“True Blood” (Season 1, Episodes 1-5, HBO)

Halloween was this past weekend, and at no other time was the current Vampire vogue more visible. While vampires are certainly not a new theme for the holiday so beloved by candy-crazed children and drunken frat boys, it seemed that there were greater numbers of fanged-ones than ever on this particular year. We all know who is to blame: Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series of vampire-inspired romance novels (and the films they have spawned) have captured the imagination of teenage girls and mothers alike with their tales of amorous chastity and forbidden affairs.

But Twilight alone is not responsible. With the scent of money in the air, the mainstream media quickly latched onto Ms. Meyer’s success and put out a series of trashy, blood-sucking, and soul-sucking, television programs with fresh and original titles like, “The Vampire Diaries.” As much as HBO would like to avoid comparison with such utterly derivative crap, its own “True Blood” does not do much better.

The show follows Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a lovely, young, southern waitress with telepathic abilities that render her unable to date any normal man. Sookie and her friends live in a world in which vampires are not only real, they are crusading for equal rights, with some even “mainstreaming,” or trying to join human society. One such vampire, the charming Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), has set his sights on young Sookie, and she is equally intrigued due to the fact that she cannot read his thoughts.

The show plays with all the familiar themes of love, sex, religion, and violence; leaning heavily (surprise, surprise) on the sex and violence. Within the first two episodes a girl is murdered after having some very rough, and frankly, gross, sex with both a vampire and Sookie’s brother Jason. The idiot, sex-obsessed, brother is a suspect but is let go despite much evidence against him. This, however, is only the beginning of the absurdity, and soon, another girlfriend of his is killed and he is released once again. No one seems to mind much, and there is no mention of any family for either of the overly sexualized, and now dead, women.

In an attempt to be smart, the HBO series also riffs on the subject of southern prejudice. Many a side character can be heard uttering racist, homophobic, chauvinist, or anti-vampire hate speech. However, there is always a gentleman available to beat up or intimidate the disgusting offender, thus robbing the effect of any realism or lasting meaning.

Of the many side-plots of the show, one has people drinking Vampire blood as a powerful drug/aphrodisiac, while mainstreaming vampires consume a Japanese-made synthetic blood. This kind of antithesis-to-the-usual vampire story is what makes “True Blood” tick, but is often such an obvious play on convention as to become a parody of itself.

Unfortunately, like O Negative to a vampire, “True Blood” is addictive. Most, if not all, plot devices are left unresolved, and each show ends with a climatic scene in which someone is murdered, brutally beaten, or left in otherwise mortal danger. Though it is only human nature to want to discover the outcome, like Sookie’s desire to find out if vampire-human relationships can work out, it is probably best not to find out.