#Mick St. John my BELOVED

[volbeast]

Me: age 12 🤝 Me: age 26

Using my whole entire single neuron to think about vampires😔😔😔

#I was a twihard in 2008 and I never really recovered i guess fghjjhgf #actually I liked Moonlight a hell of a lot more bc the vamps looked more monstery uwu #Mick St. John my BELOVED #also I can't believe I've been a thot for vampires for more than half my life #dfghjkhgfd #im a simple man i see fangs I go *cartoonish display of honking howling and awooga-ing* #|DDD

[larriefails]

28 is not a Larry number - a masterpost

Since @theystudyrainbows has decided to put all the Larrie delusions on this number in one handy masterpost, why not debunk it all in one go?

Even the introduction is a mess. The 28 is not “a One Direction fandom mystery” at all. It’s Louis’ jersey number that he was assigned at Doncaster Rovers and that he has since then adopted. But then again, Liam’s kidney and the Belfast canceled concert are not mysteries either

How decent of you to say that some of these are coincidences, considering literally all of the following is bullshit

The fact that “too many people to name” contributed to write this drivel makes my heart ache

Harry has no connection to the number 28 whatsoever

The problem with you attempting numerology is that there are only 9 possible digits (as the addition of two numbers can never be zero). So, you clown yourselves because it leads to this

Eleanor was born on July 16th 1992:

7+1+6+1+9+9+2 = 35

3+5 = 8

Oh no!

But also, Zayn was born on January 13th 1992:

1+1+3+1+9+9+2 = 26

2+6 = 8

(: Ya see how that’s just not good?

Not only that, but also, as I said, Harry has no connection to the number 28, but for shits and giggles

Kendall Jenner was born on November 3rd 1995:

1+1+3+1+9+9+5 = 29

2+9 = 11

1+1 = 2

So.. basically this is worthless information that you pulled out of your ass. Or I could easily claim that 28 is an Elounor or a Hendall number

You also use this method to count Harry and Louis’ X Factor numbers, but as we’ve established, there are only 9 options, the odds are stacked for this coincidence

How is that 28? That’s 82.. A completely different number. In the UK the date is written day/month/year. So the “same gig” was the 8th day of the 2nd month. 82. It’s very funny that, since you’re Italian and live in the UK (both countries that use the day/month/year system) you’ve written every date so far that way, but now that you want to say this other random date is connected to 28, you switched to month/day/year.

Also, where is the year in this equation? We’ve been using the entire date so far, but now we’re only focusing on the day and month? (and switching order?) That seems very convenient. Almost like, if you try hard enough, any date can add up to 28 in some way?

November 17th 2011, Louis and Eleanor’s anniversary: 11+17=28! Oh no! DRATS! It’s still an Elounor number!

And now we’re just ignoring the month and only focusing on the day. And not only that, but ignoring half the time they were there (the 27th) to only focus on the 28th. That is, once again, very convenient

But continuing with your own ridiculous logic. We know that Louis and Eleanor went to V Fest together in 2011, because Eleanor said so on twitter when Sugarscape wondered if the “brown haired girl” holding hands with Louis at V Fest was her

V Fest was on August 20th and 21st 2011. What do you know? 20+8 = 28! Damn... this is getting suspicious. Louis!!! Did you get the 28 for Eleanor? :)

This is a whole ass facepalm. I’m going to link the video here just so it’s verifiable how unhinged y’all are

He literally turns for 1 millisecond, and is looking in the general area of his right because that’s where everyone else in the band is standing. The fact that y’all still do this shit is so embarrassing for your life and your soul

But why don’t you tell the truth? That y’all decided their anniversary was the 28th and then created this completely impossible to prove “receipt”? How is it proof of anything if it came AFTER y’all had decided the 28 was their anniversary? Your circular logic knows no bounds

Harry has not used the 28 number AT ALL. Louis hasn’t used the 28 as his jersey number “often,” he started using it in 2013 when it was assigned to him by the Doncaster Rovers when he was signed as a semi professional player

This is from goal.com, one of the most important sources of soccer information in the world X

The article is from September 2013 and John Ryan, the chairman of the Rovers, explains that 28 was HIS number, that HE used for a match. Soccer players have assigned numbers throughout the season, and the number 28 had been retired from the line up after John Ryan used it in 2003. He decided to bring it back to give it to Louis. And Louis was signed as a soccer player professionally with that number. That’s why it’s important to him, you bag of nonsense. This was his life long dream in the club he loved. He probably spent hours and hours daydreaming about being signed professionally to play soccer and when he finally accomplished that, it was with the number 28, so of course it’s gonna be important to him!

Find ONE INSTANCE of Louis using the number 28 before the summer of 2013. ONE. You won’t! The tattoo came after that, him wearing it on his jerseys came after that. According to Larrie Lore Harry and Louis started dating in 2011 (apparently September 28th 2011, go figure), but for two full years neither of them did anything related to the number 28 whatsoever!

Why didn’t Louis wear the 28 in his first charity match in 2012?

The fact that he wore 17, which is his and Eleanor’s anniversary. LMAO can you say ouch? Furthermore, Louis didn’t CHOOSE the 28, it was ASSIGNED to him because it was the symbolic number the chairman had used back in 2003. It was a retired number that no player had used for 10 years, and they decided to give it to him as a gesture. Man, that would be a HUGE coincidence if out of 40 something available numbers in a soccer line up, Louis had wanted exactly the one that was retired and meant a whole lot for the chairman, instead of the chairman offering it to Louis, like LOGIC says. Another HUGE coincidence that he had not bothered with the 28 at all up until that point and then started having it everywhere. But I thought Larries hated those?

After this you list all the times Louis has used the 28, which there are a lot, but all come after 2013, I don’t want to add more pointless screenshots here. Doncaster Rovers jersey (from 2013 on), dodgeball jersey (2015), in ears (2015), tattoo (2015), BTY music video (2017), LTHQ’s first IG username (2017), his playlist (2018/2019)

How is that... 28? That’s 90028. And this isn’t a date, where you can just pick the number apart as you wish. This is a zip code for a secret show the Rolling Stones played in LA in 2015

Not only that, but Harry (and this is hilariously tragic for you) was ACTUALLY AT THE GIG! THAT’S WHY HE POSTED THE PHOTO!

Posting the screenshot with the date so you can see. May 21st 2015. Article by the LA Times X

This is Harry at the actual gig with Mick Jagger you absolute MORON X

And this is Harry wearing a Rolling Stones shirt the day after the gig because he’s that much of a fanboy

Y’all the second hand embarrassment is K I L L I N G me. CRYING TEARS OF BLOOD OVER THE FACT THAT THIS WAS WRITTEN IN ACTUAL SERIOUSNESS

Why is “professional” in scare quotes?? I can’t believe that you just added 1+2+3+4+5+6+7. Oh my god. I can’t believe I have to say this but *whispers* those are consecutive numbers. They just used consecutive numbers... And why would Harry’s HQ account managed by the team that’s “oppressing them” use a secret code with their beloved 28? How does that make ANY sense?

The article is wrong. He wore TWENTY-SEVEN Gucci suits. I can’t believe that’s a sentence I just typed, but alas

1- Basel, 2- Copenhagen, 3- Hamburg, 4- Milan, 5- Bologna, 6- London I, 7- Hong Kong, 8- Bangkok, 9- Rio de Janeiro, 10- Mexico City I and II (same suit), 11- Houston, 12- Fort Lauderdale 13- Nashville, 14- Hershey, 15- Philadelphia, 16- Toronto, 17- MSG I, 18- DC, 19- Detroit, 20- Indianapolis, 21- Chicago, 22-St. Paul, 23- Denver, 24- Seattle, 25- San Jose, 26- LA I, 27- LA II

In 60 concerts, he also wore Charles Jeffrey 4 times, Saint Laurent 3 times, Palomo Spain 2 times, a custom kilt, Harris Reed 5 times, Clavin Klein 6 times, Alexander McQueen 7 times, Givenchy 4 times. Just so you don’t think I’m purposefully missing out on a suit to make it 27. The article probably counted Mexico’s suit twice. But it’s not 28 suits, it’s 27. The Mexico suit was the same both nights

I would love to know how this would be relevant to Larry or how this would mean the number 28 is important to Harry. Does he have OCD? I don’t get it

Here we have another round of “I will MAKE IT FIT 28 IF IT KILLS ME!”

Let’s see the different tactics that you used

Adding day and month

Taking only the day

Adding day month and year. Except you left out the 2 in 2017. Because otherwise it wouldn't add up. I can’t deal with thisodnadmsla

Harry performed track 2, meaning, his lead single that he was still promoting, Sign of the Times, and 8 Ever since NEW YORK because... he was performing in... New York...

Only the day. Wow, you actually repeated tactics once!

Adding two completely different dates together, that have absolutely no correlation. How are Sweet Creature, Harry’s promo single, and the music video for a different single, related in any way? What? Why not Kiwi’s music video? Why not Two Ghosts music video? Why not the release of either of those singles to radio? Can you make it any more obvious that you’re just pulling this completely out of your ass?

You repeat tactics again, except it’s the most ridiculous tactic of adding all the numbers in the date except the 2 of the year and it’s for “Harry posted link to Twitter to Sign of the Times music video PREVIEW.” Oh my god

And now you’re counting days between two dates, because that’s not unhinged. I’m guessing you mean the April 14th not 24th, but that also wasn’t the date? It was the 13th? It depends on the time zone you were in?

For someone who, according to you, plans with such precise care to match to 28, he didn’t wait until it would be 28 days for everyone. It’s not even because it was tweeted at midnight UK since this is like 3/4 AM UK time. In fact, it wasn’t midnight anywhere relevant (or anywhere, in general since it was at .54 minutes). So not only is this ridiculous, it’s also incorrect

1. That’s not a fan, that’s his cousin, but Larries know barely anything about Harry if it can’t involve Larry so I’m not surprised you don’t know

2. Imagine him asking “please, make the password add to 28“ to his staff. I have tears in my eyes picturing it

3. I CAN’T BREATHE. Y’all are BLIND on top of INCREDIBLY STUPID. That’s THE DATE

That’s his Hamburg concert, which you can tell because of his suit, which was on MARCH 25TH 2018 (he posted the pictures the day after)

AKA 250332018 which is what the password says

You not only confused an 8 with a 9, but also created numbers out of thin air because of a pixel smudge and failed to realize it was the FUCKING DATE. WHICH DOESN’T EVEN ADD TO 28! 2+5+3+2+1+8= 21

This is perhaps the most ridiculous thing written in this post, which is already one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read. Can you imagine Harry counting to 28 in his head in the middle of the concert? I can’t y’all, this is too much. You’re A GROWN WOMAN. WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I also found it incredibly suspicious that you didn’t outright link the video which you do throughout the post, and turns out it is because he didn’t pause for 28 seconds (what is this fucking sentence?)

He stops playing and singing at 2.40. Then speaks until 2.43. Then the “pause” which is just him trying to get the audience to stop screaming until 3.07 when he says (I can’t really make it out) “now you” or something like that. And then he says “for your eyes...” and lets the audience sing at 3.09. Literally none of these timestamps add to 28 and he had no way of counting to 28 since he was silencing people the entire time. And just like when he switched “I have love you since we were 18″ to “I have loved you since I was 16″ hitting his own chest, or when he said he fell in love to What Makes You Beautiful, you missed the entire point of this bit, which is Harry’s LOVE FOR HIS FANS

He has loved us since he was 16, he fell in love to us to What Makes you Beautiful, and he was letting us sing that part of the song every concert. He “paused” to shush the nonsensical screams, then he would give the audience the cue and let them sing. Several times he dedicated the song to specific fans in the audience, people with cancer, little kids, a fan that had neck surgery. By making it about Larry, you stripped it from its actual meaning and Harry’s love for his fans. But you always do shit like that

Regardless, he didn’t pause for 28 seconds. Wrong

And you end the post with the most anticlimactic possible tone

Here’s the video

Harry is talking about anniversaries because he’s reading a sign from the audience... about.. anniversaries

Y’all are the definition of clowns. All that fuss for the 28 and THIS is your proof?

#harry styles #louis tomlinson #larry is real #larry #larry stylinson #harry #louis #theystudyrainbows #larrie fails

[snowbellewells]

“Tasting Forever”

{I am so excited - and more than a bit nervous too! - to present my first offering for the CSSNS Event. It’s a vampire!Killian au one shot that puts him in the role of vamp P.I. Mick St. John on tv’s short - lived dreams series “Moonlight”. I tried to work in echoes of episodes and events from that show as well as characters and lines from “Once” and our beloved duo as well. I tried very hard to make it still understood and enjoyable even if you never watched “Moonlight” though, and hopefully I was successful. Emma is an internet reporter in this story, just as Beth was on the show, but you’ll notice she’s Emma Nolan instead of Swan, because in this AU she got to grow up with David and Snow as her parents.}

** Don’t forget to feast your eyes on, and then send love to, @wingedlioness for her amazing artwork on this!! I simply adore the pictures she created (one is here at the top - a cover art of sorts - one is within the story at the scene it depicts, and one is at the end)!! They’re all brilliant and more than I could have expected.  I can’t get over how much I love having pictures to go with my story!!***

Tagging: @cssns @kmomof4 

“Tasting Forever”

By: @snowbellewells           

                   Strange the thoughts to spin through one’s mind when the sand finally reaches the bottom of the hourglass. It might have taken longer to reach this moment for him – he was a survivor after all – but all the same, with the scenes of childhood, disjointed bits of conversation and half-forgotten past decisions aimlessly circling the drain of his immortal existence, Killian Jones understood with stark clarity that though he’d had years – ages – more than most, his time still managed to come to an end when he least expected… and just when he had finally found what made all that unnatural long life worth living.

            If anyone had told him he would end up in some rundown, deserted, fleabag motel in the desert, convulsing and frantic for blood, sitting in a bathtub full of ice on the frail thread of hope that he could forestall the half-transformed state that heat and prolonged sunlight had put him in, it would have seemed ridiculously unbelievable.  There was perhaps some painful irony in the fact that the ice around him was now melted, though the blood thirst tormenting him had not slaked, and that he who had long ago been a naval officer would now meet his end in some form of water. He had once dreamed of glory in that sort of end while still a young human man with a head full of hopes for battle and honorable sacrifice.  It was also more than a little ironic that he was once again risking life and limb to save an innocent, just as he had all those years before…

Twenty-three years ago,

August 1995

            It was long past closing time, so late it was nearer to early morning, and he had long since sent Ruby, his secretary, home for the night – or more likely out dancing, if he knew her.  Private Investigator Killian Jones sat at the desk in his agency office in the dark, nursing a tumbler of rum and pondering the liquid flow of time.  The wind’s melancholy howl outside the windows, which currently needed repair (the whole building but a half step above a dump) rattled the panes and whistled through every possible crack and crevice.  His pose still and languid, the dark-haired detective appeared lazily at ease, stretched back in his chair, reclined with his crossed feet atop the messy surface of his desk, but anyone who would mistake the casual stance for unpreparedness or vulnerability would surely experience the coiled lightning thrumming just beneath the calm exterior, always alert and poised to strike.

            Sighing, Jones brought his feet back to the floor to sit up, leaning forward to pour more of his chosen tonic in his glass from the open bottle at his elbow.  Staring into the amber depths, he had been reflecting, as only a vampire who has seen it all, more than he’d even wished to, and still frustratingly ached for his lost humanity despite the pain it brought, can.  It was then that the black, wild night had brought the case that changed everything knocking at his door.

            His mind’s eye could still see the shattered young couple dripping rain in the entryway, huddled together, eyes wide and frantic but still with determined resolve in their posture and words.

           “We heard you can find missing persons,” the man had stated bluntly, his desperation obviously trumping grace and niceties.  “That you’re the best…” he’d swallowed hard; Killian still saw the reflexive movement in his mind’s eye as clear as if it had happened only yesterday, “…that you’ve found people no one else could…that have been given up for lost.”

            “Aye,” Killian had allowed, “that’s true.” He gave little else away, yet; merely acknowledged the claim without confirmation or denial.  Attesting to it led to questions about how he could be so good – and that was one thing no one would believe if he did tell.  Instead, Killian merely watched his two guests, now gingerly seated before him in his office, taking stock of just who they were and sussing out their intentions.

