Vampire aboard

Who’s in it? Anna Paquin plays the role of the sprightly young Sookie. Unfortunately,instead of impish and vivacious,she comes across as tempestuous,impulsive and reckless. If Billy the vampire can see something special in her,then kudos to him because we certainly couldn’t. Her acting is low on skill and high on theatrics. However,Stephen Moyer’s flawless portrayal of Bill Compton saves the day. Another delight is Rutina Wesley,who plays Sookie’s sassy best friend,Tara. She delivers a power-packed performance with her tongue-in-cheek repartees and her soulful looks at Sookie’s brother Jason played by Ryan Kwanten.

What’s hot? Despite its drawbacks,the Sookie-Billy romance works,even when he delivers corny lines like “I can smell the sunlight on your skin” which would have made us barf if spoken by a flesh-and-blood mortal. (Or anyone a degree less hot than Stephen Moyer). Maybe it’s the fact that Bill the vampire is 173-years-old and thus was born in an age when moonlight serenading and mushy couplets still impressed the ladies. Or maybe it’s just that those doleful looks Moyer casts with his voodoo-working eyes have us as mesmerised as Sookie.

What’s not? The whole appeal of vampire stories is in the danger associated with them. Demystified and synthetic blood-swigging vampires who are fighting for basic civil rights,coolly appear on talk shows and form part of the American Vampire League are unpalatable to us. What Ball has done is taken a supernatural world and sucked (no pun intended) it dry of all supernatural elements. Stripped of the fear factor,the gory scenes,the blood,the periodically appearing fangs and the supposedly menacing teeth-baring are more likely to leave you with giggles rather than goose bumps. Ball has haphazardly interwoven disparate threads which more or less work individually (like the chemistry between Jason and Tara) and combined it into a whole that unfortunately,works more effectively than three pages of Leo Tolstoy in putting us to sleep.

Should you be watching it? Yes,if vampire love stories give you a blood-rush.