Strange Love (True Blood)
Encyclopedia
"Strange Love" is the pilot episode
of the first season of True Blood
and the series premiere. The episode was written and directed by Alan Ball
and originally aired in the United States on HBO on September 7, 2008. In the episode, Sookie Stackhouse meets vampire Bill Compton and saves him from vicious vampire drainers, while her best friend Tara becomes the new bartender at Sam Merlotte's bar and Sookie's brother Jason finds himself accused of murder. The episode received generally positive reviews from critics. It was rated TV-MA for Adult Content, Adult Language, Nudity, Strong Sexual Content, and Violence.
(Anna Paquin
), is a telepathic waitress working at Merlotte's bar in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana
when Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer
), a 173 year old vampire
, enters the bar. Sookie is excited, as he is the first vampire the bar has had since vampires "came out of the coffin" two years ago. Her boss, Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell
), and best friend Tara Thornton
(Rutina Wesley
), are apprehensive about Bill's arrival. Meanwhile, Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten
) learns his sexual partner Maudette Pickens has sex with vampires and allows them to feed on her for money. He engages in rough sex with Maudette, but things take a shocking turn when he begins to choke her. When her body falls limp he panics and flees the scene, unaware the encounter was caught on camera.
Back at the bar, the Rattrays, a couple addicted to vampire blood, conspire to trap Bill and drain his blood to sell on the black market. Sookie overhears their plan and tries to convince Sam and Tara to intervene, but they are reluctant to get involved. When Sookie notices Bill and the Rattrays have left, she follows them to find Bill pinned with silver while the Rattrays draw his blood. Sookie successfully drives the couple away and frees Bill. She finds that she cannot hear Bill's thoughts, making him the first person immune to her talent.
The next day Jason visits Sookie and Gran (Lois Smith
) at home. They all learn that Maudette has been murdered, and Jason quickly blames vampires. Jason's suspicious behavior prompts Sookie to try to read his mind, but he angrily rebuffs her and rushes off to work. There, Sheriff Dearborn and Detective Andy Bellefleur take Jason in for questioning.
Sookie learns that Jason has been arrested when she comes to work. She quickly forgets about his situation when Bill returns to the bar. Ignoring the scandalized patrons, Bill and Sookie arrange to meet after the bar closes at 1:30 am. Once he leaves, Sam and Tara scold Sookie for getting involved with a vampire. Rebuffing their concerns, Sookie waits in the empty parking lot where she is brutally attacked by the Rattrays.
, which plays during the scene where Sookie is talking to Tara while she drinks a margarita. The title "Strange Love" also refers to the nature of the sex between Jason and Maudette.
and P. J. O'Rourke
cameo as themselves on a television program discussing the tension between humans and vampires. Jessica Stroup
was also cast in the pilot playing a sorority girl named Kelly, she did not return into the show as she prior to choose the spin-off
of 90210
playing regular cast as Erin Silver.
, a series of romantic mystery novels by Charlaine Harris
. Ball said of the books, "Charlaine has created such a rich environment that's very funny and at the same time very scary. I bought the book on impulse and I just couldn't put it down." Carolyn Strauss, who was an executive at HBO at the time, said "Alan really fell in love with the books. At its heart, the books are a metaphor for differences and outsiders fitting in. That's Alan's bailiwick and what he writes so well about."
After completing filming on his feature directorial debut Towelhead
, Ball directed the pilot episode in the Summer of 2007 with cast members Anna Paquin
, Stephen Moyer
, Ryan Kwanten
, Sam Trammell
and Brooke Kerr. On the casting of Paquin as telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, Ball commented, "When I heard Anna wanted to come in and read for Sookie, I was surprised. I thought, 'Well, why does she want to do this, she's a movie star?' ... and then I thought about it and I thought, 'It makes perfect sense, it's a great role.' It's the lead of the show, she's sexy and she's the romantic heroine ... and she gets to play the gamut of human emotion." Continuing he said, "Once she came in and she started reading and I started working with her, what she was playing and what I thought really made the character really interesting was I could see that this was a woman who had been hearing other people's thoughts her entire life, and that she was kind of skittish and nervous and jumpy and a little angry." On casting Stephen Moyer as vampire Bill Compton Ball said, "It was a really hard role to cast, we saw a lot of men ... and then I saw Stephen ... and there was something so, for lack of a better word, real about him and this sort world-weary but tragic feeling that he brought to it. Aside from being really, really handsome, which helps." Brooke Kerr, who was best known for her role on the NBC
soap opera Passions
, originally played the character of Tara Thornton. However, she was replaced by Rutina Wesley
after the second episode had been filmed.
