True Blood

So if anyone hasn't seen True Blood yet, here it is in a nutshell: vampires have gone public, some people like them some don't, a town called Bon Temps in Louisiana is a Very Bad Place to live if you value your life but great if you're into cheap booze, sex and fried foods.

It is one of the best things on TV at the moment, adapted from the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, by Alan Ball, the guy behind Six Feet Under (which I've never ever seen but I'm assured by many, including the bf, that it is Good TV). Mainly centres around a love affair between a telepathic human waitress (Sookie Stackhouse, played with plenty of punch and fizz by an excellent Anna Paquin) and a vampire, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer). However, they aren't the only characters, it's very much an ensemble kind of show.

It's funny, clever, sharp, sexy, scary, supernatural, emotional - basically everything that I like in a TV show. I also like how vampirism is used as an allegory for race/homosexuality/other minority group, and how they add more supernatural elements to it as it goes on (shapeshifters, werewolves and maenads so far).

I'm currently up to speed with US audiences too, and there's just the last episode of Season 2 to go now, which I believe should be airing on Sunday night. Looks set to be a belter!

The casting is spot on, in the main. Favourite characters are Lafayette and Tara - they both rock and I think the acting from both is brilliant and very multi-layered. One minute Tara is like a whirlwind of rage, the next delivering heart-breaking vulnerability. Lafayette is just a bad-ass, which for a cross-dressing short-order cook is no mean feat.

If you haven't watched it, you better start from the beginning - I think the DVD box set of Season 1 is out in the UK soon, so pre-order now!