Coming off of a marathon session of the first season of True Blood (thanks library for renting a whole season for only 2 days) I sat down today all excited to write a comparison of True Blood season one versus Dead Until Dark (the first volume in the Sookie Stackhouse series) but alas there is no point. When talking to a friend about the differences between book vs. show I learned that this is the only season that followed the book at all! Boo that sucks.
Well I can't help myself so I will post a little about how I feel about the show. I expected the show to be cheesy and I was not disappointed. I love Anna Paquin but it took sometime to get use to her playing a blond haired, respectful southern belle complete with accent to match. It is just so unlike her.
Don't get me wrong here I know in TV or movie adaptations changes are to be expected. The producers have to keep the material interesting and exciting and sometimes what is in the book doesn't translate well into screen form. Most of the main plot of season one is on par with the book with minor changes here and there. So not a huge deal overall. I did not like the adding of new characters or giving very minor characters, at best, big roles. Mostly however I did not like the character changes.
Aggh so frustrating! A lot of the characters are pretty true to the book; Sookie, Bill, Sam, grandma. But others were not. Take Sookie's brother Jason for instance, in the book he is handsome, slightly dumb and a ladies man. He is all those things in the show as well but also addicted to vampire blood and ends up joining the Fellowship of the Sun, what??? Oh and Lafayette... in the book he is a funny and flamboyant man. In the show? Still flamboyant and a little funny but also a hardass wannabe.
Then there is Eric. Where to start. I normally cut actors some slack because they will never live up to everyone's version of the perfect _______ whatever. But to me Alex Skarsgård looks more like a sad puppy than a burly, mean viking (don't hate me! I just don't like him, maybe he will grow on me). Then there is his personality. In the book Eric is tough and mean but also inappropriately funny. In the show he just comes off as indifferent all the time and so far all the sexual tension between Sookie and Eric is no where to be found.
I hate feeling so torn. Especially since I can't stop once I started something so I will probably continue the TV series and just cross my fingers that it isn't too bad. Maybe I will post updates on character development because I don't think I will be able to compare books vs. show at this point.
Anyone else feel torn like me? I think if I hadn't started reading the books the show would appeal to me more.
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