On August 9, 2007 HBO took True Blood to series, ordering an additional eleven episodes for a full season order with Ball acting as executive producer and showrunner. At that point, Ball had already written the next two episodes.
An early version of the pilot was leaked online in June 2008 and was met with fairly negative reviews from online bloggers.
called it "... a much-needed infusion of new, well, blood." and said "Blood proves there's still vibrant life - or death - left in the "star-crossed lovers" paradigm." Tom Shales of The Washington Post
called True Blood "an audacious, outrageous, grisly comic drama..." and said the show "isn't meant to be an exercise in good taste. Just a romp and a wallow – and a bloody good one." Robert Abele from LA Weekly
called the series an "effortlessly entertaining potboiler about the allure of dangerous attraction after probably a few too many shows drearily dissecting broken relationships." Hal Boedecker of the Orlando Sentinel
praised True Blood as being "one of the strongest new series in an uncertain fall ... Alan Ball has adapted Charlaine Harris' novels with wit, verve and passion." Tim Goodman from The San Francisco Chronicle praised the performances in the episode, saying Paquin is "deceptively intriguing" and that both she and Moyer "do well here."
Alan Sepinwall gave the series a fairly negative review, saying "... It's the kind of show where you have to care a lot more about vampires than I do to stick around for long." He went on to say, "most of it is really not worth seeing." Michael Judge from The Wall Street Journal
said the series "too often passes over the truly macabre or grotesque for gratuitous
sex and violence" and then said "I know True Blood is supposed to be a sexy, easy-to-swallow mystery, but too often it ends up leaving a bad taste in one's mouth." James Poniewozik from Time Magazine called Ball's characters "caricatures" and continued by asking "Was the world dying for an HBO show with no subtext? Take away the graphic sex, and True Blood could air on USA Network." The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan said "The overheated melodrama sometimes makes the lives of these people seem faintly ridiculous..."
In the United Kingdom, the pilot episode achieved 1.91 million viewers on Channel 4.
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
of the first season of True Blood
True Blood
True Blood is an American television series created and produced by Alan Ball. It is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, detailing the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional, small town in the state of Louisiana...
and the series premiere. The episode was written and directed by Alan Ball
Alan Ball (screenwriter)
Alan E. Ball is an American writer, director, actor and producer for film, theatre and television.-Early life:Ball was born in Atlanta, Georgia, to Frank and Mary Ball, an aircraft inspector and a homemaker...
and originally aired in the United States on HBO on September 7, 2008. In the episode, Sookie Stackhouse meets vampire Bill Compton and saves him from vicious vampire drainers, while her best friend Tara becomes the new bartender at Sam Merlotte's bar and Sookie's brother Jason finds himself accused of murder. The episode received generally positive reviews from critics. It was rated TV-MA for Adult Content, Adult Language, Nudity, Strong Sexual Content, and Violence.
Plot
Sookie StackhouseSookie Stackhouse
Sookie Stackhouse is the fictional protagonist and narrating voice of Charlaine Harris' The Southern Vampire Mysteries and the television adaptation, HBO's True Blood.-Biography:...
(Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...
), is a telepathic waitress working at Merlotte's bar in the fictional town of Bon Temps, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
when Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer
Stephen Moyer
Stephen Moyer is an English actor who has starred as vampire Bill Compton in the HBO series True Blood since 2008.-Early life and career:Moyer was born in Brentwood, Essex...
), a 173 year old vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
, enters the bar. Sookie is excited, as he is the first vampire the bar has had since vampires "came out of the coffin" two years ago. Her boss, Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell
Sam Trammell
Sam Trammell is an American stage, film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Sam Merlotte in the HBO vampire series, True Blood, which saw him nominated for a 2009 Scream Award for "Breakout Performance - Male."...
), and best friend Tara Thornton
Tara Thornton
Tara Mae Thornton is a fictional character in Charlaine Harris's The Southern Vampire Mysteries and their television adaptation, HBO's True Blood.-Biography:...
(Rutina Wesley
Rutina Wesley
Rutina Wesley is an American film, stage, and television actress best known for her role as Tara Thornton on the HBO series True Blood.-Early life:...
), are apprehensive about Bill's arrival. Meanwhile, Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten
Ryan Kwanten
Ryan Christian Kwanten is an Australian actor. He played Vinnie Patterson from 1997 to 2002 on the Australian soap-opera Home and Away...
) learns his sexual partner Maudette Pickens has sex with vampires and allows them to feed on her for money. He engages in rough sex with Maudette, but things take a shocking turn when he begins to choke her. When her body falls limp he panics and flees the scene, unaware the encounter was caught on camera.
