Thanks For Nothing Alan Ball...

...And While We're At It, You Too, Charlaine Harris...

(Now, I am going to say this, because, unless it's not obvious to you, this is going to be a frank discussion of True Blood and The Southern Vampire Mystery novels by Charlaine Harris. Therefore, it will contain spoilers... you have been warned!)


With the final season of True Blood premiering this past weekend, I thought I would look back on the six seasons and 13 books that comprised the series.

I did not jump on the True Blood bandwagon back in 2008. I didn't get HBO at that time, and although I had heard about the series, I didn't think much of it. I kept hearing that the show was amazing, but I kept putting it off, really not all that interested. Finally, in the fall of 2009, just as I was about to go on vacation, I ran across Dead Until Dark, the first novel in the Southern Vampire Mystery series, which the show True Blood was based on. Thinking I had nothing to lose, I picked it up. I found the novel intriguing, as I don't read many books that are told in the first person narrative. The character of Sookie Stackhouse was interesting and the novel was an easy read. I found myself hooked.

Once I returned home, I dove into the world of True Blood, the series that Alan Ball had created for HBO. And I fully admit, that if I was basing my opinion on the pilot episode alone, I would never have watched another episode. The pilot was slow and messy and seemed to be based on nothing but shock value. I think that Ball liked the idea that he could do and say and show whatever he wanted, and the network wouldn't even bat an eyelash. But, I stuck with it, as I kept hearing how amazing it was. After about 3 or 4 episodes, it finally picked up enough steam that I was on board. And for the 12 episodes of the first season, it did a pretty good job of sticking close to the source material.

I continued to read the book series, as I watched season 2 of the show. And this is where everything seemed to go off the rails. Not only did the series veer so far away from the source material, but it seemed like the show runners and writers had never even read it. Turns out, they hadn't. Apparently, Charlaine Harris signed away all her rights to the property when she made the deal with Alan Ball and HBO, giving him free reign to do what he wanted with, not only the characters, but their story arcs as well. And boy did he! Turns out that Ball only ever read the first novel... saw the Bill Compton/Sookie Stackhouse relationship as a love for the ages and went for it. Needless to say, that is not how it happened in the books. In fact, Bill and Sookie's relationship pretty much ends in book two. Bill has vampire business that he needs to attend to, and basically up and leaves Bon Temps. And other than a couple of quick scenes in the other 12 books, that's it for the great love that was Sookie and Bill. The rest of the novels are in fact, about Sookie and her relationship with Eric Northman. It is the vampire Viking who is actually the love of her life, and the rest of the novels follow the ups and downs of loving the vampire sheriff of area five.    

Now, those of you who only follow the series knows that this ain't the way it is on the screen. Not only are Bill and Sookie the main love story of the series, but Ball and his team gave other supporting characters huge story lines and screen time. Now, that part I get, because it would be difficult to tell the story with just a handful of characters. A character like Lafayette, who is amazing on the show, didn't actually survive the second book in the series, Living Dead In Dallas. The main antagonist of season 2, maenad Maryann, was nothing more than a passing character in the novels. If I remember correctly, she didn't even have a name, was only known as the maenad. And don't get me started on the character of Alcide. While I hate the way that Harris eventually treated the character in the novels, I absolutely loathe the douche-bag that Alan Ball and his writers have turned the beautiful Joe Manganiello into. Needless to say, the two properties are very, very different.  

I understand that there is always a difference between what happens in the written form and what happens on either the big screen or the small screen. It's not possible to get everything that's written onto the screen, and usually not practical. But there's a difference between altering the source material to make it work visually, and throwing it away and doing whatever you want. And the team behind True Blood definitely did the latter. Other than the fact that the characters share the same names, there are no longer any similarities between the novels and the TV show. And that is too bad, because the overall story arc of the books was quite interesting... I would have liked to have seen that story actually played out on the small screen, other than the over the top, off the rails, what the hell was that?, that we got.

That doesn't mean that I am completely in love with the novels or the eventual story arc that Charlaine Harris had for the story. In the end, Eric chooses duty over Sookie and he leaves to marry another vampire that he is forced to, by the ruling vampire government. And Sookie ends up with Sam Merlotte. It's not the fact that she ends up with Sam that bothered me so much (I completely love Sam Trammell, who plays Merlotte on the show, and my dislike for the ending of the book series has nothing to do with him!), it's the fact that, throughout the entire series, Sookie and Sam were friends. Best friends, mind you, but nothing that would preclude them ending up in bed together, which was the final scene of the last novel, Dead Ever After. I don't understand what the point of building Sookie and Eric's relationship over the last 11 novels was about, only to have it end so abruptly and, for lack of a better term, just be over. Yeah, I get that things don't always work out, but that's usually not what I'm looking for in my literature. I fully admit to being a happily, ever after type of girl. To say that I was disappointed would be an understatement...

So, here we are, at the beginning of the end... and honestly, I'm not sure that I want to take those final steps. The series has turned into an absolute gong-show, and I don't know that I'm willing to put in the time and effort to see it through to the end. Sometimes, it's just too far gone to even care. I no longer get HBO, so I have to decide whether or not this whole thing is worth it to me to put in the extra effort to actually watch it. Knowing me, I'm sure I'll eventually cave and watch the damn thing. I am nothing if not a completest and hate not knowing things, when I know that others do. Now, I know that Alan Ball is no longer the show-runner and hasn't been since season 5, but his fingerprints are still all over this whole thing, so that's why I feel justified in blaming him for the train-wreck that True Blood has become.

So, thank you, Alan Ball, for introducing me to Alexander Skarsgard in all his Swedish glory, ALL of Joe Manganiello and Jace Everett, the singer of the opening theme song, Bad Things. You can keep everything else... I don't want it.