Seasoned

Tonight was the premier of Season 2 of True Blood on HBO. Before I get into my thoughts about the episode, let me just say that I had a moment of facing just how simple my life has become. I sat in front of the tv about 2 minutes before the scheduled start time - wanting to be there to make sure that Tivo captured it, of course! - and realized that I had a shit-eating grin plastered on my face from ear to ear. There was no else around, mind you, I was simply that happy in my anticipation.

Well, anyway, I wasn't disappointed.

There were a lot of bits and piece to chew on and I'll need to watch it again to get a sense of the things I want to focus on for our discussions here. Who or what is that woman who has Tara in her thrall? Were those highlighting foils in Eric's hair?! Is Bill still withholding something from Sookie? So many thrills and escapades to wend our way through.

For tonight, though, I was struck by how different it is to be watching a second season rather than a first. Remember last year when we waited for several episodes to see if Sookie, a human, could actually be safe acting upon her attraction to Bill, a vampire? No matter how compelling he seemed, we held in reserve that anxiety of "but he's a vampire, you can't really trust him, can you?" And now, most of that anxiety has been shoved aside and, instead, we're worried that they won't make it as a couple. (Okay, I'm not sure we can ever fully put aside the niggling voice that says, "Hey, he's a vampire. Something has to go wrong somewhere down the line, right?" but we've definitely shifted.)

While so many things are buzzing around my head, there is one scene that is prominently plastered on my consciousness: the love scene in which Sookie so comfortably offers her neck to Bill. He gives her a little love bite - we really can't call it a nip when it's approached so voraciously, can we? First, we're in Season 2 and him biting her is no longer shocking. Still unsettling, perphaps, but not shocking. We've shifted out of our plane of reality and into the True Blood universe, letting our imaginations just go with it. We're seasoned with True Blood spice already.

Still, Alan Ball et al, never let us get too comfortable. They're masterful at the shock factor. Pushing things farther and farther along. So, this time, we don't just see Bill bite Sookie - taking communion - we then see him move up and kiss her while he still has blood in his mouth. The blood drips into her mouth and down onto the sheets. She doesn't flinch at this, so it's seem as though they've been there before. (I'm not sure when, since Season 2 picks up in the same moment Season 1 left off.) Still, we haven't seen this and I was definitely squeamish about it. I recoiled, reminding myself that it's fake.

So, in our exploration of the use of the vampire metaphor in Anglo-Saxon culture, what is this about? I don't have any concrete thoughts, yet. There is a scene earlier where Sookie is talking to her brother, Jason. He says to her that when you love someone, you have to love the bad parts of them, too. Otherwise it's not love. He's not aware of what Sookie is coming to terms with regarding Bill. She's just learned that he was forced to turn a human into a vampire as a punishment for taking a vampire life while protecting her. She's also just learned that he murdered her Great-Uncle after she confided in him about the fact that this man had sexually molested her as a child. These aren't exactly your ordinary "bad" sides that one has to figure out how to love.

Of course, nothing about True Blood is ordinary. We have vampires, shapeshifters, a telepath and who knows what else. The action is taking place is the no-longer sleepy backwater of Northern Louisiana with all the attendant fake accents and kitsch. From the opening credits, to deceptive trailers (have we learned, yet, that whatever you think you see in the upcoming scenes is not likely what you expect?) to the hard-hitting sensational closing scenes, True Blood is intended to send the dial on your inner compass spinning around searching for True North. You have to put all your norms aside and find out the correlating compass points within the magnetic poles of this other universe.

Alrighty then. My compass is spinning. I'm going to take a little time to see if it can point to anything in the next day or two. Meanwhile, I'll be looking forward to the next episode to see what happens with Lafayette in that basement, Tara at that shrine to Pan, Jason at Bibile camp and so much more. Spinning or not, I'm drawn to the magnetic pull.