            Their five-year-old daughter had been taken.  Simply vanished from her bed two nights ago and no trace of her had turned up since. The police had been no real help, though they had tried: questioning their neighbors, canvassing their quiet suburb, putting out APBs and searching their house for any traces of evidence.  The woman, dark black hair making her skin look even paler and dressed in such prim pastels that Killian would have laid money on her being a nursery school teacher in her daily life, moved forward then, grasping his forearm beseechingly in a grip much stronger than he would have expected her capable. Her eyes were wide and pleading, filled with an emotion he could only label as ‘hope’ – however misplaced it seemed in that instance, and as foreign as the concept was to him personally.

            “Please, Detective…” she’d paused, drawing a shaky breath before she pressed on, “Mr. Jones, I know that none of our neighbors did this.  Our Emma didn’t just run away or wander off.  She’s only five – she hasn’t ever even spent the night away from us.  There was nothing wrong.  She was perfectly fine when we went to bed that night.  Something we can’t explain has happened to her, and we need to fix it.  You’re our last hope.”

            Even after all the years that have come between, Killian could still picture that look in the woman’s eyes, so anxious to believe it wasn’t too late, that her daughter wasn’t lost to her forever – dead, maimed, or whatever other horrible statistic Killian had known all too well was probably true. The woman’s green gaze had beseeched him, and his stomach still swooped down toward his knees at the thought that they had been pinning their final shred of faith on him – and he wasn’t at all sure he wanted it.

            The broad-shouldered husband had stepped forward once more after his wife’s impassioned plea, gathering her against his sturdy side and wrapping his arm protectively around her shoulders as they began to shake with unheard tears. His eyes were steely, intent, and though Killian Jones could see he was just as frantic to locate his child, he wasn’t going to beg yet.  Holding it together for his wife seemed to be anchoring him for the moment.  Though with a deep growl low in his throat, Jones knew, as sure as he lived – or didn’t, actually – that if he refused to help this couple, the little girl’s father would go charging out into the night in search of her, bare knuckled and ready to face the monsters that hid in the midnight gloom.  Knowing all too well what really did go bump in the night, long resigned to the fact that he was one of those creatures, Killian was also well aware that this noble father would fail in his quest; what he would face in some dark alley or dank cellar at his search’s end would most likely not be flesh and blood.  Killian could sense that much already.  Letting them go without taking their case would be as good as signing this man – this David Nolan’s - death warrant.

            He slammed the tumbler still clutched in his hand down upon the surface of his scratched, pockmarked desk and stood fluidly, already cursing himself for a fool, taking on trouble he didn’t need.  The movement was so sudden that the couple before him jerked back slightly in surprise, and the PI winced internally, reminding himself to be more careful about letting his inhuman speed and grace show through so obviously.  Trouble was right – in more ways than one.

            The shadows stretched longer in the dingy, dimly-lit office as he forced himself to move with a normal casualty he didn’t feel to straighten out the leather jacket he tossed over the back of his chair hours before and slide his arms into it, then popped the collar high along his neck in the style that had reigned decades ago, when he’d last been truly alive.  He’d told them then that he would take the case, but there was no time to lose.  He asked to visit their home, see their little girl’s room, which the Nolans had quickly agreed to. He knew the police had already been there, but, he explained as they drove, he might see something they had missed which could give him a starting point.

            What he hadn’t said aloud, but had already felt as foreboding under his skin, was that he would know – he’d feel it, smell it, perhaps even gain supernatural vision of it – once he stood in the space, if the kidnapper was the sort of sinister being he feared, one of those like him... a vampire.

            Killian’s half-stupor and his flood of memories was broken abruptly by an urgent knocking on the rickety door of the stained, decrepit bathroom he’d shut himself within.  Panic flooded his system, as well as the thirsty need still thrumming through his veins, growing continually harder to ignore. Cursing himself for a fool at not being aware enough to slip the chain into the lock across the door when he’d entered, Killian knew there was really nothing stopping the young woman he’d been charged with protecting from entering into more danger than she was in already, more peril than she could possibly comprehend.

            “Mr. Jones?” her voice called out through the questionable barrier, naive concern in its tone.  “Are you alright in there?” She hesitated for a moment when her temporary protector didn’t respond, waiting outside as he’d asked, but as the silence stretched, she seemed unable to leave this person who had been kind to her if she could help him.  “You really didn’t look well before…and, um, I know it’s not much…but I brought some more ice.”

            Despite the entire room between them, Killian could hear the blood pulsing in her veins, could practically taste the sweetness of it on his tongue, a feeding the only thing that could truly restore him in as dire a state as he had slipped into.  Her heartbeat, and the tiny, softer one of her unborn child – the one they’d just been discussing her naming after her Sean, the baby’s murdered father, when the trouble began – was so loud in his head that it felt as if it were pounding against his skull.  His sharp fangs had already partially descended from his gums, the predator inside knowing the needed elixir was right there, just beyond its grasp, and Killian practically shook with the effort to hold himself still in the frigid water.  ‘I will not hurt them’, his repeated mantra whispered over his lips once more, a constant vow. If Ashley would just stay outside until help came, if she’d just wait on the other side of the door…

            “Okay, Mr. Jones, you’re really worrying me now,” he heard her determined young voice warn, and he was already shaking his head ‘no’, trying to string together a coherent response to stall her further, when she added, “I’m coming in.”  The door swung open wide, banging against the scarred wall behind it as Ashley Herman, the witness he’d been meant to bring back to town safely, came through, lugging a 10 gallon bucket of ice with both hands.

            Killian tried to close his eyes, to feign sleep, anything to hold back his ravenous instincts. Yet, his stillness only seemed to concern the plucky mother-to-be further.  She managed – barely – to lift the heavy bucket high enough to dump it over the side into the large tub with the mix of melted water and ice cubes already floating there. But as she leaned over him, intent on her task, and quite probably trying to ascertain if he was still breathing, the beast inside of him had to look.

            Her neck was right there, practically offered up for the slavering monster he was grappling to contain.  Her jugular stood out like a beacon, beating its life-giving rhythm in some enticing Morse code he couldn’t ignore.  Jerking back against the porcelain behind him, Killian clawed desperately, calling on everything in him not to lunge forward and take the restorative sustenance needed, to drain her until there was nothing left.

            His eyes flew open wide in his panic, and at his sudden movement, Ashley’s own slid up to meet them; only for her to scream and stumble backwards, dropping the bucket and then tripping over it to fall on her rump, still scrambling away.

            Killian had known the hunger in his eyes would be visible, changing them to an unearthly stare that even humans recognized was not natural, but were usually too late to flee from once seen.  Though the reaction hurt somewhere on the edges of his awareness – it would never stop aching that he hadn’t wanted this – he tried to use Ashley’s fear to push her to safety.  Fear gripped him even tighter as he felt his tense muscles start to raise him from the tub, anxious for the nourishment nearly within his grasp.

            She was shaking her head in disbelief, her whole body trembling. “You…what…I don’t understand…” pouring nonsensically from her quivering lips.

            “Get out!” Killian ordered, louder and harsher than he had meant, but without time to explain.  She needed to move, put that door back between them immediately; her life and his sanity depended on it.  “Now! Out!” he repeated, practically yelling.  “Call Emma Nolan again.  Make sure she’s on her way!” he panted, not sure what else to say to make his charge obey, only how imperative it was that she do so before he lost himself completely.  “She’ll make sure you’re safe,” he said with a bit more control when he saw Ashley finally pick herself up and pass through the open door, closing it again behind her.  “She’ll take care of you, Ashley.  Just don’t come in here again.”

            He could hear her panicked breath and sniffled tears through the cheap walls and hated himself that extra bit more for frightening her so.  Sinking lower in the chilling bath, Killian forced himself to stay still, to cling to the small thread of himself still holding sway of his baser instincts.  It mattered little now that he had never wanted Emma to see this side of him bared either – had wanted to remain that kind, if somewhat secretive, guardian she’d long viewed him as, to perhaps even know what it would be like for the friendship they enjoyed to deepen, to feel the overwhelming warmth in his long-empty chest at what could perhaps be even more between them as well.

            Once Emma saw him like this, all of that would be over.  Yet, he couldn’t let it matter.  He knew she had suspicions that he hid a secret; she was smart and curious. He had doubt she had dug into every slip-up he had ever made in front of her, but he didn’t think she had unearthed what he was truly hiding.  Still, she was just practical enough, just brave and compassionate enough, for him to trust that when she arrived, she would get Ashley out of there to safety.  That was most important, not his thwarted hopes or what might have been.  If Emma would also have some way to help him, he would certainly be grateful, but he couldn’t bring himself to expect it of her.

            All he could really do was repeat to himself, ‘Hang on, help is coming,’ and rein his body in from violence he could never take back.  Either he would recover, or this would be the death of him, but he couldn’t afford to focus on anything beyond his immediate concern for his charge, so he did it with gritted teeth and clenched muscles braced for catastrophe, fighting back the tragic end he should have always known was inevitable.

            If he could stave off attack just a little longer, and none of the people he cared for were hurt, he would be satisfied. The damage to his own heart – just like his cursed, immortal soul – be damned.  His blue eyes, long gone the strange vampiric pale that truly made him look undead, slid closed, and for a time, he knew no more.

Twenty-three years ago

            Fire…burning, melting…and animal, guttural screams.  The flames were seemingly everywhere, surrounding him on all sides and closing in as he sought out the tiny, blonde-headed child.  He spotted her curled into herself, trying to be as small as possible, to be invisible, backed into a corner of the room beneath the window.  Her knees were drawn up to her chest, only her feet sticking out from beneath the hem of the long, ridiculously ruffled white nightgown Milah had put her in – some poor sacrificial lamb of a stolen child to fix all that was broken between them.

            Though there was no time to waste, the entire old house was about to go up in the raging inferno their supernatural brawl had begun, Killian stepped as carefully as he dared over to the shaking little girl.  Her face was hidden in her crossed arms rested on her knees, but he knew she registered his presence at the tiny whimper which escaped her and the way she burrowed her face even deeper.  Something inside him shriveled and fell apart at the fear of him she showed.  He hadn’t asked for this grotesque parody of the family he could never have; would have never contemplated this travesty as a solution.  But, as with the whole waking nightmare of his marriage, his wife turning him into a vampire and his life ever since, his choice didn’t seem to matter in the slightest.

            All he could do now was try to bring this innocent out of the wreckage as unscathed as possible, back to the parents who were sick with worry for her and missing her desperately.  He didn’t want to frighten her, to traumatize her any further by forcing her to safety, but they were running out of time.

            “Emma…” he crooned softly, kneeling before her with his hand held out palm up, not touching or crowding her, but appealing for her attention. “That’s your name, right?  I know this whole night has been scary.  It’s alright if you’re still scared; I was afraid too.  But your mom and dad sent me to find you,” he breathed a tiny sigh of relief when one slit of a bright, intelligent green eye peeped out at him, as if gauging whether or not to believe his word. “They hired me to bring you back to them if I could.  We just have to get out of here quickly, and then I’ll take you straight to your mom and dad…”

            Waiting anxiously, he tried not to flinch at the hot sparks leaping and crackling almost close enough to singe his back or the smoke stinging his eyes. Killian would snatch her up and get her out to save her life regardless, but he could have cheered aloud when she finally raised her head enough to look at him fully and whispered, “Promise?”

            “Aye, sweetheart,” he murmured gently, letting a bit of the lilt in his voice that he knew to be soothing show further.  “I promise.”

            Little Emma Nolan ever so slowly sat up straight, unwound her arms from around her knees and then placed her tiny, delicate hand in his.  Without wasting another second, Killian scooped her into his arms, whisked her from the flames, the creak of collapsing timber, and the death howl of his first love – staked, incapacitated, unable to hurt anyone ever again – and carried her home.

            “Killian!” a terrified cry of his name and a frenzied smack to his face brought him reeling back out of the past.  His muscles still frozen in the death grip he had maintained on the edges of the bath released at last, and he slid, spluttering, beneath the water for a moment until he was hauled up again by the soaking collar of his shirt.  “Speak to me, Jones,” her voice was commanding, harsh with apprehension and worry.  “You better not be dead.”  The first thing he registered beyond her speaking was that blond halo of her hair as she leaned over the tub to peer at him intently.

            ‘Emma,’ his mind whispered in unquenchable relief. ‘She made it in time.’   Or at least he hoped so – judging by how weak and unfocused he still felt, and the lack of carnage and blood in the room around him, it would seem his pregnant ward was still safe and he had managed just enough restraint.

            And yet, he still needed to feed – so desperately that he could barely see Emma before him through the fuzzy glaze over his vision.  His skin felt stretched beyond endurance – dry and paper thin though he literally rested in a pool of water – as if it and he were about to disintegrate to dust.  And despite it all, the veins pulsing blood through Emma’s body were so clear and vividly tempting that he could hardly focus on anything else, his tongue peeking out as it traced over his sharp fangs unconsciously, in an action beyond his control.

            To his complete shock, Emma did not appear disgusted or frightened, or even terribly surprised, as she knelt before him studying the strange, pale look of his bloodthirsty vampiric eyes, the protruding fangs, and the full extent of the power he hid beneath his carefully normal surface.  A part of him had half-expected to be struck down in his weakened state once she arrived; had accepted the fact that it would be best even, safest for all of them.  However, what he found in her face, studying him with sympathy and another emotion that he couldn’t quite read, was none of the justice and retribution he had expected.

            “Don’t you look at me like that, Killian Jones,” she finally breathed out huskily, inexplicably reaching forward to swipe a bit of his dark hair wetly plastered to his forehead back toward his temple, a melancholy wistfulness on her face.  “You’re not the only one around here who’s good at research and a little detective work, you know.”

            Killian merely waited, no words or even sense of what his response to that should be in his mind.

            “I started to put two and two together a while ago,” she continued, with a scoffing chuckle and wry half-smile, “though probably not nearly as soon as I should have.  You’re a vampire…aren’t you?”

            He nodded, barely, still half-paralyzed with atrophy from holding himself so rigid for so long and practically lethargic from his thwarted hunger.  “Aye,” his words rasped clumsily from heavy lips, “but before you…”

            Then she did smile fully, even if there was still sadness in her gaze.  “Hush,” she interrupted and stopped him cold as she leaned even closer to press her fingertips to his mouth.  “You don’t need to explain it all now.  Though I do wish you had felt you could tell me…  That isn’t important at the moment.  What matters is that you’re famished, aren’t you? Will feeding be enough to fix it?  You’ll be fine again once you get some blood… right?”

            Stunned once more, Killian could only bob his head in the affirmative, his reasons and perception impaired.  He couldn’t quite fathom what was happening, barely hearing her decide, “Well, okay then,” and blow out a steadying breath.  His mind was still struggling to catch up until he realized that Emma was gathering her hair to sweep it all over her shoulder and pulling down her sweater until her neck and whole shoulder were bared to his gaze, clearly offering herself to him in the best way she knew how.

            Killian jerked back to full awareness – ashamed, panicked, and struggling to explain that he couldn’t feed from her.  He could hurt her, he could drink too much, and he had vowed to himself long ago not to do such a thing to her.  She might never look at him the same way afterwards, and it would destroy everything between them.  “No lass,” he whispered, averting his eyes and barely containing the new, heady rush of need – of want – that flooded his senses and every pore at the sight of her creamy, delectable skin on display for his perusal.  “I – I can’t…please…”

            “You can,” she argued back, her chin tilted up with determined challenge, eyes crackling at him even as her voice pleaded. “You may not want to hurt me, but you don’t have time for any other options. I don’t know much about what’s going on, but that much is obvious.  Please, Killian…let me do this… I want to.”

            His eyes flew up to meet hers – uncertainty warring with hope and disbelief in a dizzying tangle.  “You do?” he asked, astounded.

            “Yes,” she reiterated, nodding fervently and letting her hand cradle the side of his face tenderly.  “You can’t die, alright?”  Her voice faltered a bit at that, unshed tears glistening in the corners of her eyes.  “I need you.  I know you feel like you have to protect me, not the other way around, but how many times have you rescued me since we’ve met?”  She stumbled over the words sheepishly, but pressed on.  “Please…just let me save you this time.”

            Killian finally nodded his assent wearily; he didn’t have the strength to fight her, and how could he turn down this chance to taste her, to bond them in a way he couldn’t have fathomed ever receiving? Even if he should continue to resist, it was simply beyond his ability.

