TV Watch: True Blood

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Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin lead HBO's stylish horror drama "True Blood"

The newest product introduced for this season by the award-winning HBO television folks is one of the farthest-fetched ideas to date, and yet once again proves to be a winner for the cable network that has taken television series development to an art.

Cable series such as HBO's cultural icon 'The Sopranos', Showtime's controversial 'Dexter', and AMC's middle-age homage 'Mad Men' have used the loosened cable TV industry ratings restrictions to leave the old networks in their creative dust. They do this in large part by supplying more adult language, sex, violence, and other mature material that, while perhaps morally questionable, all absolutely add to increased realism.

The latest entry by HBO is the vampire-inspired "True Blood" starring Anna Paquin, famous from her excellent film roles in "The Piano", "Finding Forester", "X-Men", "Almost Famous" and more.

Paquin is all grown up here, and stars as quintessential small-town girl Sookie Stackhouse. Sookie is a waitress, and the story revolves around her life, family, friends, the bar/restaurant at which she waits tables, and the small town in which she resides.

The quirks in this particular drama? Sookie can read your mind. She is constantly bombarded by the thoughts emanating from the minds of everyone around her, often to her dismay. She is fairly up front about this ability, so most in her little town of Bon Temps, Louisiana either know of her 'gift' or suspect it, having heard rumors.

Perhaps enough of an interesting plot line on it's own, especially with the right actors involved. But that's not the real kicker. The real story behind "True Blood" is that it is set in today's modern world, with a twist: vampires are indeed real. After centuries in the shadows of myth, legend, and fantasy, vampires have finally 'come out of the closet' thanks to the Japanese invention of a synthetic blood product.