Back at the bar, the Rattrays, a couple addicted to vampire blood, conspire to trap Bill and drain his blood to sell on the black market. Sookie overhears their plan and tries to convince Sam and Tara to intervene, but they are reluctant to get involved. When Sookie notices Bill and the Rattrays have left, she follows them to find Bill pinned with silver while the Rattrays draw his blood. Sookie successfully drives the couple away and frees Bill. She finds that she cannot hear Bill's thoughts, making him the first person immune to her talent.
The next day Jason visits Sookie and Gran (Lois Smith
Lois Smith
Lois Smith is an American actress whose career in theater, film, and television has spanned five decades.Smith was born Lois Arlene Humbert in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Carrie Davis and William Oren Humbert, who was a telephone company employee...
) at home. They all learn that Maudette has been murdered, and Jason quickly blames vampires. Jason's suspicious behavior prompts Sookie to try to read his mind, but he angrily rebuffs her and rushes off to work. There, Sheriff Dearborn and Detective Andy Bellefleur take Jason in for questioning.
Sookie learns that Jason has been arrested when she comes to work. She quickly forgets about his situation when Bill returns to the bar. Ignoring the scandalized patrons, Bill and Sookie arrange to meet after the bar closes at 1:30 am. Once he leaves, Sam and Tara scold Sookie for getting involved with a vampire. Rebuffing their concerns, Sookie waits in the empty parking lot where she is brutally attacked by the Rattrays.
Title reference
"Strange Love" is the name of a song by Slim HarpoSlim Harpo
Slim Harpo was an American blues musician. He was known as a master of the blues harmonica; the name "Slim Harpo" was derived from "harp," the popular nickname for the harmonica in blues circles.-Early life:...
, which plays during the scene where Sookie is talking to Tara while she drinks a margarita. The title "Strange Love" also refers to the nature of the sex between Jason and Maudette.
Cast
Bill MaherBill Maher
William "Bill" Maher, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, television host, political commentator, author and actor. Before his current role as the host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher hosted a similar late-night talk show called Politically Incorrect originally on Comedy Central and...
and P. J. O'Rourke
P. J. O'Rourke
Patrick Jake "P. J." O'Rourke is an American political satirist, journalist, writer, and author. O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, The American Spectator, and The Weekly Standard, and frequent panelist on...
cameo as themselves on a television program discussing the tension between humans and vampires. Jessica Stroup
Jessica Stroup
Jessica Leigh Stroup is an American actress and fashion model. Stroup is best known for her role as Erin Silver on The CW television series 90210, a spin-off to the original Beverly Hills, 90210...
was also cast in the pilot playing a sorority girl named Kelly, she did not return into the show as she prior to choose the spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
of 90210
90210 (TV series)
90210 is an American teen drama television series developed by Rob Thomas, Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs, and the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise created by Darren Star. 90210 is the first series produced by CBS Productions under the company's re-launch, but is now produced by CBS...
playing regular cast as Erin Silver.
Production
After bringing his critically acclaimed funeral home drama Six Feet Under to a close in 2005, Ball signed a two year development deal with HBO. As part of the deal, Ball obtained the rights to The Southern Vampire MysteriesThe Southern Vampire Mysteries
The Southern Vampire Mysteries, also known as The Sookie Stackhouse Novels, is a series of books written by bestselling author Charlaine Harris that were first published in 2001 and now serve as the source material for the HBO television series True Blood...
, a series of romantic mystery novels by Charlaine Harris
Charlaine Harris
Charlaine Harris is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing mysteries for over twenty years. She was born and raised in the Mississippi River Delta area of the United States. She now lives in southern Arkansas with her husband and three children...
. Ball said of the books, "Charlaine has created such a rich environment that's very funny and at the same time very scary. I bought the book on impulse and I just couldn't put it down." Carolyn Strauss, who was an executive at HBO at the time, said "Alan really fell in love with the books. At its heart, the books are a metaphor for differences and outsiders fitting in. That's Alan's bailiwick and what he writes so well about."
After completing filming on his feature directorial debut Towelhead
Towelhead (film)
Towelhead is a 2007 black comedy film written and directed by Alan Ball and based on Alicia Erian's novel of the same name. The film made its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on September 8, 2007 under the name Nothing is Private...
, Ball directed the pilot episode in the Summer of 2007 with cast members Anna Paquin
Anna Paquin
Anna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...
, Stephen Moyer
Stephen Moyer
Stephen Moyer is an English actor who has starred as vampire Bill Compton in the HBO series True Blood since 2008.-Early life and career:Moyer was born in Brentwood, Essex...
, Ryan Kwanten
Ryan Kwanten
Ryan Christian Kwanten is an Australian actor. He played Vinnie Patterson from 1997 to 2002 on the Australian soap-opera Home and Away...