            Reaching out tentatively, his movements still disjointed and shaky, Killian ignored the Heaven of her neck, afraid he wouldn’t be able to pull back when necessary if he bit her there, and instead softly wrapped his fingers around her wrist, pulling her arm gently toward his mouth.

            Emma drew in a tight breath, as if steeling herself somehow, possibly hoping to avoid an upsetting reaction if it hurt.  He paused, her arm suspended between them, but he ignored the pulsing vein there which would save his life, and for a moment, simply stroked her palm tenderly, his gaze not leaving her eyes, but searching their green depths.  “Emma...are you certain about this?”

            She looked back at him with equal focus, arching an eyebrow in the no-nonsense, almost sarcastic way that she had which he could never help but love.  “If it’s do this or you’ll die, then yeah, I’m absolutely sure,” she replied sturdily, a firm, no-nonsense bob of her head echoing the words.  She didn’t say anymore, just bit her lower lip nervously, making herself look younger and a tiny bit fragile in spite of her resolve.

            It prompted Killian to reach out, in spite of the clumsy nature of his movements and his urgent need, to brush a strand of her hair back over her shoulder with the rest, and then, for only a second, to cup her face in his large hand, thinking he would never have an opportunity afterward.  When her eyes focused on him once more, he said resignedly.  “I’ll try to be careful, but…at some point…you may have to stop me.”

            She nodded, and then he could truly wait no longer.  He could feel the capillaries and veins within beginning to dry up and wither, knew that if a vampire got much further into this stage – even if their existence continued, they might not fully recover.  Anymore hesitation and he could well make Emma’s offering senseless.  Let the chips fall where they might, he would have to hope she wasn’t appalled and didn’t turn from him when this moment had passed.

            He bent his dark, shaggy head over her wrist, drawing in one long, savoring breath before baring his fangs and diving in. Emma jerked slightly in his grasp as the sharp teeth pierced her skin, and though Killian knew the reaction was involuntary, it hurt him that he had knowingly caused her pain.  However, in seconds her blood had reached his tongue, and the bliss that erupted on his senses was unlike anything he had ever experienced before.  Lost in her essence, he was overcome and all else faded away.

            Emma meanwhile, hissed through her teeth at the sharp, sudden sting of the initial bite, but fought mightily for a second not to grab her arm back protectively, knowing that Kilian would stop and let himself die if she pulled away or fought.  It was a fleeting pain anyway, as almost immediately after a strange shift began to take place.  A tingling warmth and an out-of-body awareness seeped through her limbs.  Emma closed her eyes, relishing the fact that she could feel Killian’s desire, his need, and the fulfillment that she was providing, echoed back and into her system as well.

It was powerful, thrilling, and more than a bit intoxicating.  Though she knew logically that she had to be careful; she couldn’t help but allow the heady euphoria that seemed to awaken every nerve ending to envelop her as well. She had never felt so alive, so free, and yet so connected to another person.  There were no words for it as she surrendered to the sensation…

Twenty-three years ago…

As she gave into the deluge of feelings and memory, more and more glimpses seeped into Emma’s mind and pulled her under.  It was as though she were five years old again - cowering in that immense, suffocating darkness - lost in midnight blackness which had never felt so complete before or since.

Her mind recaptured the tight grip of almost clawed, inescapable hands snatching her from her bedroom, and the firm grasp of arms wrapped around her small, quivering frame like bands of iron.  She been grabbed in an instant, blinking awake amidst pitch, overwhelming night, before she was awake enough to cry out, or even understand what was happening to her.

The monster who had taken her wavered in her conscious - a vague impression of long, dark hair, horrible, unhinged, almost red eyes, and sharp teeth.  There had been a dim, unfamiliar attic room in an old house she didn’t know, and she could recall vividly trying to make herself as small as possible - hopefully invisible - in the corner against the wall once the creature had left her alone.  After that, there was fire - flames dancing all around her and almost transfixing her vision.  She had wanted to flee, known there was danger, but been afraid to move, to be noticed once more by the not-human who had stolen her.

Then, in a horrible rush and flurry of movement, there had been two of them fighting and clawing, leaping and crashing across the room with horrible growls and gnashing of teeth.  It had been almost too fast for her small, uncomprehending eyes to follow, illuminated and then obscured by leaping tongues of flames and flickering shadows.

Until as soon as it had begun, the tumult ceased.  With one last unearthly shriek, the sounds of struggled ended, and Emma had glimpsed a different dark form moving cautiously toward her through the fire.  Eventually, the shady newcomer had knelt before her and coaxed her to take his hand.  Though she had been shaking with fright and sensed the unnatural strength in this being too, something convinced her that this one meant her no harm.

He hadn’t pushed her, but waited for her to allow his touch before gathering her in his hold and taking her away from the darkness and fear.  She didn’t remember all the facial features of this dark sort of guardian angel (as she continued for years to think of him affectionately) only piercing blue eyes - the bluest her child’s gaze had ever seen - gone almost black at the edges with some sort of intensity she couldn’t fathom.

Against all odds and all she had been through that night, Emma had felt safe again, wrapped up in that tight hold, almost like the comforting strength she found in her daddy’s arms. It was a similar sort of solidity, if less bulky than Papa’s, and she had laid her tiny head on his shoulder, the tremors shaking her whole body finally beginning to subside.  She’d fallen into an exhausted slumber, and when she’d awakened, the bearer of those limitless blue eyes was gone; she was back with her mama and papa.

Emma returned to the present and the shabby desert motel where she had found Killian near death, with a gasp, starting up from the slump she’d collapsed in over the side of the porcelain bathtub.  Killian was calling her name urgently, the worry evident in his tense voice as he leaned over her, but seemed strangely reluctant to make physical contact.

“Emma, can you hear me?!?  Please - say something!” he cried, and Emma blinked, gathering her bearings and realizing that she must have let Killian drink from her for too long, awash in remembrance and sensation, and passed into a swoon of sorts, like some damsel in a fairy tale.  She could hear the self-recrimination and blame in his voice as he urged her back into awareness, and as she straightened more fully, wincing at the tenderness in her arm, Emma fully looked up at Killian Jones - sometimes protector, long held friend and occasional partner in solving crimes, the man she found incredibly hard to resist and often caught herself wondering about romantically, what it might feel like to kiss his lips, to have him hold her against that firm, muscled chest - she met his eyes and suddenly knew why the blue had always seemed so comfortingly familiar, so engulfing and safe.  They were the same eyes that haunted her half-remembered reveries of the Savior who had returned her home years ago, who had found a shivering, petrified little girl and put her world right again.

It all made sense now - how he had appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the crime scene on the first case she’d reported for BuzzWire - materializing at her elbow to guide and protect every step of the way, no matter how much she’d grumbled about not needing his help at first.  Emma could suddenly see as clearly as if she were reading Killian’s mind, retracing all the steps and thoughts that led him on the way ever since that fateful night her parents first sent him to her aid.  From then on, over all the weeks, months, years since… he had clearly made that lost little girl - her - his personal mission. Her life had been touched by evil and darkness because of him (or so she could all too easily see him believing); her brilliant light nearly snuffed out.  It had become his purpose not to allow it extinguished.

With new clarity, Emma realized that he had never been far from where he could watch over her and come to her rescue; moreover, he had continued looking after her since their formal meeting and becoming friends and partners; waiting in the wings, just in case she ever needed him…

Shaking her head dazedly, dumbfounded by the shocking revelation, “But - but you never said… I never knew… You’ve been looking out for me… on purpose… all this time?”

Killian’s eyes tried to slide away from hers, down to the frigid water and his drenched clothes, to the mottled tile floor, anywhere but back to meet her stunned gaze. He shook his head angrily, nearly biting out the words in gruff frustration, “Aye, I did...and all to nearly drain your life away in saving my own.”

The horror-stricken expression marring his handsome dark brow when Emma finally reached forward, placing a hand under his chin to force his eyes up to hers again spoke of such bitter judgement and self-loathing that quick tears started in her eyes unbidden.  She didn’t know what to say, how to respond, only that she wanted to wipe that feeling, that pain from his face forever.

He tried to pull away again, blurting out, “Emma, please, just leave me!  Take Ashley, get her back to safety, and leave this all behind.  I nearly killed you!  I can’t...If I’d… I could never forgive myself if anything else happened to you because of me.”  With that outburst, his unsteadiness seemed to subside - either her lifesblood in his system doing its job to restore him, or his sheer resolve powering him on, but Killian shot to his feet in a smooth, superhumanly quick flash, stepping dripping wet to the long ago discolored floor before turning to level her with a stare that could freeze the liquid yet flowing through her veins.  “I was kidding myself to ever think I was keeping you safe, that I could be near someone so good!  I’m a cursed being, and I’ll only ever bring danger to your door, Emma.  You need to stay away from me.”

He turned his back, shoulders slumped in defeat and waiting in stony silence.  Emma could only presume he expected her to walk out, to leave him behind for her own good, but she could no more do that than leave behind a piece of herself.  She might have been much too long in the dark, slow to realize just how entwined they were - and had always been - but she did know now, and she wouldn’t be pulling away.  She didn’t want to.

Instead, she rose from her crouch by the tub, and though she wobbled for a second, her head light and clearly not as unaffected as she’d have liked to pretend, moved quietly to stand just behind him. Mere inches were all that were left between them when she reached out her hand tentatively, hardly daring to breathe as she laid a light touch on his tensed back, hoping to provide some sort of comfort, some assurance that she was still there with him, despite his fear.

A ripple shuddered through his frame; she felt the shaking under his skin before he turned once more to face her, drawing in a ragged breath as his eyes beseeched her, raw in their bright, tormented anguish, pleading as clearly as if he had spoken aloud, even before he rasped out a question. “Why, Emma? What would keep you here?” His eyes fell once more, another shiver coursing through him.  “I’m not worth it.”

“Hey...hey,” she soothed, voice pitched quietly, as if speaking to a startled animal.  “Killian, look at me.  We’re alright, okay?  That just isn’t true.  You’re worth…” she swallowed hard, the magnitude of it only now truly understood and hitting her at full force.  “You’re worth so much more than you’re giving yourself credit for.  You’ve found me worthwhile all this time.  Can’t I feel the same about you?”

Emma tried to make the last question a bit playful, otherwise overwhelmed and out-of-her-depth, she was trying to make Killian see that he wasn’t the monster he deemed himself.  He could never be that in her eyes.  She had seen a real monster long ago, and had survived it only thanks to him.  Fighting her natural aversion to emotional speeches or sharing her feelings, she gave her newly recognized hero a lopsided grin and a shrug of her shoulders, as if to ask, ‘What are you gonna do?’ and added, “Just face it, Jones.  You’re stuck with me.”

His intense stare bore into her for interminable minutes, likely searching her deep, all the way down to her soul.  Finally, he seemed to come to some sort of decision, blowing out a breath and shaking his head with resigned humor.  “Too stubborn for your own good,” he murmured under his breath before offering her what Emma would almost unbelievably call a hopeful smile that dazzled her beyond all measure, and then stating aloud.  “You really are a tough lass, aren’t you?”

Blinking back the rogue tears that she had somehow managed not to let fall, Emma beamed at him in spite of how dire things had been mere moments ago. “You better believe it,” she affirmed, proud that her voice was almost completely steady.

“Well then,” he continued to smile back, gently cupping her face with his solid hand, gazing at her in warm admiration and what she had to feel was a bit of awed surprise as well.  “Let’s see about getting you and Miss Hermann back to civilization in one piece, shall we?”  He dipped his head before looking up at her in question once more, as if having to make certain, “That is, if you’re still determined to stay with me.”

Planting a hand on her hip and giving him an obstinate, challenging look, Emma arched her brow at that last bit so eloquently that Killian flushed sheepishly.

“Right, of course,” he mumbled.  Then, before stepping away, he drew even closer still, pulling her in slowly to press his forehead to hers fervently.  “Then at least let me say this… Thank you.  Not just for overlooking my loss of control, or giving me another chance despite knowing what I am, though both of those mean more than I can express… but thank you for saving my soul. For nigh on two decades now, you’ve given me meaning, a reason to exist.  I am in your debt, Love.  Truly.”

Emma tilted her head to study him after that heartfelt speech, and then mischief stole across her bright features before she responded airily.  “I don’t know, Jones.  I think there might be a more tactile expression of your gratitude in order.”  She lifted her face to him knowingly, smile with tempting expectation as she traced the tip of her tongue across her upper lip, so quickly he could have almost missed it if he hadn’t been unbearably focused on her precious face.  “You may have the prettiest words of anyone I’ve ever met,” she teased, though her voice was soft now, almost breathless, “but is that really all your life is worth to you?”

Killian was reading her signals loud and clear, his eyebrows nearly rising into his hairline at her obvious anticipation. The air between them had been so fraught and tense with all that had happened that her attempt to lighten the mood was much appreciated, though he could not simply ignore the very real desire rushing through him to take her up on her clear offer either.  It seemed he had dreamed of kissing this glorious firestorm of a woman for so long, all the while holding back, convinced that doing so would spell the end for them instead of the beginning, that the permission to follow his instinct, the realization that Emma wished for the very same thing was exhilarating.

Surging forward with a guttural moan of pleasure reverberating low in his throat, Killian could wait no longer to finally kiss this woman who had enchanted him years ago, capturing his heart as she challenged him and made him a part of the world again.  Tracing her lips briefly with his tongue, her salty skin and soft, inviting mouth exquisite in its flavor, he pressed forward, catching her up and overwhelming her in the best of ways, causing them to stumble backwards into the support of the nearest wall.  His hands delved into her golden hair, running his fingers through the silk of it as he had long ached to do, and he could only shiver and nearly growl out his muffled approval when she pressed further into him in return, clinging to his shoulders in abandon and holding on tightly to stay on her feet against his dizzying onslaught and give back every bit as good.

Panting and lightheaded when they finally parted just a hair's breadth in order to breathe, Emma smiled up at him with a look of flushed awe that warmed his cold, undead body from the tips of his ears to the ends of his toes.  He would never know what she had seen in him to make her stay instead of running to safety while she had the chance.  No matter how she protested, he would never find himself worthy of the devotion of a woman like her, but Killian knew in that moment he would spend the rest of his immortal life endeavoring to do so - just as he had for the years he had spent as her self-appointed guardian.

A knock on the door just then startled them both into jumping apart like two awkward teenagers caught red handed.  “Guys?  Are you alright in there?” Ashley’s voice, equal parts nervous, curious, and healthily annoyed, asked them through the door into the rest of the suite.  “If we could get out of here some time this century, that’d be great.  This place really kinda gives me the creeps…”

Emma snorted a held back giggle through her nose at the younger woman’s words.  A fetching blush rapidly spread across her cheeks, down her neck, and disappeared into her shirt collar, and Killian couldn’t help but find her even more lovely when flustered, especially since he had been the one to make her so.  “Yep! We’re coming!” she managed to call out breathily to their witness, moving to straighten her rumpled appearance just a bit and trying to make her hair look less disheveled from his hands.

It wasn’t long after that they were ready to leave their seedy hideout and begin the journey back to civilization from the burning desert.  Killian looked back once more just before closing the door on the ramshackle room.  Mere hours ago he’d been certain he was meeting his end, the running for his and Ashley’s lives over and their time lost, and now it seemed that forever once more stretched out ahead.  They would find their way home safely; he no longer had any doubt.

#cssns #cs au oneshot ff #moonlight au #vampire PI Killian #reporter Emma #i'm so excited to finally put this out there #and a lot nervous too #but @wingedlioness and her art are amazing!!!

[ericvick]

Indeed, Dorchester’s John King is Ireland’s latest household title

WICKLOW, Ireland — 1 of the issues that American people to Ireland are typically confounded by is the extent to which individuals below are steeped in and educated about politics 3,000 miles absent. The transatlantic ties sewn by emigration, family and, increasingly, company are mainly accountable. And Irish folks like their politics. Over the previous four several years, it has been with a combination of disbelief and horror that they have appeared on at the Trump administration.

Accordingly, they weren’t about to cease observing until eventually they understood, for sure, who would be inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021. A man who is recognised all over the US and to persons across Massachusetts owing to his lengthy, stellar profession at CNN, but who is specially common to Dorchester natives and citizens since he grew up in St. Mark’s Parish, so made an amazing entrance on to Ireland’s collective radar screen: It is no overstatement to say that John King was the most listened to and trustworthy personal in this region in the days after Nov. 3. More on Ireland’s newest movie star momentarily.

