NEW SHOWS 2008

#1. "Fringe"
#2. "True Blood"
#3. "90210"
#4. "Life On Mars"
#5. "The Mentalist"
#6. "Sons of Anarchy"
#7. "Do Not Disturb"
#8. "Eleventh Hour"
#9. "Kath & Kim"
#10. "Knight Rider"

Salon Sez "True Blood" Might Be Pretty Good

Bryan Christian — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:33:00 GMT

Salon's Heather Havrilesky has seen a few episodes of True Blood, HBO and Alan Ball's new Southern fried vampire drama. And she's got good things to say about it. Also, she's apparently been snacking on mescaline while on hold with the phone company.

In other words, AT&T not only hires hot-tempered vampires to handle its phone lines, AT&T not only colludes with companies run by hot-tempered vampires, but AT&T itself is run by hot-tempered vampires -- which explains why the corporate behemoth aided the president in his nefarious eavesdropping activities. But look, don't get rid of your land line, because even though the hot-tempered vampires at the FDA keep assuring us that cellphones are safe, international studies have correlated excessive cellphone use with brain tumors, something we might've known a decade ago, if not for the hot-tempered vampire CEOs of most of our large corporations and the hot-tempered vampire lobbyists who work for them and the hot-tempered vampires taking over the House and the Senate as we speak.

Um, HUUUUUUHHHHH?

But even though the second episode of the season isn't structured very well, with lots of rambling talk about nothing, even though the show lacks the tightness and the natural momentum of "Six Feet Under" (and the weight and the intensity, for that matter), "True Blood" is still odd, unpredictable and off-kilter. And while the same might've been said for the ill-fated, rambling David Milch experiment "John From Cincinnati," the difference is that at the end of each episode of "True Blood," I want to see what happens next. Sookie and Bill are both good characters, and the setting and the story are both original and unfamiliar.

Oh, OK, thanks, Heather. Don't leave the house until you get some sleep.

"True Blood": Now THIS is More Like It

Bryan Christian — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:26:00 GMT

Dig this excellent new poster for HBO's True Blood, the vampire drama whose viral campaign makes us angry and bored in equal parts -- but whose tart print campaign may, in fact, keep us from losing all interest. See, this is good campaign! Note how the girl pictured is sexy enough to bring in the kiddies but the coloring and framing of the image may, for fans of Six Feet Under (Ball's previous HBO series), recall that show's premiere campaign. We suppose that's the TV-ad equivalent of that seduction technique where you slip sexy vocab into your rap to get your target in the mood -- but just like when sleazy people use low-level hypnosis to get in our pants, we don't care, 'cause it totally works. Nice tag line, too; it implies sex, violence, and guilt all at once.

Bravo guys; there's a lesson here. Drop the web stuff and go with what you know.

Click on the image for a high-res version.

[via Slashfilm]

PREVIOUSLY:
"True Blood" Campaign Sucking All The Fun Out Of Viral Videos
LEAKED: "True Blood", New HBO Vampire Drama From "Six Feet Under" Creator Alan Ball

Sounds Like They're Freaking Out Over At HBO Original Programming

Bryan Christian — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:28:00 GMT

The story so far... After the demise of its most prestigious and successful original programs -- and with few successes to show for itself (but a couple might have beens) in the intervening months -- HBO has seemed for some time poised to lose its reputation as "more than TV" to rival pay cable network Showtime. To our mind, that hasn't quite happened yet. No matter how navelgazing/boring In Treatment or Tell Me You Love Me were, Showtime didn't overcome HBO in the last year or so so much as supply an alternative to it. They don't have any comedies as idiosyncratic as Curb Your Enthusiasm, nor do any of their hour-long shows acheive the grandeur of The Sopranos or even HBO's misfires, like Carnivàle. (Possible exception: This American Life, which since it's a doc we're thinking doesn't count.)

Still, HBO knows they've got a title to defend. And it looks to us like their solution is to throw lots and lots of money around developing new shows. None of which sound particularly great.

Just in the past couple days, we've heard of their developing a comedy club-based show for comedienne Lisa Lampanelli, with Jim Carrey exec-producing; an adaptation of Sloane Crosley's humorous essay collection I Was Told There Would Be Cake; and Bored to Death, which sounds an awful lot like The Singing Detective as written by Jonathan Lethem but is, in fact, from the very funny New York writer and performance artist Jonathan Ames. Previously reported shows being developed by the net include that vampire show from Six Feet Under's Alan Ball; Hung, from Election's Alexander Payne and The Riches' Dmitry Lipkin, which is about a guy whose "superpower" in life is his humongous cock and balls; and, according to the New York Observer, "a Darren Star adaptation of Tracy Quan’s Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, and Surburban Shootout, based on a U.K. series, about a woman in the suburbs stuck between two housewife gangs."

Anything there tickle your fancy? Yeah, we not so sure either. Nor are we so optimistic about David Simon's New Orleans show, but that may just be because we thought that show's theme song got progressively way worse each season and figure that doesn't bode well for a show about musicians. (Generation Kill, on the other hand, we await with baited breath -- but that's a miniseries.)

The one show that we'd heard about being developed by HBO that we were hardcore excited about was Preacher, an adaptation of Garth Ennis' epic and deeply profane comic book about God, vampires, and rednecks. And that project is apparently stalled, even though HBO and DC/Vertigo (which published Preacher in the '90's) are part of the same company and you'd think they could share a few resources getting it right. (BTW, there's a big hubbub about trouble at DC here and here, which may shed light on that situation. Don't skip the comments.)

So, what do we do? Wait for HBO to get it right again -- or for Showtime to finally put together an hour-long drama that knocks it out of the park? Or are we just gonna have to rely on a diet of Mad Men and Damages for a while?

LEAKED: "True Blood", New HBO Vampire Drama From "Six Feet Under" Creator Alan Ball

Bryan Christian — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:59:00 GMT

Should you be up on the whole "illegal downloading" (or whatever it is they call that stuff that we would never, ever, do), then we'd direct your attention to this page, which features details on something surfacing over ye intertubes appearing to be True Blood, the HBO adaptation of the "Southern Vampire" series of books by Six Feet Under/Cybill scribe Alan Ball that stars Anna Paquin and which officially premieres in September.

From the drama's Wikipedia page:

The show details the fictional co-existence of vampires and humans in a small Louisiana town after Japanese-made synthetic blood becomes available for purchase. Anna Paquin stars as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress at a diner who falls in love with one of the vampires, Bill Compton (portrayed by Stephen Moyer).

And... guess we've got our "WTF?" quota for the day. Click through for a sneek peak at the show's credit sequence (apparently), courtesy of the designer's website.

Click for a full-size version.