, Sam Trammell
Sam Trammell
Sam Trammell is an American stage, film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Sam Merlotte in the HBO vampire series, True Blood, which saw him nominated for a 2009 Scream Award for "Breakout Performance - Male."...
and Brooke Kerr. On the casting of Paquin as telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse, Ball commented, "When I heard Anna wanted to come in and read for Sookie, I was surprised. I thought, 'Well, why does she want to do this, she's a movie star?' ... and then I thought about it and I thought, 'It makes perfect sense, it's a great role.' It's the lead of the show, she's sexy and she's the romantic heroine ... and she gets to play the gamut of human emotion." Continuing he said, "Once she came in and she started reading and I started working with her, what she was playing and what I thought really made the character really interesting was I could see that this was a woman who had been hearing other people's thoughts her entire life, and that she was kind of skittish and nervous and jumpy and a little angry." On casting Stephen Moyer as vampire Bill Compton Ball said, "It was a really hard role to cast, we saw a lot of men ... and then I saw Stephen ... and there was something so, for lack of a better word, real about him and this sort world-weary but tragic feeling that he brought to it. Aside from being really, really handsome, which helps." Brooke Kerr, who was best known for her role on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
soap opera Passions
Passions
Passions is an American television soap opera which aired on NBC from July 5, 1999 to September 7, 2007 and on The 101 Network from September 17, 2007 to August 7, 2008....
, originally played the character of Tara Thornton. However, she was replaced by Rutina Wesley
Rutina Wesley
Rutina Wesley is an American film, stage, and television actress best known for her role as Tara Thornton on the HBO series True Blood.-Early life:...
after the second episode had been filmed.
On August 9, 2007 HBO took True Blood to series, ordering an additional eleven episodes for a full season order with Ball acting as executive producer and showrunner. At that point, Ball had already written the next two episodes.
An early version of the pilot was leaked online in June 2008 and was met with fairly negative reviews from online bloggers.
Critical reaction
The series premiere received generally favorable reviews. Robert Bianco from USA TodayUSA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
called it "... a much-needed infusion of new, well, blood." and said "Blood proves there's still vibrant life - or death - left in the "star-crossed lovers" paradigm." Tom Shales of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
called True Blood "an audacious, outrageous, grisly comic drama..." and said the show "isn't meant to be an exercise in good taste. Just a romp and a wallow – and a bloody good one." Robert Abele from LA Weekly
LA Weekly
LA Weekly is a free weekly tabloid-sized "alternative weekly" in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Editor/Publisher Jay Levin and a board of directors that included actor-producer Michael Douglas...
called the series an "effortlessly entertaining potboiler about the allure of dangerous attraction after probably a few too many shows drearily dissecting broken relationships." Hal Boedecker of the Orlando Sentinel
Orlando Sentinel
The Orlando Sentinel is the primary newspaper of the Orlando, Florida region. It was founded in 1876. The Sentinel is owned by Tribune Company and is overseen by the Chicago Tribune. As of 2005, the Sentinel’s president and publisher was Kathleen Waltz; she announced her resignation in February 2008...
praised True Blood as being "one of the strongest new series in an uncertain fall ... Alan Ball has adapted Charlaine Harris' novels with wit, verve and passion." Tim Goodman from The San Francisco Chronicle praised the performances in the episode, saying Paquin is "deceptively intriguing" and that both she and Moyer "do well here."
Alan Sepinwall gave the series a fairly negative review, saying "... It's the kind of show where you have to care a lot more about vampires than I do to stick around for long." He went on to say, "most of it is really not worth seeing." Michael Judge from The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
said the series "too often passes over the truly macabre or grotesque for gratuitous
Exploitation fiction
Exploitation fiction is a type of literature that includes novels and magazines that exploit sex, violence, drugs, or other elements meant to attract readers primarily by arousing prurient interest without being labeled as obscene or pornographic. It is comparable to the Italian giallo...
sex and violence" and then said "I know True Blood is supposed to be a sexy, easy-to-swallow mystery, but too often it ends up leaving a bad taste in one's mouth." James Poniewozik from Time Magazine called Ball's characters "caricatures" and continued by asking "Was the world dying for an HBO show with no subtext? Take away the graphic sex, and True Blood could air on USA Network." The Chicago Tribune's Maureen Ryan said "The overheated melodrama sometimes makes the lives of these people seem faintly ridiculous..."
Ratings
The episode was viewed by approximately 1.4 million people upon its initial broadcast. After a repeat showing later the same night, those figures rose to 2.1 million. When on-demand viewings and additional broadcasts are factored in, the episode was viewed by approximately 4 million viewers.In the United Kingdom, the pilot episode achieved 1.91 million viewers on Channel 4.