Back in East Milton, wherever I grew up, it’s truthful to say that politics was invariably to the fore in our house. My father, one more Larry, was a fount of wisdom about the toughest enterprise of them all. He grew up in and close to it. I want he experienced stood for office himself.

His brother Brian was a Massachusetts condition agent from Dorchester who later on invested 7 terms in the United States House of Associates and served as ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago even though Monthly bill Clinton was president. Their uncles, Frank and John Kelly, had been Boston town councillors, with Frank afterwards serving as lieutenant governor and legal professional normal and operating unsuccessfully for governor. It is in the blood. A relevant undesirable routine I picked up from my Father at a younger age was incessantly hollering again at the tv and radio when politics and current affairs ended up currently being talked about. I’ve routinely assumed that “I know greater!” and have to get my two cents in. In reality, I was jealous of these who generate a residing from talking about what is my passion.

But Boston Irish legal professionals with a solid interest in politics and an affiliation to the Democratic Occasion are much more dime a dozen than diamond in the tough in the land of my beginning. A single of the quite a few unforeseen benefits of relocating to Eire nearly two decades ago, nonetheless, has been recognizing what has constantly been a desire and taking on what has morphed into a 2nd vocation for me: media punditry on the politics of the two sites I will endlessly think about home.

Given that 2008, it has been a privilege to evaluate the outcomes of US presidential elections as they arrive in on what is typically the first Tuesday in November on RTÉ, the countrywide broadcaster. Given the time change, it is an overnight shift. This calendar year, the protection was anchored by Caitríona Perry, who claimed on American politics brilliantly in her tenure as the network’s Washington correspondent and has composed two insightful publications on the election of Donald Trump and the influence of Irish The usa.

We had been joined by a lot of high profile attendees from the US, these kinds of as previous White House Chief of Stuff Mick Mulvaney, previous Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, previous New York Congressman Joe Crowley, and sitting down Philadelphia Congressman Brendan Boyle. Our live system wrapped up soon after 4 a.m., Irish time, when the outcome was not fully distinct, but the crucial indicators have been all pointing to a acquire for Joe Biden.

Then, many thanks to satellite technologies, a person who was brought up in a threedecker between Ashmont and Fields Corner arrived into sitting rooms in each and every metropolis, city, village, and rural location.

Irish men and women are accustomed to protracted election counts and couldn’t get plenty of of it as John King broke down the final results condition by condition and county by county, demonstrating a extensive expertise as he retained heading on almost no slumber and buckets of espresso. The “magic wall” of the US he and many others use at CNN took on a daily life of itself. And inevitably, the viewers had to obtain out: Could they assert him? The screenwriter of the strike comedy “Derry Girls” questioned if he was Irish in a tweet. King’s succinct reply – “Always”- sealed the offer. In a subsequent job interview with the much beloved Miriam O’Callaghan on her Sunday morning radio clearly show, King downplayed the multiple compliments available by the host and her listeners. Acquiring completed his research, he explained Miriam as Ireland’s Oprah.

He also spoke movingly about his family, in specific his late father Chris (who, coincidentally, was a Dorchester present-day and pal of my Dad’s) and his Connemara-born grandparents, as well as the beneficial lessons figured out in childhood that have remained with him. Like so several People prior to him, King is now preparing a stop by back again “home” to Galway to reunite with his cousins and get a fuller feeling of his roots.

He has mentioned that he seems ahead to a number of pints in Keogh’s in his ancestral village of Ballyconneely – so deep in the west of Eire that the up coming stop basically is Boston. He’ll have a rough time shopping for his personal, however.

In his generally specialist interaction of what actually transpired in Election 2020, John King received the rapt notice and sincere admiration of the Irish people today. He did his family and the community that formed him extremely very pleased.

Larry Donnelly is a Boston-born legal professional, a Regulation Lecturer at the Nationwide College of Eire, Galway and a typical Irish media contributor on politics, existing affairs and legislation on both sides of the Atlantic. He is on Twitter @LarryPDonnelly.

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#Dorchesters #household #Irelands #John #King #Latest #title

[metawitches]

But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media

Though I have been writing reviews on this blog for more than three years, I have been keeping a dark secret from you, dear readers. I haven’t really been keeping the secret on purpose, but a lie of omission is still a lie, so please, try to forgive me. I don’t think this reveal will come as much of a shock to my regular readers.

The truth is, I have a deep, lifelong love of vampire romance. I’m open minded, and can consider other supernatural romances as well, but werewolves are so packminded that I question their devotion to their beloved. Ghosts seem so thin and superficial. Zombies are interested in brains, but I want more than just a relationship of the mind. Angels and demons both have to leave their beloveds in the lurch when they get called into service by the higher- and lower- powers they serve. A shapeshifter is an inconstant lover in so many ways, how could we ever develop trust?

There are exceptions: Oz from Buffy. The medieval ghosts of Lynn Kurland’s paranormal romance novels. The sentient zombies of In the Flesh. The married angel-demon couple from Midnight, Texas, another Charlaine Harris story. And no one is more trustworthy than True Blood’s own shapeshifter, Sam Merlotte.

As a general rule, witches and wizards are the only other supernatural beings I truly find exciting, with their wide range of abilities to charm or bewitch the pants off a girl, depending on the mood.

Since I’m a witch myself, and wizards are a dime a dozen, can you blame me for looking for a little more variety in my fantasy life?

Bring on the dark, brooding vampires, who are the epitome of devoted, romantic lovers, are immortal, manageably dangerous and adventurous, definitely where they’re supposed to be during the day, gorgeous and who can share their blood. Blood which, if used in small quantities, will heal without turning a human into a vampire, but which can also make the user immortal if desired, so they can share everlasting love with their vampire lover.

What could go wrong? Don’t answer that, we all need to discover some things for ourselves.

I admit, this is a hereditary issue for me. My mother and older sister sat me down in front of the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows in 1966, when I was 5 years old, to watch the trials and tribulations of vampire Barnabas Collins, of the supernatural Collins family of Collinsport, Maine. Collinsport was a mysterious town on the cold, rocky shores of northern Maine, just like the small towns in coastal northern Maine my mother’s family had lived in for 300 years, until my parents moved us to upstate NY.

With the amount of inbreeding that went on in the small early populations of northern New England, I wouldn’t be surprised if I share some relatives in common with Barnabas Collins. 😉 I certainly share the vampire’s love of night and inability to handle strong light.

(Yes, I live in New Mexico, why do you ask? This is why hats, tinted glasses and long summers with warm nights were invented. True Blood is a Southern Gothic for a reason. The Twilight vampires can keep their rain soaked, cold climates.)

I still have a copy with this original cover.

Dark Shadows ran for 6 seasons, through 1971. Then I moved on to films and book series, most notably Anne Rice. I received 2 copies of her book Interview with the Vampire for my 16th birthday, in 1977, because my friends and family knew me well, and I haven’t looked back since. Though the author clearly favors the character Lestat, tenderhearted Louis will always be my favorite of her vampires. He is, after all, the vampire who was interviewed.

There were other favorites through the years, such as the film The Lost Boys in 1987 and the Dark Shadows revival in 1991. There were viral vampires, such as The Strain and The Passage, descendants of Nosferatu rather than Dracula. Viral vampires are better not mentioned if you prefer your vampires to be romantic. There was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, film and series. Who could resist Angel? He was so irresistible that David Boreanaz has starred in one TV series or another continuously ever since. I definitely resisted Spike, though I know others didn’t.

There was The Vampire Diaries on The CW, which ran for 8 seasons (2009-17) and spawned 2 spin off series, The Originals (2013-18) and Legacies (2018- ). The first 4 seasons of The Vampire Diaries were as good as any vampire media I’ve seen anywhere. I lost interest when the storylines were watered down by splitting the cast to create spin offs and some of my favorite actors left the franchise, but those vampires are obviously still doing it for others.

Over the years, Ann Rice has written more than a dozen books on vampires, plus other series on other supernaturals, some with her son, Christopher Rice. She managed to make a mummy sexy. Her original vampire trilogy was turned into two mediocre films. I also had a fling with Katie MacAlister’s Dark Ones book series in the 00s, a fun vampire soulmate series. Now I notice she’s added a few installments since I last checked in with it about 10 years ago so, yay! Something else to read over the winter.

The big vampire story of the 00s was Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight book series, which my kids and I shared the way I’d shared Dark Shadows with my family as a child. The Twilight films were terrible, terrible things. I recommend skipping them. But as with so much that’s perceived to be originally aimed at teenage girls, the Twilight books have been unfairly maligned. They are full of universal themes and vivid characters.

Bella is a great character for anyone to follow and she has a romance to die for. She does so much more than have a boyfriend and a baby in her books, but even if that’s all she did, it would be enough. Navigating personal relationships is a huge part of life, and for someone from a background of abuse and neglect, like Bella, learning how to have healthy relationships when you are older is a long term challenge.

If it takes a vampire family to show you what real love, care, equal relationships and decent parenting look like, there’s nothing wrong with that. There are very good reasons why Bella’s romance is in love not just with Edward, but with his entire clan. Because of her childhood experiences, she’s in love with the idea of transforming from a human who has difficulty defending herself against the human monsters in her world, who include her parents, into a vampire who can protect herself and her entire devoted vampire family from even the fiercest of supernatural monsters. After a youth full of struggle, she finds her own power and uses it on her own terms to win a war, in addition to conducting an epic vampire romance.

There was a last, forgotten, one and done vampire TV series of the 00s, Moonlight, on CBS, starring Alex O’Loughlin, who quickly went on to become better known as Steve McGarrett in the Hawaii Five-0 revival, and Jason Dohring of Veronica Mars. Moonlight aired during the 2007-08 season, so it was affected by the infamous, endless writers’ strike which killed more than 1 show that year. It was just hitting its stride when the season was cut short.

As a vampire romance noir which explored multiple historical time periods plus the present day, it was sadly ahead of its time for broadcast TV. Plus, though the show had already been completely recast after early sample filming (except for Alex O’Loughlin), the writing still focused too much on the relationship between O’Loughlin’s main vampire character, Mick St John, and the lead ingenue human female, Beth (Sophia Myles), rather than the much more interesting and complex relationship between Mick and his ancient vampire, on again-off again wife and maker, Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon).

The show was course correcting in that direction when it ended after 16 episodes, an unusually short season in those days. I would be thrilled with a reboot of Moonlight that was done right. (It’s currently streaming on cwseed.com.)

Alas, the media deities rarely listen to my brilliant ideas, so we are subject to the slings and arrows and fangs of outrageous fortune. But just 4 short months after Moonlight went off the air, a new vampire romance rolled into town, and it wasn’t shy about telling us what it wanted. True Blood was the answer to all my vampire romance prayers.

Let’s Finally Review True Blood Season 1

True Blood aired on HBO for 7 seasons, for a total of 80 episodes, from the fall of 2008 to the summer of 2014. It’s based on the 13-14 book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. The TV series was created by Alan Ball, who was handpicked by Charlaine Harris because she felt he understood what she was trying to do with the books. He stayed on as showrunner for the first 5 seasons, which were all critically acclaimed.

The TV series stars Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress who lives in Bon Temps, a small town in rural Louisiana. Sookie sees her telepathy as a disability because she has a hard time turning it off, which makes it difficult to concentrate on anything else or to have normal human relationships. As a result, she’s socially isolated, other than a few close friends and her family- the warm, generous grandmother she lives with, Adele, known as Gran (Lois Smith), and her charming but selfish, promiscuous brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten).

Sookie works at her friend Sam Merlotte’s bar and restaurant (Sam Trammell), where she’s also friends with much married fellow waitress Arlene (Carrie Preston) and fabulous short-order cook and hustler, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). Her best friend and Lafayette’s cousin, Tara (Rutina Wesley), begins working at Merlotte’s as a bartender at the beginning of the series. Most of the town passes through Merlotte’s at one time or another, since it’s a popular local hangout.

Sookie’s parents died in a flash flood when she was a child, but other than that and her telepathy, her life has been normal, even humdrum. Until vampires came out of the coffin a few years ago, as far as she knew there was nothing extraordinary about the world. She still has no idea why she’s psychic.

A synthetic blood which can sustain vampires, known by the brand name Tru Blood, has encouraged vampires to take the controversial step of revealing themselves as a species to humans. Amongst both vampires and humans, some have embraced this revelation and some fear what it will mean for the future. Sookie makes her very first vampire acquaintance, with the vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), when he stops by Merlotte’s to try a Tru Blood. Bill is attempting to mainstream, meaning he’s trying to blend in with humans as much as possible, rather than living the full vampire lifestyle, which naturally disregards human manners and customs. Normal vampire ways tend to alienate normal humans fairly quickly. They can even be deadly for humans.

Vampire blood can be used as a recreational drug, so there are dealers who capture vampires, drain their blood, then sell it. Sometimes they kill the vampire in the process. In the first episode, an unethical couple lure Bill into the parking lot to drain him, which Sookie overhears using her telepathic ability. Sookie is surprised to discover how easily some silver and the promise of a tasty snack can disarm a vampire. She rescues Bill and their relationship is born.

Due to the images her telepathy puts in her head, Sookie has never been able to date human men, so Bill is her first boyfriend. His main attraction is that she’s unable to read his mind. Perhaps because they are technically dead, vampire minds are a blank to her. For a telepath who’s always “on”, this is soothing.

True Blood season 1 is a Southern Gothic, paranormal, horror, mystery, romance, urban fantasy, much the same as the book it’s based on, Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark. Though the subject matter is intense, the writing is relatively fast-paced and there’s a dark comedy element to it that keeps the horror aspect from becoming overwhelming. The show isn’t as light and breezy as the books; in addition to the book’s humor it uses visuals and a heightened reality to emphasize the outrageous nature of Sookie’s world. The characters frequently comment on that outrageousness and on the ironies taking place around them.

In season 1, there’s a serial killer on the loose who provides the season long mystery arc. The killer is after young women who’ve been with both vampires and human men. Since Sookie has a vampire boyfriend and is frequently around other men, she eventually becomes one of the targets.

The show’s theme song, Bad Things, by Jace Everett, perfectly encapsulates the mood of True Blood. It’s an upbeat country song that promises an out of control romance, which plays over the opening credit sequence of each episode. Humans and animals experiencing intense situations flash by, while names are superimposed over them. The activities in the visuals aren’t necessarily even immoral, they’re just filmed in a way that makes them feel creepy, until you aren’t sure anymore what’s actually bad and what’s just making you feel bad.

Like an insidious vampire who wants to have his way with us, the opening credits act to lower our boundaries and confuse us, so that we’re disoriented and easily taken out of our normal lives. Whether we’re being glamoured, romanced, drugged or conned, the first step is to convince us to leave our previous concept of normal behind.

The first year I watched True Blood, I thought the opening sequence was the grossest, most horrible opening credits sequence ever made. Now I love it and think it’s one of the best. Is that a good development or a bad one? *shrug* I still can’t watch the maggots though. The vampires haven’t completely taken me over.

True Blood continues to lower our defenses and push our boundaries once the opening credits end. Vampires and shapeshifters are welcomed into normal society. They take part in panels on CNN, discussing legal changes which have been proposed to help or hinder their assimilation. They stop at the 7-11 to pick up a 6 pack on their way home. They have difficulty getting a contractor to come out to their rural home and need a referral from a friend. They are business owners, employers and employees.  They worry about getting blood stains out of their laundry. Possibly a little more often than most of us, but still.

They sleep underground in the graveyard when they can’t make it home before dawn. It’s sort of like crashing at a friend’s house. Okay, that one is pushing the boundaries of normal human culture. There is an entire vampire culture that exists outside of human sight, but we only touch the surface of it in season 1.

Sookie is drawn into this world as she seeks to solve the murder mystery and enlists Bill’s help. She visits a vampire bar run by the ancient vampire sheriff, Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) and his vampire progeny, Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten). They learn of her telepathy and seek to use her talents to solve their own mysteries.

Shenanigans ensue for 7 unparalleled seasons.

True Blood Season 1 vs The Southern Vampire Mysteries Book 1 (Dead Until Dark)

True Blood season 1 follows Dead Until Dark, the first book in the series, closely, using the same serial killer plot as the main mystery storyline and Sookie’s romance with Bill as the supernatural focus. The book was originally published in 2001 and my 2008 paperback copy is a quick 292 page read.

