Tamna the Island, episodes 1-10

Oooh, I have such unabashed puppy love for this currently airing MBC drama. It’s not a life-altering, “forever” kind of love – more like just a very serious crush. Which is why it’s such a gosh-darn shame that, in light of the show’s consistently poor ratings, its broadcasting network decided to cut it down from its originally planned 20 episodes to 16. What that means is that because the final 10 episodes had fo0r the most part already been shot, they had to be cut down into a mere six. Needless to say, fans are pissed at the prospect of watching a heavily edited and significantly reduced second half of a series in which they’ve already become emotionally invested. So much of the story must get lost in the condensing of ten hours of material into six! And so, in spite of my love for this drama, I stopped watching after episode ten (the last episode to be aired in its original, unedited form.) I feel that it would be better to wait for the full version (which will eventually air in other countries and be released on DVD) than to watch a chopped-up, mutilated version of it now. And so to reconcile myself with the idea of going completely cold turkey on this drama (for now at least), I decided to write this post all about how freakin’ adorable it is.

Tamna the Island (also known as “Shipwrecked!” or “Tempted Again”) is based on an ongoing soonjung manhwa of the same name and takes place during the Joseon era on an island province called Tamna (present day Jeju Island). Since Tamna historically has a kind of niche culture distinct from mainland Joseon society, a brief explanation ought to precede any discussion of this drama. 17th-century Tamna was kind of like the sticks of Joseon: a remote, uncivilized, backwater region. Nevertheless, the island was valued (and heavily taxed) by the government for its natural resources, most of which came from the sea. In a kind of reversal of traditional gender roles, the women of the island dove for abalone while the men stayed home and managed the households. The female divers, who performed difficult and undesirable work, were not allowed to leave Tamna, and were indentured to the island for life. Also, because Westerners were about as common in Tamna as aliens, any who appeared there were generally viewed as freaks and treated as criminals, even to the point of being arrested, sent to the capital, and executed. One last important aspect of 17th-century Tamna is that it was the place where political offenders were exiled by the mainland government in much the same way criminals of the British Empire were sent to Australia. People who watch a lot of sageuk (period) dramas should recognize this practice. (Remember how Jang-Geum was banished there on a trumpted up charge in Dae Jang Geum?)

And so, with the stage thus set, the drama tells the story of an English castaway who washes ashore on Tamna. Fortunately for young William, he is found and hidden by a young female diver named Jang Beo-Jin. Despite the language and cultural barrier, the two form a very sweet and innocent friendship. Around the same time, an arrogant and scholarly young noble man named Park Kyu arrives from Han Yang (the capital), having been recently exiled to Tamna, and is given to the care of Beo-Jin’s mother, the head diver of the village. The story of how these three characters collide and come together against the odds in 17th-century Tamna provides for plenty of humor and drama in this unique and fun series.
Pierre Deporte (Korean name Hwang Chan-Bin) as William. Honestly, this guy’s acting takes a lot of getting used to, and even then can be accepted only with a huge grain of salt. And yet I’m prepared to do all this and more, because I like the character so much. He’s a little hard to take at firs, what with his fake blonde hair and even faker English, but as soon as the character starts “learning” Korean (the actor’s pretty fluent) it gets so much better. William may not be the brightest bulb in the box, but he has a sweet, innocent charm about him that completely won me over. It’s fun to watch him and Beo-Jin together because even though they’re a kind of oddly matched pair, they’re basically each other’s first loves, and it really is quite sweet. Plus, it’s hard for me to ignore the fact that this is quite possibly the first time a White person has ever been portrayed in such a positive light in a drama, not to mention taken on a leading role. The drama does a great job, I thing, of incorporating his character in a way that’s both sensitive and intriguing, in spite of the bad hair and accent. For instance, look at this bit of dialogue from episode 5, in which William discusses with his sailor friend a misunderstanding that occurred between him and Park Gyu:

William: Park Gyu… He looked at me like I was a bad person. I think he misunderstood something. I was just trying to save her-
Yan: Don’t expect these people to understand you. You’re just a freak to them.
William: Why do they hate me?
Yan: Joseon has always been a closed country. The locals are afraid of foreigners and try to kill them.
William: I don’t understand. Beo-Jin isn’t like that.
Yan: Yeah, well, she’s a weird one.
William: No, she’s not strange.
Yan: Don’t get too attatched. Sooner or later you’ll have to leave this place.

