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Thirst of blood

Intriguing! A still from “True Blood”

At a time when cinema halls are running dry and television is overflowing with travails of little kids, HBO has come up with a whacky series, True Blood. This HBO Original is a vampire drama and has already completed one season in the US. It will premiere in India on July 5.

The story is set in near future, when humans have developed synthetic blood for vampires to feed upon and the latter are allowed to live among their mortal counterparts. But there are certain glitches. Firstly, there is the age-old paranoia and resentment against anything not human. And then there are ‘vampire drainers’, humans who want vampire blood at any cost, as it will give them a heightened sense of power. Another catch is that some of the vampires are finding it hard to suppress their instinctual urges to suck human blood.

Based on Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is set in the Louisiana town of Bon Temps. In the local bar, Merlotte, Sookie (Anna Paquin of X-Men- fame) works as a waitress. This young girl-next-door has telepathic abilities and reading people’s dirty minds and hearing their intimate feelings has left her feeling hopelessly alone. Things take an interesting turn when Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a 173-year old vampire, returns to his family home of Bon Temps and becomes Merlotte’s first vampire patron. Though she couldn’t read Bill’s thoughts, Sookie immediately takes a liking to Bill, whom she also rescues from ‘vampire drainers’ early on in the story.

The twelve-episode season revolves around the mysterious murders going around since the coming of the vampires and looks into various facets of human relationships with vampires. As Shruti Bajpai, Country Manager of HBO, South Asia, puts it, “There’s a lot more to True Blood than just vampires, blood and violence.” It discovers layers of human relationships and also has “quirks of black humour”.

The channel is leaving no stone unturned to reach out to the audience. Apart from the usual TV and print advertisements and True Blood merchandise, its online communities and fan-clubs are already creating waves. Even a Facebook profile of a vampire was created, that is adding more and more friends to its list everyday.

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