Neither the TV season nor the book are my favorite of their respective series, mainly because I am emphatically not a fan of Bill Compton and eventually I start to gag over the way Sookie continuously drools over him. But they are both entertaining and introduce the world of Sookie and Bon Temps with enough suspense, heart and humor to draw you into the next book and season.

In season 1, the TV series faithfully recreates Charlaine Harris’ version of Sookie’s world, from Gran’s old but well-loved farmhouse to Eric Northman’s vampire tourist bar, Fangtasia. The series also included mainly the same characters and subplots as the book, with a few alterations. The main difference is that the TV show expanded on plotlines that were only briefly mentioned in the book, such as recreational V(ampire blood) consumption by humans, Lafayette’s off hours activities and the vampires’ struggle for equal rights.

Many of the supporting characters and their backstories are much more developed in True Blood season 1 than they are in book 1. This is an unusual difference between a book and a movie, but it’s not as surprising when you realize that the Sookie Stackhouse novels are narrated in the first person by Sookie herself. Expanding on other characters isn’t a priority for her, even though it could be aided by her telepathy. She’s basically obsessed with Vampire Bill and the murders in this book, whereas she’s known the other characters her whole life. It’s natural for her to have little interest in providing extra details, so she tells us enough, but we don’t get a full biography.

Two characters who go on to appear in multiple books are left out of the TV series, Bubba and JB du Rone. Bubba is based on a very famous real life singer, so they probably figured he’d be distracting, as he typically is in the books. JB du Rone is a sweet man-child who shares some similarities with Lafayette and eventually becomes close to Tara. I suspect the Lafayette we see on screen is actually meant to be a composite character, with many tweaks and Lafayette’s brains.

The biggest change from Dead Until Dark is the addition of Tara Thornton to the cast. In the books she doesn’t appear until the 2nd installment, Living Dead in Dallas. Several major season 1 subplots revolve around Tara, including the set up for the main storyline for season 2, and she’s heavily involved in other characters’ plot arcs as well. Rutina Wesley is such a vibrant presence that it’s hard to imagine Bon Temps without her version of Tara, so this was certainly a welcome change. With Tara comes her alcoholic mother, Lettie Mae, played by one of my favorite actresses, Adina Porter.

Another notable change is the expansion of the storyline for book character Amy Burley, played by Lizzy Caplan. She and Jason become involved with a vampire played the Man in the High Castle himself, Stephen Root, with disastrous consequences, but it’s fun while it lasts. The Amy-Jason-V subplot is particularly effective, with its psychedelic visuals, sometimes subtle violence and obsessive relationships.

The actors and the visuals drive home the multiple abuse aspects of this plotline in a way that would be much more difficult using only words. The genius of True Blood is that the writing, acting, music and visuals come together to make an entertaining, memorable show while showing the dark side of society and how that dark underbelly can bring pain and pleasure. But True Blood wouldn’t exist if Charlaine Harris’ genius hadn’t already given us the snarky, bold, scandalous world they are elaborating on.

True Blood is streaming on HBO’s websites and Amazon Prime. Charlaine Harris has a new book in her current Gunnie Rose series, A Longer Fall, coming out in January 2020. Until then, I’m amusing myself by revisiting Sookie Stackhouse.

Images belong to those who created them.

Book vs Screen Review: True Blood Season 1 vs Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris-But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media-Bring on the dark, brooding vampires. #TrueBlood #CharlaineHarris But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media Though I have been writing reviews on this blog for more than three years, I have been keeping a dark secret from you, dear readers.

#Alex O&039;Loughlin #Ann Rice #Book vs Screen #Charlaine Harris #Dark Shadows #Dead Until Dark #Katie MacAlister #metacrone #Quick Review #review #supernatural #True Blood #Vampires

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'Ted Lasso' and the Journey From Viral Promo to TV Series

Jason Sudeikis reprises his role as a befuddled coach in England, with his viral NBC promos evolving into a full-on TV show. He explains the story of how it happened.

There’s a scene in Ted Lasso, where the title character–Jason Sudeikis’s American football coach who abruptly turns into a Premier League manager–sprints to the assistant referee in the middle of a crucial match after raising his flag for an offside call.

“Come on, now! What do you mean? How’s that offside?” complains Lasso, with his characteristic Kansan drawl as the linesman looks at him with confusion.

“What?” asks the official.

Lasso gets closer. “No, I’m serious. How’s that offside...I don’t understand it yet.”

This lack of complete understanding and across-the-pond confusion is one way to describe the essence of Apple TV+’s latest sitcom, which originated from a 2013 NBC Sports promo. That's where Sudeikis introduced his character as part of the network’s acquisition of the Premier League broadcast rights. 

The idea was simple. Lasso, an intense, wide-eyed college football coach from Kansas City arrives in London and enters the alien world of the Premier League. In the promos, he takes over Tottenham (the following season,

he returns as head coach of youth girls' team St. Catherine Fighting Owls), questioning why players don’t wear more pads and teaching the art of flopping. He has no knowledge of the game or its cultural and historical significance. It was a satiric outlook at two different worlds seen through the eyes of a naïve American, and for NBC, it was a way to both attract a loyal, knowledgeable soccer fan as well as appeal to a new audience. 

In the end, it worked, as both promos (2013 and 2014) went viral and gained a tremendous amount of attention. Combined, the videos have generated more than 20 million views on YouTube and helped the network build a strong foundation for its Premier League audience.

It’s been six years since those promos aired, and soccer in the U.S.–without Ted Lasso–has grown tremendously in popularity. So how was the character revived? 

“I guess it’s a dozen little things that go right that you’re willing and ready to receive,” Sudeikis told Sports Illustrated. “After doing the second video (in 2014), it really unlocked elements of the character that we found very, very fun to write and portray and view the world through. So, one day in 2015, my partner Olivia (the actress and filmmaker Olivia Wilde) came up to me one day and said, ‘You know, you should do Ted Lasso as a show,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know,’ but then after marinating on it, I thought maybe this could happen.”

In spring of the same year, Sudeikis got together with his creative partners and writers, Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt–the three of them started together with Chicago’s well-known improv group The Second City and Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago; Hunt also plays Lasso’s assistant coach and confidante Coach Beard–and powered through for a week to see if they could create a show out of it. 

“When you have a germ of an idea, you don’t know if it’s something you say out loud or if it’s a tweet or a letter or a screenplay, who knows," Sudeikis said. "So, we sat down, and we were able to bang out a pilot pretty quick in that week. As well as outlining six to 10 episodes of the first season. And that let us know, ‘O.K., there’s something here.’”

Despite the excitement for the idea, that’s all it was at that moment–an idea without a home. So, life continued, and the three friends left Ted Lasso alone for a few years and diverted their focus to their respective careers. 

“But that allowed us to get a little space from it, and low and behold, the showbiz gods looked and smiled down on us and brought Bill to our doorstep,” Sudeikis said.

"Bill" is Bill Lawrence, the experienced television writer, producer and creative force behind award-winning shows such as Scrubs, Cougar Town and Spin City. Lawrence entered the frame in 2017 when he and Sudeikis played pickup basketball a couple of nights a week and one night, the idea of Ted Lasso came up. After a few more chats, he read the script and the concept and was immediately interested. 

“I wanted to work with Jason Sudeikis, he just cracks me up. I thought he was awesome on SNL, whenever he shows up in a movie, I’m immediately into it and he seems like that dude you want to hang with,” Lawrence said. “I’d also seen those sketches, the promotional videos for the Premier League back when he did them and I thought they were so funny, and he said, 'What if we made that character three-dimensional and really rounded him out?' Ted Lasso can still be goofy and funny, but we could also have our version.”

And this was critical for Sudeikis. In the commercials, Lasso’s unawareness is funny and often endearing, but for a show, there had be more to him for the audience to not just laugh, but also root for him. 

“I think Scrubs is a fantastic show. You can put the 10 best episodes of it up against any show,” Sudeikis said. “Bill writes male characters and relationships so beautifully, his use of music and dealing with heavy duty issues of life and death. And now, two years later, here we are talking about it. It’s actually really gonna happen and I can’t kind of believe it.”

Not only is the show happening (it premieres this Friday), but it also succeeds in its mission. Ted Lasso is warm, it’s funny and–like the main character–it has heart. Unlike the commercials, where Ted’s biggest trait is his buffoonery, the show celebrates his relentless thirst for hope. He is a man with passion, dignity and someone you for whom you cheer. Lasso is the eternal optimist, whose naivety is both a strength and a weakness, and just like J.D from Scrubs, Lasso is vulnerable (in the show, he actually leaves the U.S. to escape from a troubled marriage) and aches for comfort. That’s what he offers his new team in return–an arrogant, underachieving Premier League side controlled by a scorned owner. It’s not Tottenham this time around, but the fictional AFC Richmond.

Lawrence sees Lasso as the perfect example of the inspiring teacher. A sports version of Robin Williams's John Keating from Dead Poets Society, where his personality is a weapon against cynical reporters and resentful fans who naturally express their disgust at the thought of an American with no knowledge of the game taking over their beloved club.

“We all grew up with a favorite teacher or a favorite coach. They put us on a path. These people never force you into doing anything. It’s just good folks,” Lawrence said. “Me and Jason overlap cause we also like doing shows with heart and because it’s such a dumpster-fire time in the world, Jason really wanted to do a show that was hopeful and optimistic, and most sports movies have that. That’s what's at their core. It’s the underdog. We were trying to capture that optimism and hopefulness that comes with those iconic figures from your life, whether it’s a coach, a teacher or a parent.”

If there's a coach in the real Premier League that emits optimism and hopefulness, it's Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp, and Sudeikis admits that Lasso's character in the show is partly inspired by him. 

“Man. When I heard about him taking his squad to go do karaoke, I was like, ‘hellooooo, story idea…’” said Sudeikis, who also admires Pep Guardiola. “I really love those coaches. I really like the way they handle themselves as leaders of an organization. They are guys who I would follow into a fist fight.”

Sudeikis loves the game but fully admits he still needs to do more before calling himself a hardcore, scholarly fan. 

"I love the sport. My joke has been that I have a deep appreciation for it but a shallow understanding. But that’s why I keep company with Brendan and Joe, who know their stuff,” Sudeikis said. “But it’s still all new to me. Every time I go to see a match, I buy a kit for me at the gift shop and a kit for my little boy. I’m ready to be a fair-weather fan for whoever needs it [laughs]. I know people hate for me that, but that’s the truth.”

The showrunners put together a cast with colorful characters who add depth to the multiple plots. There’s the tough-as-nails veteran midfielder Roy Kent (surely inspired by Roy Keane and played by Brett Goldstein), the narcissistic Man City loanee Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster), the charismatic duo of Dani Rojas (Mexican star played by Cristo Fernandez) and Nigerian forward Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh). Nick Mohammed (who can be seen in Sky TV/Peacock’s Intelligence) also shines as the quiet kitman. It’s also refreshing to hear NBC’s Arlo White serving as the show’s commentator throughout AFC Richmond’s season.

But if there’s someone aside from Sudeikis's Lasso who steals the show, it’s Keeley Jones, the confident and no-nonsense TV celebrity/model/PR guru played by Juno Temple. She was the only actor who didn’t audition, as Sudeikis, who knew her work, wanted her in the show from the get-go. 

“I met Juno with Olivia when they were on Vinyl (Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese’s 2016 HBO show), so I’ve done karaoke with her. I’ve been in a room with her. I knew her,” Sudeikis said. “She’s so fun and dynamic and just pro-female. She’s just a kick-ass that lives with an excitement that’s fun to be around, and that’s a little bit of what the character had.”

In the end, Ted Lasso is exactly what an audience needs right now. It’s a story that makes you laugh and reminds you to smile at adversity. It’s a lesson that’s less about football management and more about unity, and the script works because it takes a hold of our differences and embraces them as one. And it echoes Lasso’s favorite Walt Whitman quote, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

Lasso is heroic, not because he commands respect but because he earns it. He is kind, because he doesn’t know any other way. But like us, he is also vulnerable, and that’s why we can relate to his journey.

“He’s more white rabbit than white knight, but he’s actually becoming the change he wants to see in the world, without any agenda,” Sudeikis said. “And these days, that’s unusual, both in real life and on television.”

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[bbmannhall]

TICKETS FOR

CAMERON MACKINTOSH’S ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION OF

BOUBLIL AND SCHÖNBERG’S

LES MISÉRABLES

THE MUSICAL PHENOMENON

GO ON SALE FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16 AT 10AM

FORT MYERS ENGAGEMENT

AT BARBARA B. MANN PERFORMING ARTS HALL AT FSW

FEBRUARY 19-24

Cameron Mackintosh’s acclaimed production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Tony Award-winning musical phenomenon, LES MISÉRABLES, will go on sale Friday, November 16 at 10AM for its much-anticipated Fort Myers engagement at Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall at FSW direct from a celebrated two-and-a-half year Broadway engagement.  To purchase tickets, visit www.bbmannpah.com , call 239-481-4849 or visit the Box Office. Ticket prices start at $44*. LES MISÉRABLES is part of the Fifth Third Bank Broadway Series.

With glorious new staging and dazzlingly reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, this breathtaking production of LES MISÉRABLES, which broke box office records during its pre-Broadway tour, has left both audiences and critics awestruck, cheering “Les Miz is born again!” (NY1).

Cameron Mackintosh said, “I’m delighted that after a four-year absence this glorious production is once again touring the major cities across North America and is more spectacular than ever.”

Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, LES MISÉRABLES tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption – a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. Featuring one of the greatest scores of all time, with thrilling and beloved songs including “I Dreamed A Dream,” “On My Own,” “Stars," “Bring Him Home,” “One Day More,” “Do You Hear the People Sing” and many more, this epic and uplifting story has become one of the most celebrated musicals in theatrical history. Along with the Oscar-winning movie version, it has now been seen by more than 130 million people in 44 countries and in 22 languages around the globe. LES MISÉRABLES is still the world’s most popular musical, breaking box office records everywhere in its 33rd year.

Cameron Mackintosh’s production of Boublil and Schönberg’s LES MISÉRABLES has music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer from the original French text by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, additional material by James Fenton and original adaptation by Trevor Nunn and John Caird. The original LES MISÉRABLES orchestrations are by John Cameron with new orchestrations by Christopher Jahnke, Stephen Metcalfe and Stephen Brooker.  The production is directed by Laurence Connor and James Powell, designed by Matt Kinley inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo with costumes by Andreane Neofitou and Christine Rowland, lighting by Paule Constable, sound by Mick Potter, musical staging by Michael Ashcroft and Geoffrey Garratt and projections by Fifty-Nine Productions. Music Supervision is by Stephen Brooker and James Moore, with casting by Kaitlin Shaw for Tara Rubin Casting.

“Thrilling, spectacular and unforgettable.”

-The New York Times

“**** (4 out of 4 stars). One of the greatest musicals ever created! A gorgeous touring ‘Les Misérables’ is back on the barricades, renewed and refreshed.”

-Chicago Tribune

“This ‘Les Miz’ is a winner. Standout cast shines in revamped production.”

-The Providence Journal

“You simply won’t want it to end.”

-Boston Globe

“A stirring, thumping, heart-throbbing return of a pop opera whose themes of revolution and righteousness seem particularly well suited to our current turbulent times.”

-Hartford Courant

“Visually stunning! A monumental musical packed with power voices.”

-Chicago Sun-Times

LES MISÉRABLES originally opened in London at the Barbican Theatre on October 8, 1985, transferred to the Palace Theatre on December 4, 1985 and moved to its current home at the Queen’s Theatre on April 3, 2004 where it continues to play to packed houses and is the only version of the original production left in the world. The original Broadway production of LES MISÉRABLES opened at the Broadway Theatre on March 12, 1987 and transferred to the Imperial Theatre on October 17, 1990 running for 6,680 performances.  The original US National Tour began in November 1987 and visited over 150 cities before closing in St. Louis, MO in 2006.  Broadway audiences welcomed LES MIZ back to New York on November 9, 2006 where the show played the Broadhurst Theatre until its final performance on January 6, 2008.

The new production was conceived in 2009 to celebrate the 25th Anniversary, with record-breaking productions in the U.K., Australia, Korea, Japan, Spain, France, Manila, Singapore, São Paulo and Dubai. The North American Tour traveled across the U.S. for two years then played a five-month engagement in Toronto before returning to the Imperial Theatre on Broadway in March 2014 for over 1,000 performances. The new production is currently playing to sold out houses across North America and in Mexico City with a new U.K. Tour beginning November 2018.