Seo Woo as Jang Beo-Jin. I don’t have a whole lot to say about the actress, except that she does a great job of bringing a nice, youthful energy to her character without being annoyingly over-spunky or cutesy. Beo-Jin has a wonderfully, open, straightforward, and caring nature that leads her to instantly and wholeheartedly accept William as a basically good person, and to defend him against those who might reject him for being different. I guess she knows how it feels to be different as well. As an unskilled, low-level diver indentured to the island for life, she’s somewhat of a black sheep in her village. She’s always dreamed of leaving Tamna, and in a way William opens up for her the possibility of a world beyond the island’s shores.

Im Ju-Hwan as Park Gyu. Ok, I like the rest of the cast, but I absolutely love Im Ju-Hwan as Park Gyu. I wasn’t really expecting much from this relatively inexperienced model-turned-actor, but as far as I’m concerned, he’s the real standout of the drama. He may be askinny guy with delicate features, but the dude’s got this beautifully deep, manly voice, and totally OWNS his character. As the city-reared scholar-noble, he’s initially dismayed to find himself exiled to the backwaters of Tamna at the beginning of the drama and entrusted to the care of lowly peasants who don’t show him the respect he so obviously deserves! It’s hilarious, really. Nobody really knows the details of his crime, but there’s a persistent rumor that it has something to do with harassing women. Ha! Of course, there’s more to him than initially meets the eye, and we eventually learn (spoiler alert) that he’s actually an undercover official sent to Tamna by the government on a secret mission. Although initially unimpressed with the uncivilized island society and the uncouth Beo-Jin, he slowly comes to respect, admire, and even love both. Im Ju-Hwan is so awesome in this role. He makes the character endearing and funny, but also anchors it with some very deeply felt, vulnerable moments; when he tears up on screen it’s so good I just want to die. You can bet your bottom dollar that if Im Ju-Hwan appears in another drama in the future I’ll be all over it like white on rice.

Before I go any further, I have to say that yes, this drama does feature two guys falling for the same girl, but there’s so much else going on, and each individual relationship between these three people is so distinct and well-developed, and intriguing, that what romantic conflict there is never feel clichéd or contrived or cheap. I just think this drama’s got a whole heck of a lot going for it. Being based on a long-running manhwa gives it extensive source material to work with, and the story’s been really well adapted by the production team. (There are some other manga/manhwa-turned-dramas where this has not been the case. Boys Over Flowers springs directly to mind.) The Tamna setting also differentiates the drama from other fusion sageuks out there and allows for a fresh and unique kind of story. The scenery is breathtaking, and as for the music, this is the first OST I’ve been interested in for a while. It just baffles me that this drama’s been getting such poor ratings. Oh well. I’m really impatient to watch the second part of the series, but I’ve liked the first ten episodes too much to feel ok about watching a condensed version of the last ten. Sometimes it’s the little moments that really make a drama worthwhile, and I’m afraid those are the ones that will get lost in the re-editing. So I’ll just wait. Yet in spite of the fiasco MBC’s caused in this drama’s run, I’m still glad I tuned in for the first half. I enjoyed it that much.

Some music from the soundtrack:

이어사나 (Ending Theme) - Jane Park

Your Tears (Main Theme) - Jane Park

'Capital Scandal' is kind of a mixed bag

Capital Scandal (경성스캔들), a.k.a. Scandal in Old Seoul, is an interesting series in that it somewhat defies the strictures of the typical kdrama genres by featuring subject matter rather unique to the drama scene (namely the Korean independence movement of the 20s and 30s.) Although this is a movement and historical period about which I know pretty much zilch, I enjoyed the way the drama mixed romantic comedy with the intrigue and danger of freedom fighting during the time of the Japanese occupation. Unfortunately the production values of ‘Scandal’ weren’t particularly high compared to many other period dramas, and the repetitiveness of certain unfunny side storylines did seriously irritate. However, I very much appreciated the (from my perspective) fresh and different story and subject matter, as well as the stellar acting of the main leads (well, three out of four of them anyways). Han Ji-Min (who played the sweet, conscientious Shin-Bi in Dae Jang Geum) stars as Na Yeo-Kyung, an amusingly austere yet earnest young woman who works in a bookshop and becomes involved with an underground group working to undermine Japanese authority in the capital. She’s young and pretty, but has a reputation for being harsh and uncompromising, and has earned the nickname Jo Ma-Ja (which stands for the “last woman of Joseon (old Korea)”. Just to give an example of her attitude, there’s one pretty funny scene after she’s gotten together with Kang Ji-Hwan’s character in which she tells him that even if they get married she won’t sleep with him until after the country’s been liberated. His response? “Geez, everything's about liberation with you!” Kang Ji-Hwan’s a big A-list movie and drama star, but I mostly know him from last year’s Hong Gil Dong. Here he plays Seon Woo-Wan, a rascally sort of rich boy loafer who nevertheless has a really good heart and a somewhat troubled past. He initially clashes with the bluntly disapproving Yeo-Kyung, but is soon drawn to her kindness and bravery, which he eventually comes to cherish and emulate. KJH did an excellent job of bringing real playfulness and charisma to this character, which might have been flat or boring in the hands of another actor. Plus, his Woo-Wan had really cute chemistry with Yeo-Kyung.

Han Go-Eun plays Cha Song-Joo, a prominent gisaeng (female entertainer) and friend of Woo-Wan who secretly leads the local faction of the freedom-fighting group that recruits Yeo-Kyung. Ostensibly the perfect model of a “modern woman” who panders to the authority of the Japanese, Song-Joo has harbored a deep-rooted hatred for the system ever since she was sold to the gisaeng house as a young girl. I really like Song-Joo; she’s the kind of really cool woman that every girl wants for her unni. Life dealt her a pretty sucky hand, but she turned into a really strong person for it. Not to mention her unflappable, cool demeanor and glamorous image.

Ryu Jin plays Lee Su-Hyun, a mysterious man connected to the pasts of both Song-Joo and Woo-Wan who suddenly reappears in both of their lives as a high-ranking official of the Japanese police force. They both feel betrayed and confused by the actions of the cold and inscrutable Su-Hyun, but there may be more to this man than meets the eye. I liked Ryu Jin a lot better in this role than in I Really Really Like You (he certainly has better hair here), but I still think he’s pretty stiff and unengaging as an actor. Fortunately, his character was pretty tight-lipped so it didn’t make that much of a difference.

Another thing about Capital Scandal was the distinctive lack of love-triangles as plot machinations. True, there were little jealousies here and there due to circumstances, but there was no genuine romantic competition to hinder the development of our two main couples. It’s not like I’ve got anything against love- triangles when they’re done really well (just look at how much I adored Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang). It’s just that this show had a lot of other things going on to balance out the romance.

Like I said, the production values of this drama weren’t the highest. The 1920s setting was really fun, but the costumes tended to be a little too costume-y, and the sets reminded me a lot of the fake streetscapes at Disney World. Another unfortunate element of the drama was the prevalence of not-so-funny slapstick gags. Maybe it’s just an issue of personal taste, but I gotta say that long before the end I was severely tempted to fast forward through any scene in which Sachiko and/or the Arashi employees even showed up. (I frequently succumbed to that temptation and don’t think my enjoyment of the series was the worse for it.) I enjoyed the drama most when it was able to find a nice middle ground, although it did have a tendency to swing to extremes. By that I mean I enjoyed the moments of lighter humor and understated melancholy a lot more than the over-the-top slapstick and melodrama, which were also present. All that being said, however, I did enjoy the overall look and feel of the show, perhaps simply because it was unlike other dramas I’ve seen and because it was a lot of fun. Capital Scandal was a very mixed bag for me, but I’m still glad I watched it all the way through.

Capital Scandal originally aired in 2007 on KBS2. The theme song is really catchy, makes me want to swing dance:

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Last note: the supporting cast of this drama was kind of like a review of all the dramas I’ve ever seen. Kang Nam-Gil (Who Are You?, Bad Family, Goong, Return of Iljimae), Kim Hye Ok (I Really Really Like You, Flowers For My Life, Sons of Sol Pharmacy House), Ahn Suk-Hwan (Boys Before Flowers, Painter of the Wind, Hong Gil Dong, Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang), Phillip Choi (Soulmate), and Lee Kyung-Jin (Dal Ja’s Spring) all appear in Capital Scandal.