To date, LES MISÉRABLES remains the 5th longest-running Broadway production of all time.

# # #

Performance Dates/Times:        Tuesday, February 19 – 7:30PM*

                                               Wednesday, February 20 – 7:30PM*

                                               Thursday, February 21 – 7:30PM*

                                               Friday, February 22 – 8:00PM*

                                               Saturday, February 23 – 2:00PM* & 8:00PM*

                                                    ASL Performance: Saturday, February 23 – 2:00PM*

                                               Sunday, February 24 – 1:00PM* & 6:30PM*

Ticket Prices:                           $84*    $79*    $64*    $54*    $44*

                                               *All shows, dates, times and ticket prices are subject to change

[footyplusau]

Overflow crowd expected for Richards’ funeral

LOU RICHARDS always attracted a crowd in life, and he has done it again in death, with hundreds of mourners flocking to Melbourne’s rainy CBD to farewell the football legend.

The much-loved Collingwood and media figure has been honoured with a state funeral service at St Paul’s Cathedral on Wednesday.

A who’s who of football, media and government representatives have assembled to pay their respects, including AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan, AFL Legend Ron Barassi and greats Kevin Sheedy and Neil Roberts.

Watch: From the lips of Lou

The Collingwood contingent is led by president Eddie McGuire and includes coach Nathan Buckley, previous coach Mick Malthouse, past president Allan McAlister and greats Kevin Rose, Peter McKenna and Des Tuddenham, and also in attendance were luminaries such as Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt, Victoria’s Emergency Services Minister James Merlino and former Victorian Premier John Brumby.

The McGuire family outside St Paul’s. Picture: Getty Images

Richards died peacefully on Monday May 8, aged 94, prompting an outpouring of both sadness and celebration for a unique man who lived an extraordinary life.

As expected, Richards’ funeral service was more joyous than sombre.

Richards’ daughter Nicole Morrison gave the gathering an insight into Richards the father: “He loved us, and he spoilt us, he supported us, and most of all, gave us the most wonderful life. There was fun and laughter and never a dull moment.

“He challenged you and nurtured you. He was firm but fair when we were young, and became our best friend once he knew we were ready to make good life choices.”

Nathan Buckley and Collingwood CEO Gary Pert. Picture: Getty Images

McGuire said that when he reflected on Richards “and his amazing journey from the Depression-era backstreets of Collingwood to the premiership captain on the MCG, the King of Moomba, and the greatest star in the biggest game in town, the media”, he was reminded of the last stanza of Rudyard Kipling’s poem If, which reads:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch, If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With 60 seconds’ worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

“And what a man,” McGuire declared. “What a family.”

A feisty rover, Richards followed a long line of family members to represent his beloved Magpies, playing 250 games and kicking 423 goals from 1941-55, and captaining the club to the 1953 premiership.

But it was his ubiquitous presence in the media – on television, radio and in print – that lifted Richards to true superstardom.

Former North Melbourne administrator and friend Ron Joseph alluded to Richards’ healthy ego when he said: “Lou was right. He said his funeral would be bigger than Texas.”

On Richards not being an official Legend in the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Joseph summed up the feelings of many when he asserted: “Lou is a legend. In fact, he is bigger than a legend.”

Former Channel Nine colleague and close friend Tony Jones said: “We as a city, a state and a nation, are all the better for knowing him.”

After the service, Collingwood players and coaches formed a guard of honour outside the cathedral for the motorcade, which passed by the Lou Richards statue at the Holden Centre.

AFL/VFL greats Bobby Skilton and Michael Malthouse. Picture: Getty Images

Your memories of ‘Louie the Lip’

A Magpie legend, TV trailblazer and great entertainer – there weren’t many like Lou Richards

We asked for your favourite memories of Richards, from his 250-game playing career to his time as a Thursday night TV fixture on League Teams, and beyond.

Here are some of your best stories.

I witnessed Lou drinking out of Haydn Bunton’s boot

Lou said that Swan Districts, coached by Haydn Bunton Jnr, couldn’t win the 1961 WAFL Grand Final against massive favourites, Polly Farmer’s East Perth.

He said he would drink milk from Bunton’s boot if the Swans won. The Swans won their first flag and I was at Bassendean Oval on Sunday as an 11-year-old to celebrate and to witness Lou drinking out of Haydn Bunton’s boot.

– Brent Watkins, Scarborough WA

The day Peter Landy chased him from the commentary box

As 12-year-olds, myself and mates at the Escort Cup matches at VFL Park used to delight in taunting Peter Landy about his ceramic-looking hairpiece.

Lou, overhearing, said: “Ha, it certainly hasn’t moved and we’re in an Arctic gale …”.

Landy then spat the dummy, lurched up from the commentary box and gave chase.

– Adrian Thomas, Frankston Vic

He delivered a reverse stab drop kick onto my chest from 20m

I met Lou as a 13-year-old on entry to the VFL to watch North v South Melbourne in 1977. He took the time to entertain myself and a couple of mates plus deliver a reverse stab drop kick by the heel of his foot sharp onto my chest some 20 metres away.

I’m still amazed by this skillful act 40 years later.

And who can ever forget his entertaining hosting of the Colliwobbles burial at Victoria Park in November 1990?

What a lovable character!

– Steve Miller, Palmwoods Qld

What did they make of Louie the Lip in Saudi Arabia?

I remember the replay of the 1977 drawn Grand Final. As North were warming up there was an onscreen roll of the countries to which it was being beamed over satellite. For some reason, Saudi Arabia made an imprint.

When the camera came to the gigantic Mick Nolan, Lou said: “and have a look at big Mick Nolan, ‘the Galloping Gasometer’. You need a roadmap and a waterbag just to walk around him”.

The whole family just lost it, and I remember us wondering what they made of that comment in Saudi Arabia. Vale, Louie the Lip.

– Steve Shanahan, Sydney NSW

Drinks in the World of Sports dressing room were unforgettable

Together with four other guys, I was one of the World of Sports ‘Beat The Champ’ quiz men in summers between 1964 and 1976.

After the show was over, all involved would adjourn to the dressing room where Gordon, Lou’s barman from the Phoenix Hotel, was charged with ensuring nobody’s beer glass was ever empty.

Talking with those sporting legends was unforgettable. Fantastic memories.

– Fred Ford, Blackburn Vic

A coiner of nicknames

[I loved] his nicknames for players. ‘The Macedonian Marvel’ for Peter Daicos. ‘Lethal’ Leigh Matthews. ‘The Flying Doormat’ for Bruce Doull, ‘the Galloping Gasometer’ for Mick Nolan, ‘the Flying Dutchman’ for Paul Van De Haar … and the list goes on.

I was too young to see him play, but he was a great commentator who brought fun and a light heartedness to the sport.

– Michael Langlois, Sunnybank Qld

Dusting Collins St on his hands and knees

I will always remember Lou as one of the greats in our game. He was the real kiss of death.

I remember he once said, if the Magpies lose this game I will dust Collins Street with a feather duster. And he did, on hands and knees.

What a man he was.

– Ted Drew, Coffs Harbour NSW

Rowing Billy Goggin across the Barwon

Besides World of Sport on Sundays, and League Teams, Lou was the voice of footy for me in the 1970s and ’80s.

I can still remember him rowing Geelong coach Billy Goggin across the Barwon River.

Thank you Lou Richards, you are a legend.

– Darren Ward, Geelong Vic

There was nothing better than watching Lou and the gang every Sunday

[Loved the] Sunday Footy Show, especially Lou’s handball segment. Can we bring this back?

There was nothing better than watching Lou and the gang on every Sunday, and in his memory we should all remember to be more like him.

– Gabriel Garivaldis, Caulfield North Vic

Piggybacking ‘the Galloping Gasometer’

My favourite memory of Lou? Piggybacking Mick ‘the Galloping Gasometer’ Nolan on the steps of the North Melbourne Town Hall after a bet with Jack Dyer.

My first reaction on hearing of his passing? Like I felt when John Lennon died. A large chunk of my youth has now been taken away.

Rest in peace, Lou. Hate Collingwood but always admired you and what you stood for. 

– Phil Rowan, Banyo Qld

• Obituary: 170cm Lou, a giant on and off the field

The post Overflow crowd expected for Richards’ funeral appeared first on Footy Plus.

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[ecoorganic]

'Ted Lasso' and the Journey From Viral Promo to TV Series

Jason Sudeikis reprises his role as a befuddled coach in England, with his viral NBC promos evolving into a full-on TV show. He explains the story of how it happened.

There’s a scene in Ted Lasso, where the title character–Jason Sudeikis’s American football coach who abruptly turns into a Premier League manager–sprints to the assistant referee in the middle of a crucial match after raising his flag for an offside call.

“Come on, now! What do you mean? How’s that offside?” complains Lasso, with his characteristic Kansan drawl as the linesman looks at him with confusion.

“What?” asks the official.

Lasso gets closer. “No, I’m serious. How’s that offside...I don’t understand it yet.”

This lack of complete understanding and across-the-pond confusion is one way to describe the essence of Apple TV+’s latest sitcom, which originated from a 2013 NBC Sports promo. That's where Sudeikis introduced his character as part of the network’s acquisition of the Premier League broadcast rights. 

The idea was simple. Lasso, an intense, wide-eyed college football coach from Kansas City arrives in London and enters the alien world of the Premier League. In the promos, he takes over Tottenham (the following season,

he returns as head coach of youth girls' team St. Catherine Fighting Owls), questioning why players don’t wear more pads and teaching the art of flopping. He has no knowledge of the game or its cultural and historical significance. It was a satiric outlook at two different worlds seen through the eyes of a naïve American, and for NBC, it was a way to both attract a loyal, knowledgeable soccer fan as well as appeal to a new audience. 

In the end, it worked, as both promos (2013 and 2014) went viral and gained a tremendous amount of attention. Combined, the videos have generated more than 20 million views on YouTube and helped the network build a strong foundation for its Premier League audience.

It’s been six years since those promos aired, and soccer in the U.S.–without Ted Lasso–has grown tremendously in popularity. So how was the character revived? 

“I guess it’s a dozen little things that go right that you’re willing and ready to receive,” Sudeikis told Sports Illustrated. “After doing the second video (in 2014), it really unlocked elements of the character that we found very, very fun to write and portray and view the world through. So, one day in 2015, my partner Olivia (the actress and filmmaker Olivia Wilde) came up to me one day and said, ‘You know, you should do Ted Lasso as a show,’ and I said, ‘I don’t know,’ but then after marinating on it, I thought maybe this could happen.”

In spring of the same year, Sudeikis got together with his creative partners and writers, Joe Kelly and Brendan Hunt–the three of them started together with Chicago’s well-known improv group The Second City and Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago; Hunt also plays Lasso’s assistant coach and confidante Coach Beard–and powered through for a week to see if they could create a show out of it. 

“When you have a germ of an idea, you don’t know if it’s something you say out loud or if it’s a tweet or a letter or a screenplay, who knows," Sudeikis said. "So, we sat down, and we were able to bang out a pilot pretty quick in that week. As well as outlining six to 10 episodes of the first season. And that let us know, ‘O.K., there’s something here.’”

Despite the excitement for the idea, that’s all it was at that moment–an idea without a home. So, life continued, and the three friends left Ted Lasso alone for a few years and diverted their focus to their respective careers. 

“But that allowed us to get a little space from it, and low and behold, the showbiz gods looked and smiled down on us and brought Bill to our doorstep,” Sudeikis said.

"Bill" is Bill Lawrence, the experienced television writer, producer and creative force behind award-winning shows such as Scrubs, Cougar Town and Spin City. Lawrence entered the frame in 2017 when he and Sudeikis played pickup basketball a couple of nights a week and one night, the idea of Ted Lasso came up. After a few more chats, he read the script and the concept and was immediately interested. 

“I wanted to work with Jason Sudeikis, he just cracks me up. I thought he was awesome on SNL, whenever he shows up in a movie, I’m immediately into it and he seems like that dude you want to hang with,” Lawrence said. “I’d also seen those sketches, the promotional videos for the Premier League back when he did them and I thought they were so funny, and he said, 'What if we made that character three-dimensional and really rounded him out?' Ted Lasso can still be goofy and funny, but we could also have our version.”

And this was critical for Sudeikis. In the commercials, Lasso’s unawareness is funny and often endearing, but for a show, there had be more to him for the audience to not just laugh, but also root for him. 

“I think Scrubs is a fantastic show. You can put the 10 best episodes of it up against any show,” Sudeikis said. “Bill writes male characters and relationships so beautifully, his use of music and dealing with heavy duty issues of life and death. And now, two years later, here we are talking about it. It’s actually really gonna happen and I can’t kind of believe it.”

Not only is the show happening (it premieres this Friday), but it also succeeds in its mission. Ted Lasso is warm, it’s funny and–like the main character–it has heart. Unlike the commercials, where Ted’s biggest trait is his buffoonery, the show celebrates his relentless thirst for hope. He is a man with passion, dignity and someone you for whom you cheer. Lasso is the eternal optimist, whose naivety is both a strength and a weakness, and just like J.D from Scrubs, Lasso is vulnerable (in the show, he actually leaves the U.S. to escape from a troubled marriage) and aches for comfort. That’s what he offers his new team in return–an arrogant, underachieving Premier League side controlled by a scorned owner. It’s not Tottenham this time around, but the fictional AFC Richmond.

Lawrence sees Lasso as the perfect example of the inspiring teacher. A sports version of Robin Williams's John Keating from Dead Poets Society, where his personality is a weapon against cynical reporters and resentful fans who naturally express their disgust at the thought of an American with no knowledge of the game taking over their beloved club.

“We all grew up with a favorite teacher or a favorite coach. They put us on a path. These people never force you into doing anything. It’s just good folks,” Lawrence said. “Me and Jason overlap cause we also like doing shows with heart and because it’s such a dumpster-fire time in the world, Jason really wanted to do a show that was hopeful and optimistic, and most sports movies have that. That’s what's at their core. It’s the underdog. We were trying to capture that optimism and hopefulness that comes with those iconic figures from your life, whether it’s a coach, a teacher or a parent.”

If there's a coach in the real Premier League that emits optimism and hopefulness, it's Liverpool's Jurgen Klopp, and Sudeikis admits that Lasso's character in the show is partly inspired by him. 

“Man. When I heard about him taking his squad to go do karaoke, I was like, ‘hellooooo, story idea…’” said Sudeikis, who also admires Pep Guardiola. “I really love those coaches. I really like the way they handle themselves as leaders of an organization. They are guys who I would follow into a fist fight.”

Sudeikis loves the game but fully admits he still needs to do more before calling himself a hardcore, scholarly fan. 

"I love the sport. My joke has been that I have a deep appreciation for it but a shallow understanding. But that’s why I keep company with Brendan and Joe, who know their stuff,” Sudeikis said. “But it’s still all new to me. Every time I go to see a match, I buy a kit for me at the gift shop and a kit for my little boy. I’m ready to be a fair-weather fan for whoever needs it [laughs]. I know people hate for me that, but that’s the truth.”

The showrunners put together a cast with colorful characters who add depth to the multiple plots. There’s the tough-as-nails veteran midfielder Roy Kent (surely inspired by Roy Keane and played by Brett Goldstein), the narcissistic Man City loanee Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster), the charismatic duo of Dani Rojas (Mexican star played by Cristo Fernandez) and Nigerian forward Sam Obisanya (Toheeb Jimoh). Nick Mohammed (who can be seen in Sky TV/Peacock’s Intelligence) also shines as the quiet kitman. It’s also refreshing to hear NBC’s Arlo White serving as the show’s commentator throughout AFC Richmond’s season.

But if there’s someone aside from Sudeikis's Lasso who steals the show, it’s Keeley Jones, the confident and no-nonsense TV celebrity/model/PR guru played by Juno Temple. She was the only actor who didn’t audition, as Sudeikis, who knew her work, wanted her in the show from the get-go. 

“I met Juno with Olivia when they were on Vinyl (Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese’s 2016 HBO show), so I’ve done karaoke with her. I’ve been in a room with her. I knew her,” Sudeikis said. “She’s so fun and dynamic and just pro-female. She’s just a kick-ass that lives with an excitement that’s fun to be around, and that’s a little bit of what the character had.”

In the end, Ted Lasso is exactly what an audience needs right now. It’s a story that makes you laugh and reminds you to smile at adversity. It’s a lesson that’s less about football management and more about unity, and the script works because it takes a hold of our differences and embraces them as one. And it echoes Lasso’s favorite Walt Whitman quote, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

Lasso is heroic, not because he commands respect but because he earns it. He is kind, because he doesn’t know any other way. But like us, he is also vulnerable, and that’s why we can relate to his journey.

“He’s more white rabbit than white knight, but he’s actually becoming the change he wants to see in the world, without any agenda,” Sudeikis said. “And these days, that’s unusual, both in real life and on television.”

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[metawitches]

But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media

Though I have been writing reviews on this blog for more than three years, I have been keeping a dark secret from you, dear readers. I haven’t really been keeping the secret on purpose, but a lie of omission is still a lie, so please, try to forgive me. I don’t think this reveal will come as much of a shock to my regular readers.

The truth is, I have a deep, lifelong love of vampire romance. I’m open minded, and can consider other supernatural romances as well, but werewolves are so packminded that I question their devotion to their beloved. Ghosts seem so thin and superficial. Zombies are interested in brains, but I want more than just a relationship of the mind. Angels and demons both have to leave their beloveds in the lurch when they get called into service by the higher- and lower- powers they serve. A shapeshifter is an inconstant lover in so many ways, how could we ever develop trust?

There are exceptions: Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The medieval ghosts of Lynn Kurland’s paranormal romance novels. The sentient zombies of In the Flesh. The married angel-demon couple from Midnight, Texas, another Charlaine Harris story. And no one is more trustworthy than True Blood’s own shapeshifter, Sam Merlotte.

As a general rule, witches and wizards are the only other supernatural beings I truly find exciting, with their wide range of abilities to charm or bewitch the pants off a girl, depending on the mood.

Since I’m a witch myself, and wizards are a dime a dozen, can you blame me for looking for a little more variety in my fantasy life?

Bring on the dark, brooding vampires, who are the epitome of devoted, romantic lovers, are immortal, manageably dangerous and adventurous, definitely where they’re supposed to be during the day, gorgeous and who can share their blood. Blood which, if used in small quantities, will heal without turning a human into a vampire, but which can also make the user immortal if desired, so they can share everlasting love with their vampire lover.

What could go wrong? Don’t answer that, we all need to discover some things for ourselves.

I admit, this is a hereditary issue for me. My mother and older sister sat me down in front of the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows in 1966, when I was 5 years old, to watch the trials and tribulations of vampire Barnabas Collins, of the supernatural Collins family of Collinsport, Maine. Collinsport was a mysterious town on the cold, rocky shores of northern Maine, just like the small towns in coastal northern Maine my mother’s family lived in for 300 years, until my parents moved us to upstate NY.

With the amount of inbreeding that went on in the small early populations of northern New England, I wouldn’t be surprised if I share some relatives in common with Barnabas Collins. 😉 I certainly share the vampire’s love of night and inability to handle strong light.

(Yes, I live in sunny New Mexico, why do you ask? This is why hats, tinted glasses and long summers with warm nights were invented. True Blood is a sultry Southern Gothic for a reason. The Twilight vampires can keep their rain soaked, cold climates.)

I still have a copy with this original cover.

Dark Shadows ran for 6 seasons, through 1971. Then I moved on to films and book series, most notably Anne Rice. I received 2 copies of her book Interview with the Vampire for my 16th birthday, in 1977, because my friends and family knew me well, and I haven’t looked back since. Though the author clearly favors the character Lestat, tenderhearted Louis will always be my favorite of her vampires. He is, after all, the vampire who was interviewed.

There were other favorites through the years, such as the film The Lost Boys in 1987 and the Dark Shadows revival in 1991. There were viral vampires, such as The Strain and The Passage, descendants of Nosferatu rather than Dracula. It’s better not to mention viral vampires if you prefer your vampires to be romantic.

There was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, film and series. Who could resist Angel? He was so irresistible that David Boreanaz has starred in one TV series or another continuously ever since. I definitely resisted Spike, though I know others didn’t.

There was The Vampire Diaries on The CW, which ran for 8 seasons (2009-17) and spawned 2 spin off series, The Originals (2013-18) and Legacies (2018- ). The first 4 seasons of The Vampire Diaries were as good as any vampire media I’ve seen anywhere. I lost interest when the storylines were watered down by splitting the cast to create spin offs and some of my favorite actors left the franchise, but those vampires are obviously still doing it for others.

Over the years, Ann Rice has written more than a dozen books on vampires, plus more series on other supernaturals, some with her son, Christopher Rice. She managed to make a mummy sexy. Her original vampire trilogy was turned into two mediocre films. I also had a fling with Katie MacAlister’s Dark Ones book series in the 00s, a fun vampire soulmate series. Now I notice she’s added a few installments since I last checked in with it about 10 years ago so, yay! Something else to read over the winter.

The big vampire story of the 00s was Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight book series, which my kids and I shared the way I’d shared Dark Shadows with my family as a child. The Twilight films were terrible, terrible things. I recommend skipping them. But as with so much that’s perceived to be originally aimed at teenage girls, the Twilight books have been unfairly maligned. They are full of universal themes and vivid characters.

Bella is a great character for anyone to follow and she has a romance to die for. She does so much more than have a boyfriend and a baby in her books, but even if that’s all she did, it would be enough. Navigating personal relationships is a huge part of life, and for someone from a background of abuse and neglect, like Bella, learning how to have healthy relationships when you are older is a long term challenge.

If it takes a vampire family to show you what real love, care, equal relationships and decent parenting look like, there’s nothing wrong with that. There are very good reasons why Bella’s romance is not just with Edward, but with his entire clan. Because of her childhood experiences, she’s in love with the idea of transforming from a human who has difficulty defending herself against the human monsters in her world, who include her parents, into a vampire who can protect herself and her entire devoted vampire family from even the fiercest of supernatural monsters. After a youth full of struggle, she finds her own power and uses it on her own terms to win a war, in addition to conducting an epic vampire romance.

There was a last, forgotten, one and done vampire TV series of the 00s, Moonlight, on CBS, starring Alex O’Loughlin, who quickly went on to become better known as Steve McGarrett in the Hawaii Five-0 revival, and Jason Dohring of Veronica Mars. Moonlight aired during the 2007-08 season, so it was affected by the infamous, endless writers’ strike which killed more than 1 show that year. It was just hitting its stride when the season was cut short.

As a vampire romance noir which explored multiple historical time periods plus the present day, it was sadly ahead of its time for broadcast TV. Plus, though the show had already been completely recast after early sample filming (except for Alex O’Loughlin), the writing still focused too much on the relationship between O’Loughlin’s main vampire character, Mick St John, and the lead ingenue human female, Beth (Sophia Myles), rather than the much more interesting and complex relationship between Mick and his ancient, vampire, on again-off again wife and maker, Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon).

The show was course correcting in that direction when it ended after 16 episodes, an unusually short season in those days. I would be thrilled with a reboot of Moonlight that was done right. (It’s currently streaming on cwseed.com.)

Alas, the media deities rarely listen to my brilliant ideas, so we are subject to the slings and arrows and fangs of outrageous fortune. But just 4 short months after Moonlight went off the air, a new vampire romance rolled into town, and it wasn’t shy about telling us what it wanted. True Blood was the answer to all my vampire romance prayers.

Let’s Finally Review True Blood Season 1

True Blood aired on HBO for 7 seasons, for a total of 80 episodes, from the fall of 2008 to the summer of 2014. It’s based on the 13-14 book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. The TV series was created by Alan Ball, who was handpicked by Charlaine Harris because she felt he understood what she was trying to do with the books. He stayed on as showrunner for the first 5 seasons, which were all critically acclaimed.

The TV series stars Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress who lives in Bon Temps, a small town in rural Louisiana. Sookie sees her telepathy as a disability because she has a hard time turning it off, which makes it difficult to concentrate on anything else or to have normal human relationships. As a result, she’s socially isolated, other than a few close friends and her family- the warm, generous grandmother she lives with, Adele, known as Gran (Lois Smith), and her charming but selfish, promiscuous brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten).

Sookie works at her friend Sam Merlotte’s bar and restaurant (Sam Trammell), where she’s also friends with much married fellow waitress Arlene (Carrie Preston) and fabulous short-order cook and hustler, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). Her best friend and Lafayette’s cousin, Tara (Rutina Wesley), begins working at Merlotte’s as a bartender at the beginning of the series. Most of the town passes through Merlotte’s at one time or another, since it’s a popular local hangout.

Sookie’s parents died in a flash flood when she was a child, but other than that and her telepathy, her life has been normal, even humdrum. Until vampires came out of the coffin a few years ago, as far as she knew there was nothing extraordinary about the world. She still has no idea why she’s psychic.

A synthetic blood which can sustain vampires, known by the brand name Tru Blood, has encouraged vampires to take the controversial step of revealing themselves as a species to humans. Amongst both vampires and humans, some have embraced this revelation and some fear what it will mean for the future. Sookie makes her very first vampire acquaintance, with the vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), when he stops by Merlotte’s to try a Tru Blood. Bill is attempting to mainstream, meaning he’s trying to blend in with humans as much as possible, rather than living the full vampire lifestyle, which naturally disregards human manners and customs. Normal vampire ways tend to alienate normal humans fairly quickly. They can even be deadly for humans.

Vampire blood can be used as a recreational drug, so there are dealers who capture vampires, drain their blood, then sell it. Sometimes they kill the vampire in the process. In the first episode, an unethical couple lure Bill into the parking lot to drain him, which Sookie overhears using her telepathic ability. Sookie is surprised to discover how easily some silver and the promise of a tasty snack can disarm a vampire. She rescues Bill and their relationship is born.

Due to the images her telepathy puts in her head, Sookie has never been able to date human men, so Bill is her first boyfriend. His main attraction is that she’s unable to read his mind. Perhaps because they are technically dead, vampire minds are a blank to her. For a telepath who’s always “on”, this is soothing.

True Blood season 1 is a Southern Gothic, paranormal, horror, mystery, romance, urban fantasy, much the same as the book it’s based on, Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark. Though the subject matter is intense, the writing is relatively fast-paced and there’s a dark comedy element to it that keeps the horror aspect from becoming overwhelming. The show isn’t as light and breezy as the books; in addition to the book’s humor it uses visuals and a heightened reality to emphasize the outrageous nature of Sookie’s world. The characters frequently comment on that outrageousness and on the ironies taking place around them.

In season 1, there’s a serial killer on the loose who provides the season long mystery arc. The killer is after young women who’ve been with both vampires and human men. Since Sookie has a vampire boyfriend and is frequently around other men, she eventually becomes one of the targets.

The show’s theme song, Bad Things, by Jace Everett, perfectly encapsulates the mood of True Blood. It’s an upbeat country song that promises an out of control romance, which plays over the opening credit sequence of each episode. Humans and animals experiencing intense situations flash by, while names are superimposed over them. The activities in the visuals aren’t necessarily even immoral, they’re just filmed in a way that makes them feel creepy, until you aren’t sure anymore what’s actually bad and what’s just making you feel bad.

Like an insidious vampire who wants to have his way with us, the opening credits act to lower our boundaries and confuse us, so that we’re disoriented and easily taken out of our normal lives. Whether we’re being glamoured, romanced, drugged or conned, the first step is to convince us to leave our previous concept of normal behind.

The first year I watched True Blood, I thought the opening sequence was the grossest, most horrible opening credits sequence ever made. Now I love it and think it’s one of the best. Is that a good development or a bad one? *shrug* I still can’t watch the maggots though. The vampires haven’t completely taken me over.

True Blood continues to lower our defenses and push our boundaries once the opening credits end. Vampires and shapeshifters are welcomed into normal society. They take part in panels on CNN, discussing legal changes which have been proposed to help or hinder their assimilation. They stop at the 7-11 to pick up a 6 pack on their way home. They have difficulty getting a contractor to come out to their rural home and need a referral from a friend. They are business owners, employers and employees.  They worry about getting blood stains out of their laundry. Possibly a little more often than most of us, but still.

They sleep underground in the graveyard when they can’t make it home before dawn. It’s sort of like crashing at a friend’s house. Okay, that one is pushing the boundaries of normal human culture. There is an entire vampire culture that exists outside of human sight, but we only touch the surface of it in season 1.

Sookie is drawn into this world as she seeks to solve the murder mystery and enlists Bill’s help. She visits a vampire bar run by the ancient vampire sheriff, Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) and his vampire progeny, Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten). They learn of her telepathy and seek to use her talents to solve their own mysteries.

Shenanigans ensue for 7 unparalleled seasons.

ETA 4/9/20: True Blood is streaming free on Hulu for a limited time.

True Blood Season 1 vs The Southern Vampire Mysteries Book 1 (Dead Until Dark)

True Blood season 1 follows Dead Until Dark, the first book in the series, closely, using the same serial killer plot as the main mystery storyline and Sookie’s romance with Bill as the supernatural focus. The book was originally published in 2001 and my 2008 paperback copy is a quick 292 page read.

Neither the TV season nor the book are my favorite of their respective series, mainly because I am emphatically not a fan of Bill Compton and eventually I start to gag over the way Sookie continuously drools over him. But they are both entertaining and introduce the world of Sookie and Bon Temps with enough suspense, heart and humor to draw you into the next book and season.

In season 1, the TV series faithfully recreates Charlaine Harris’ version of Sookie’s world, from Gran’s old but well-loved farmhouse to Eric Northman’s vampire tourist bar, Fangtasia. The series also included mainly the same characters and subplots as the book, with a few alterations. The main difference is that the TV show expanded on plotlines that were only briefly mentioned in the book, such as recreational V(ampire blood) consumption by humans, Lafayette’s off hours activities and the vampires’ struggle for equal rights.

Many of the supporting characters and their backstories are much more developed in True Blood season 1 than they are in book 1. This is an unusual difference between a book and a movie, but it’s not as surprising when you realize that the Sookie Stackhouse novels are narrated in the first person by Sookie herself. Expanding on other characters isn’t a priority for her, even though it could be aided by her telepathy. She’s basically obsessed with Vampire Bill and the murders in this book, whereas she’s known the other characters her whole life. It’s natural for her to have little interest in providing extra details, so she tells us enough, but we don’t get a full biography.

Two characters who go on to appear in multiple books are left out of the TV series, Bubba and JB du Rone. Bubba is based on a very famous real life singer, so they probably figured he’d be distracting, as he typically is in the books. JB du Rone is a sweet man-child who shares some similarities with Lafayette and eventually becomes close to Tara. I suspect the Lafayette we see on screen is actually meant to be a composite character, with many tweaks and Lafayette’s brains.

The biggest change from Dead Until Dark is the addition of Tara Thornton to the cast. In the books she doesn’t appear until the 2nd installment, Living Dead in Dallas. Several major season 1 subplots revolve around Tara, including the set up for the main storyline for season 2, and she’s heavily involved in other characters’ plot arcs as well. Rutina Wesley is such a vibrant presence that it’s hard to imagine Bon Temps without her version of Tara, so this was certainly a welcome change. With Tara comes her alcoholic mother, Lettie Mae, played by one of my favorite actresses, Adina Porter.

Another notable change is the expansion of the storyline for book character Amy Burley, played by Lizzy Caplan. She and Jason become involved with a vampire played the Man in the High Castle himself, Stephen Root, with disastrous consequences, but it’s fun while it lasts. The Amy-Jason-V subplot is particularly effective, with its psychedelic visuals, sometimes subtle violence and obsessive relationships.

The actors and the visuals drive home the multiple abuse aspects of this plotline in a way that would be much more difficult using only words. The genius of True Blood is that the writing, acting, music and visuals come together to make an entertaining, memorable show while showing the dark side of society and how that dark underbelly can bring pain and pleasure. But True Blood wouldn’t exist if Charlaine Harris’ genius hadn’t already given us the snarky, bold, scandalous world they are elaborating on.

True Blood is streaming on HBO’s websites and Amazon Prime. Charlaine Harris has a new book in her current Gunnie Rose series, A Longer Fall, coming out in January 2020. Until then, I’m amusing myself by revisiting Sookie Stackhouse.

Images belong to those who created them.

Book vs Screen Review: True Blood Season 1 vs Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris-But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media-Bring on the dark, brooding vampires. Now on Hulu. #TrueBlood #Hulu But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media Though I have been writing reviews on this blog for more than three years, I have been keeping a dark secret from you, dear readers.