I Really Really Like You: a good drama gone bad

Why do some dramas start off so incredibly well only to somehow totally morph into very bad shows? In the beginning absolutely nothing is lacking: the characters are great, the set-up is intriguing, the early episodes are really exciting and engaging, and you’re stoked to have found another gem from amidst all the lackluster kdramas out there. But then somewhere along the way the production team suddenly and inexplicably drops the ball, and you barely even recognize the show you’ve committed yourself to watching, and sometimes it’s a struggle just to finish watching the formerly awesome show. This is an unfortunate and sinister syndrome that tragically plagues many a kdrama production (I think sometimes it has to do with encroaching deadlines, but I’m not really sure.) In any case, it undoubtedly claimed 2006’s I Really Really Like You as one of its many victims.

I Really Really Like You (진짜 진짜 좋아해) tells the story of Yeo Bong-Soon (played by Eugene), a young woman who’s lived a primitive sort of life with her grandmother deep in the mountains of one of South Korea’s most rural provinces. One day she saves the life of an injured hiker, a young doctor named Jang Joon-Won (Ryu Jin) who also happens to be the son of the country’s president. Joon-Won, who does his best to lead an independent life, guards the secret of his parentage very closely from other people, including Bong-Soon. The man sent to fetch the injured Joon-Won from the mountains is Nam Bong-Gi (Lee Min-Ki), a young and irascible member of the presidential guard. When Bong-Soon’s grandmother passes away shortly afterwards, she comes to Seoul looking for her birth parents, a search that leads her straight to the Blue House itself (South Korean presidential residence, equivalent of the White House). There she finds herself caught up in the lives of the Blue House staff, Joon-Won and his family, Bong-Gi and his family, and eventually her own newly discovered family as well. Needless to say, the emphasis on family relationships is heavy, with lots of comedy and romance thrown into the mix.

Like I said, this drama started out really, really well. With some very poignant, touching moments, it often managed to be funny and sweet and even bittersweet at the same time. Eugene’s character (in the beginning) was endearing and quirky, if a little on the Pollyannaish side. And Lee Min-Ki was great. In fact, he’s pretty much the only thing that I was consistently good from start to finish; if not for him, I might not have been able to finish this longish series (34 episodes total.) His character was somewhat of an insensitive jerk at first, but then again Bong-Soon did cause the short-tempered guy a heck of a lot of trouble in the beginning, and the gradual revelation of his more sweet and thoughtful side was somehow made really believable. Plus, he was extremely cute. I never really understood all the fuss about Lee Min-Ki even after watching Mixed-Up Investigative Agency and Dal-Ja’s Spring, but this drama totally converted me. All in all, I really, really liked the first 10 or 15 episodes of I Really Really Like You.

Alas, my (strongly negative) feelings about episodes 15-34 basically cancel out my initially positive impression of the show, and then some. It was like the writers just got lazy or something; the plot started going in circles, the dialogue became really repetitive and annoying, and these insipid subplots started encroaching on the main storylines, which were also stagnating. Also, I Bong-Soon’s character began to frustrate me more and more, and when you can’t get fully behind the heroine the watching experience is sort of soured. It was a combination of both how the character was written and Eugene’s acting that drove me bonkers more and more as the show went on. For example, whenever Bong-Soon was troubled by some “Serious Issue”, Eugene would affect this by basically turning into a zombie, walking listlessly around with a dull, lifeless look in her eyes. It started to get really annoying, especially since I rarely had much sympathy for whatever her big problem was at the moment. Oh, so her mother didn’t exactly turn out to be the shining beacon of perfect parenthood that she’d envisioned? Well, parents are people too, and none of us get to choose ours either. It’s like moving to the big city turned Bong-Soon into a more whiny, selfish version of her happy, easy-going self. Or maybe I was just miffed at her for being totally oblivious to Nam Bong-Gi for practically the entire series.

Which brings me to yet another major complaint: the relationship between the main couple was way too one-sided for way too long. Yeah, she chose Bong-Gi in the end, but only after spending the whole series hung up over the other (duller, married) guy. For her to truly not have been aware of Bong-Gi's blatantly manifested feelings for so long, she'd have had to have been either extremely dense or (as I suspect) in subconscious denial. Either way, it just seemed sloppy to have her come around in the final two episodes and think, Hey, I might actually like Bong-Gi, and for everything to be fine and dandy all of a sudden. I just thought their relationship was sadly unbalanced, and therefore not nearly as satisfying as it could have been.