#Ann Rice #black comedy #Book vs Screen #Charlaine Harris #comedy-horror #Dead Until Dark #metacrone #Quick Review #review #supernatural #True Blood #vampire romance #Vampires

[metawitches]

But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media

Though I have been writing reviews on this blog for more than three years, I have been keeping a dark secret from you, dear readers. I haven’t really been keeping the secret on purpose, but a lie of omission is still a lie, so please, try to forgive me. I don’t think this reveal will come as much of a shock to my regular readers.

The truth is, I have a deep, lifelong love of vampire romance. I’m open minded, and can consider other supernatural romances as well, but werewolves are so packminded that I question their devotion to their beloved. Ghosts seem so thin and superficial. Zombies are interested in brains, but I want more than just a relationship of the mind. Angels and demons both have to leave their beloveds in the lurch when they get called into service by the higher- and lower- powers they serve. A shapeshifter is an inconstant lover in so many ways, how could we ever develop trust?

There are exceptions: Oz from Buffy. The medieval ghosts of Lynn Kurland’s paranormal romance novels. The sentient zombies of In the Flesh. The married angel-demon couple from Midnight, Texas, another Charlaine Harris story. And no one is more trustworthy than True Blood’s own shapeshifter, Sam Merlotte.

As a general rule, witches and wizards are the only other supernatural beings I truly find exciting, with their wide range of abilities to charm or bewitch the pants off a girl, depending on the mood.

Since I’m a witch myself, and wizards are a dime a dozen, can you blame me for looking for a little more variety in my fantasy life?

Bring on the dark, brooding vampires, who are the epitome of devoted, romantic lovers, are immortal, manageably dangerous and adventurous, definitely where they’re supposed to be during the day, gorgeous and who can share their blood. Blood which, if used in small quantities, will heal without turning a human into a vampire, but which can also make the user immortal if desired, so they can share everlasting love with their vampire lover.

What could go wrong? Don’t answer that, we all need to discover some things for ourselves.

I admit, this is a hereditary issue for me. My mother and older sister sat me down in front of the Gothic soap opera Dark Shadows in 1966, when I was 5 years old, to watch the trials and tribulations of vampire Barnabas Collins, of the supernatural Collins family of Collinsport, Maine. Collinsport was a mysterious town on the cold, rocky shores of northern Maine, just like the small towns in coastal northern Maine my mother’s family had lived in for 300 years, until my parents moved us to upstate NY.

With the amount of inbreeding that went on in the small early populations of northern New England, I wouldn’t be surprised if I share some relatives in common with Barnabas Collins. 😉 I certainly share the vampire’s love of night and inability to handle strong light.

(Yes, I live in New Mexico, why do you ask? This is why hats, tinted glasses and long summers with warm nights were invented. True Blood is a Southern Gothic for a reason. The Twilight vampires can keep their rain soaked, cold climates.)

I still have a copy with this original cover.

Dark Shadows ran for 6 seasons, through 1971. Then I moved on to films and book series, most notably Anne Rice. I received 2 copies of her book Interview with the Vampire for my 16th birthday, in 1977, because my friends and family knew me well, and I haven’t looked back since. Though the author clearly favors the character Lestat, tenderhearted Louis will always be my favorite of her vampires. He is, after all, the vampire who was interviewed.

There were other favorites through the years, such as the film The Lost Boys in 1987 and the Dark Shadows revival in 1991. There were viral vampires, such as The Strain and The Passage, descendants of Nosferatu rather than Dracula. Viral vampires are better not mentioned if you prefer your vampires to be romantic. There was Buffy the Vampire Slayer, film and series. Who could resist Angel? He was so irresistible that David Boreanaz has starred in one TV series or another continuously ever since. I definitely resisted Spike, though I know others didn’t.

There was The Vampire Diaries on The CW, which ran for 8 seasons (2009-17) and spawned 2 spin off series, The Originals (2013-18) and Legacies (2018- ). The first 4 seasons of The Vampire Diaries were as good as any vampire media I’ve seen anywhere. I lost interest when the storylines were watered down by splitting the cast to create spin offs and some of my favorite actors left the franchise, but those vampires are obviously still doing it for others.

Over the years, Ann Rice has written more than a dozen books on vampires, plus other series on other supernaturals, some with her son, Christopher Rice. She managed to make a mummy sexy. Her original vampire trilogy was turned into two mediocre films. I also had a fling with Katie MacAlister’s Dark Ones book series in the 00s, a fun vampire soulmate series. Now I notice she’s added a few installments since I last checked in with it about 10 years ago so, yay! Something else to read over the winter.

The big vampire story of the 00s was Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight book series, which my kids and I shared the way I’d shared Dark Shadows with my family as a child. The Twilight films were terrible, terrible things. I recommend skipping them. But as with so much that’s perceived to be originally aimed at teenage girls, the Twilight books have been unfairly maligned. They are full of universal themes and vivid characters.

Bella is a great character for anyone to follow and she has a romance to die for. She does so much more than have a boyfriend and a baby in her books, but even if that’s all she did, it would be enough. Navigating personal relationships is a huge part of life, and for someone from a background of abuse and neglect, like Bella, learning how to have healthy relationships when you are older is a long term challenge.

If it takes a vampire family to show you what real love, care, equal relationships and decent parenting look like, there’s nothing wrong with that. There are very good reasons why Bella’s romance is in love not just with Edward, but with his entire clan. Because of her childhood experiences, she’s in love with the idea of transforming from a human who has difficulty defending herself against the human monsters in her world, who include her parents, into a vampire who can protect herself and her entire devoted vampire family from even the fiercest of supernatural monsters. After a youth full of struggle, she finds her own power and uses it on her own terms to win a war, in addition to conducting an epic vampire romance.

There was a last, forgotten, one and done vampire TV series of the 00s, Moonlight, on CBS, starring Alex O’Loughlin, who quickly went on to become better known as Steve McGarrett in the Hawaii Five-0 revival, and Jason Dohring of Veronica Mars. Moonlight aired during the 2007-08 season, so it was affected by the infamous, endless writers’ strike which killed more than 1 show that year. It was just hitting its stride when the season was cut short.

As a vampire romance noir which explored multiple historical time periods plus the present day, it was sadly ahead of its time for broadcast TV. Plus, though the show had already been completely recast after early sample filming (except for Alex O’Loughlin), the writing still focused too much on the relationship between O’Loughlin’s main vampire character, Mick St John, and the lead ingenue human female, Beth (Sophia Myles), rather than the much more interesting and complex relationship between Mick and his ancient vampire, on again-off again wife and maker, Coraline (Shannyn Sossamon).

The show was course correcting in that direction when it ended after 16 episodes, an unusually short season in those days. I would be thrilled with a reboot of Moonlight that was done right. (It’s currently streaming on cwseed.com.)

Alas, the media deities rarely listen to my brilliant ideas, so we are subject to the slings and arrows and fangs of outrageous fortune. But just 4 short months after Moonlight went off the air, a new vampire romance rolled into town, and it wasn’t shy about telling us what it wanted. True Blood was the answer to all my vampire romance prayers.

Let’s Finally Review True Blood Season 1

True Blood aired on HBO for 7 seasons, for a total of 80 episodes, from the fall of 2008 to the summer of 2014. It’s based on the 13-14 book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris. The TV series was created by Alan Ball, who was handpicked by Charlaine Harris because she felt he understood what she was trying to do with the books. He stayed on as showrunner for the first 5 seasons, which were all critically acclaimed.

The TV series stars Anna Paquin as Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress who lives in Bon Temps, a small town in rural Louisiana. Sookie sees her telepathy as a disability because she has a hard time turning it off, which makes it difficult to concentrate on anything else or to have normal human relationships. As a result, she’s socially isolated, other than a few close friends and her family- the warm, generous grandmother she lives with, Adele, known as Gran (Lois Smith), and her charming but selfish, promiscuous brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten).

Sookie works at her friend Sam Merlotte’s bar and restaurant (Sam Trammell), where she’s also friends with much married fellow waitress Arlene (Carrie Preston) and fabulous short-order cook and hustler, Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). Her best friend and Lafayette’s cousin, Tara (Rutina Wesley), begins working at Merlotte’s as a bartender at the beginning of the series. Most of the town passes through Merlotte’s at one time or another, since it’s a popular local hangout.

Sookie’s parents died in a flash flood when she was a child, but other than that and her telepathy, her life has been normal, even humdrum. Until vampires came out of the coffin a few years ago, as far as she knew there was nothing extraordinary about the world. She still has no idea why she’s psychic.

A synthetic blood which can sustain vampires, known by the brand name Tru Blood, has encouraged vampires to take the controversial step of revealing themselves as a species to humans. Amongst both vampires and humans, some have embraced this revelation and some fear what it will mean for the future. Sookie makes her very first vampire acquaintance, with the vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), when he stops by Merlotte’s to try a Tru Blood. Bill is attempting to mainstream, meaning he’s trying to blend in with humans as much as possible, rather than living the full vampire lifestyle, which naturally disregards human manners and customs. Normal vampire ways tend to alienate normal humans fairly quickly. They can even be deadly for humans.

Vampire blood can be used as a recreational drug, so there are dealers who capture vampires, drain their blood, then sell it. Sometimes they kill the vampire in the process. In the first episode, an unethical couple lure Bill into the parking lot to drain him, which Sookie overhears using her telepathic ability. Sookie is surprised to discover how easily some silver and the promise of a tasty snack can disarm a vampire. She rescues Bill and their relationship is born.

Due to the images her telepathy puts in her head, Sookie has never been able to date human men, so Bill is her first boyfriend. His main attraction is that she’s unable to read his mind. Perhaps because they are technically dead, vampire minds are a blank to her. For a telepath who’s always “on”, this is soothing.

True Blood season 1 is a Southern Gothic, paranormal, horror, mystery, romance, urban fantasy, much the same as the book it’s based on, Charlaine Harris’ Dead Until Dark. Though the subject matter is intense, the writing is relatively fast-paced and there’s a dark comedy element to it that keeps the horror aspect from becoming overwhelming. The show isn’t as light and breezy as the books; in addition to the book’s humor it uses visuals and a heightened reality to emphasize the outrageous nature of Sookie’s world. The characters frequently comment on that outrageousness and on the ironies taking place around them.

In season 1, there’s a serial killer on the loose who provides the season long mystery arc. The killer is after young women who’ve been with both vampires and human men. Since Sookie has a vampire boyfriend and is frequently around other men, she eventually becomes one of the targets.

The show’s theme song, Bad Things, by Jace Everett, perfectly encapsulates the mood of True Blood. It’s an upbeat country song that promises an out of control romance, which plays over the opening credit sequence of each episode. Humans and animals experiencing intense situations flash by, while names are superimposed over them. The activities in the visuals aren’t necessarily even immoral, they’re just filmed in a way that makes them feel creepy, until you aren’t sure anymore what’s actually bad and what’s just making you feel bad.

Like an insidious vampire who wants to have his way with us, the opening credits act to lower our boundaries and confuse us, so that we’re disoriented and easily taken out of our normal lives. Whether we’re being glamoured, romanced, drugged or conned, the first step is to convince us to leave our previous concept of normal behind.

The first year I watched True Blood, I thought the opening sequence was the grossest, most horrible opening credits sequence ever made. Now I love it and think it’s one of the best. Is that a good development or a bad one? *shrug* I still can’t watch the maggots though. The vampires haven’t completely taken me over.

True Blood continues to lower our defenses and push our boundaries once the opening credits end. Vampires and shapeshifters are welcomed into normal society. They take part in panels on CNN, discussing legal changes which have been proposed to help or hinder their assimilation. They stop at the 7-11 to pick up a 6 pack on their way home. They have difficulty getting a contractor to come out to their rural home and need a referral from a friend. They are business owners, employers and employees.  They worry about getting blood stains out of their laundry. Possibly a little more often than most of us, but still.

They sleep underground in the graveyard when they can’t make it home before dawn. It’s sort of like crashing at a friend’s house. Okay, that one is pushing the boundaries of normal human culture. There is an entire vampire culture that exists outside of human sight, but we only touch the surface of it in season 1.

Sookie is drawn into this world as she seeks to solve the murder mystery and enlists Bill’s help. She visits a vampire bar run by the ancient vampire sheriff, Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) and his vampire progeny, Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten). They learn of her telepathy and seek to use her talents to solve their own mysteries.

Shenanigans ensue for 7 unparalleled seasons.

True Blood Season 1 vs The Southern Vampire Mysteries Book 1 (Dead Until Dark)

True Blood season 1 follows Dead Until Dark, the first book in the series, closely, using the same serial killer plot as the main mystery storyline and Sookie’s romance with Bill as the supernatural focus. The book was originally published in 2001 and my 2008 paperback copy is a quick 292 page read.

Neither the TV season nor the book are my favorite of their respective series, mainly because I am emphatically not a fan of Bill Compton and eventually I start to gag over the way Sookie continuously drools over him. But they are both entertaining and introduce the world of Sookie and Bon Temps with enough suspense, heart and humor to draw you into the next book and season.

In season 1, the TV series faithfully recreates Charlaine Harris’ version of Sookie’s world, from Gran’s old but well-loved farmhouse to Eric Northman’s vampire tourist bar, Fangtasia. The series also included mainly the same characters and subplots as the book, with a few alterations. The main difference is that the TV show expanded on plotlines that were only briefly mentioned in the book, such as recreational V(ampire blood) consumption by humans, Lafayette’s off hours activities and the vampires’ struggle for equal rights.

Many of the supporting characters and their backstories are much more developed in True Blood season 1 than they are in book 1. This is an unusual difference between a book and a movie, but it’s not as surprising when you realize that the Sookie Stackhouse novels are narrated in the first person by Sookie herself. Expanding on other characters isn’t a priority for her, even though it could be aided by her telepathy. She’s basically obsessed with Vampire Bill and the murders in this book, whereas she’s known the other characters her whole life. It’s natural for her to have little interest in providing extra details, so she tells us enough, but we don’t get a full biography.

Two characters who go on to appear in multiple books are left out of the TV series, Bubba and JB du Rone. Bubba is based on a very famous real life singer, so they probably figured he’d be distracting, as he typically is in the books. JB du Rone is a sweet man-child who shares some similarities with Lafayette and eventually becomes close to Tara. I suspect the Lafayette we see on screen is actually meant to be a composite character, with many tweaks and Lafayette’s brains.

The biggest change from Dead Until Dark is the addition of Tara Thornton to the cast. In the books she doesn’t appear until the 2nd installment, Living Dead in Dallas. Several major season 1 subplots revolve around Tara, including the set up for the main storyline for season 2, and she’s heavily involved in other characters’ plot arcs as well. Rutina Wesley is such a vibrant presence that it’s hard to imagine Bon Temps without her version of Tara, so this was certainly a welcome change. With Tara comes her alcoholic mother, Lettie Mae, played by one of my favorite actresses, Adina Porter.

Another notable change is the expansion of the storyline for book character Amy Burley, played by Lizzy Caplan. She and Jason become involved with a vampire played the Man in the High Castle himself, Stephen Root, with disastrous consequences, but it’s fun while it lasts. The Amy-Jason-V subplot is particularly effective, with its psychedelic visuals, sometimes subtle violence and obsessive relationships.

The actors and the visuals drive home the multiple abuse aspects of this plotline in a way that would be much more difficult using only words. The genius of True Blood is that the writing, acting, music and visuals come together to make an entertaining, memorable show while showing the dark side of society and how that dark underbelly can bring pain and pleasure. But True Blood wouldn’t exist if Charlaine Harris’ genius hadn’t already given us the snarky, bold, scandalous world they are elaborating on.

True Blood is streaming on HBO’s websites and Amazon Prime. Charlaine Harris has a new book in her current Gunnie Rose series, A Longer Fall, coming out in January 2020. Until then, I’m amusing myself by revisiting Sookie Stackhouse.

Images belong to those who created them.

Book vs Screen Review: True Blood Season 1 vs Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris-But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media-Bring on the dark, brooding vampires. #TrueBlood #CharlaineHarris But First, A Brief, Non-Exhaustive Tour Through My Favorite Romantic Vampire Media Though I have been writing reviews on this blog for more than three years, I have been keeping a dark secret from you, dear readers.

#Ann Rice #black comedy #Book vs Screen #Charlaine Harris #comedy-horror #Dead Until Dark #metacrone #Quick Review #review #supernatural #True Blood #vampire romance #Vampires