In the beginning, I couldn’t wait to watch each successive episode of this drama. By the end, it was a struggle to even get through them. It’s really too bad that the drama went so far south of watchable sometime in the middle. Pretty much the only thing that kept me going was the adorableness of Lee Min-Ki. In spite of how much I loved it at first, I can’t bring myself, in light of later developments, to recommend this drama with any conviction.

Music: whatever I may say about this drama, I did enjoy the soundtrack, of which I’ve posted two tracks below. The first is the opening theme, and the second is a really lovely instrumental version of one of the songs I really liked.

Joh Ah Hae - Eugene, Mr Burn

Uhn Duk.wma -

Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang is still delightful

Since I’m going to be talking about Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang in this post, I wanted to put up this song from the soundtrack. This show has a lot of really good songs, and I’ve got a bunch of them on my ipod, but this one is my favorite.

Mi Ahn Hae Ya Ha Neun Guh Ni - As-One (에즈원)

Looking back, I've watched a rather obscene amount of kdramas in the past year or two. (For the uninitiated, those are South Korea television series). It helps that at about 16-24 episodes each they're mostly much shorter than their multi-seasonal American counterparts. Yet until recently I never went back and re-watched a kdrama in its entirety from start to finish. To be fair, I did re-watch certain parts of Coffee Prince a lot, but I never went through all the episodes consecutively for a second time. But just this past week I had the sudden desire to revisit a series I initially watched about a year ago, and I ended up re-watching every single episode, and falling in love with it all over again. So I decided to write a nice, happy post about how much I adore “Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang”.

The 2005 series Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang (or Sassy Girl Choon-Hyang) draws on a famous traditional Korean love story, the Legend of Choon-Hyang, and reinterprets it in a modern setting. This is not an original device, but it’s one that’s done extremely well in this case. For anyone who’s ever wondered whether or not it’s possible to mix melodrama of Romeo-and-Juliet proportions with modern, trendy romantic comedy, well, the answer is DGCH. This series manages all that and more. Plus, the two leads are made of awesome.

Han Chae-Young, who just might be the prettiest woman to walk the face of the earth, plays Sung Choon-Hyang with a delightful sense of sass and spunk. But the real standout here is Jae Hee, who plays Lee Mong-Ryong. He pulls some of the best facial expressions you’ll ever see, and he manages to hit the comedic notes in such an endearing way as to make you totally forgive him and even love him for his goofiness. But in addition to that, during the more dramatic/emotional moments this guy can emote like no other. He really delivers both excellent comedy and excellent intensity in this drama, whereas a lot of other drama dudes’ acting tends to seem more stiff and forced to me. Add to all this his great chemistry with Han Chae-Young and you’ve got one pretty irresistible package.

Another thing I really like about this drama was the way it handles the passing of time. The story follows the characters from high school, through college (well, some of them go to college), and into early adulthood. This all somehow happens very naturally and smoothly over the course of seventeen 65 minute episodes. One really gets a sense of Choon-Hyang’s and Mong-Ryong’s growth, and the growth of their relationships, while they still remain true to the characters we originally fell in love with in episode one. Whereas many other dramas tend inevitably to slow down or drag after the initial premise is established, DGCH keeps the plot moving and pulls you along with it for an emotional roller-coaster ride.

Another thing that was cool about this drama was that at the end of the episodes there would usually be short parodies of the popular folk legend on which it’s based, with the actors dressed in traditional garb acting out spoofs of the Choon-Hyang story on sets imitating those of period dramas. It’s actually very clever how these short sketches sometimes reflected what was going on in the drama itself, and sometimes merely spoofed particular elements of the traditional version of the story.

All this being said, I’m not entirely blind to the drama’s faults. But although DGCH does have a lot of the stereotypical kdrama clichés (including but not limited to the ever ubiquitous love square), it somehow manages to use them in such a way as to make me forget that they’re clichéd. And although this drama did have a ridiculous amount of crazy and unrealistic u-turns on the part of the male drivers, I take comfort in the fact that there wasn’t a single back-hug in the entire thing! (I think.)

So in conclusion, anybody remotely interested in kdramas should check out DGCH because it’s one of the best in my opinion. See this fan-made video for a sense of the delightfully humorous elements, and this one for an idea of the more dramatic, emotional components.

"I want more" Claudia: Interview with Lestat the Musical

Ok, so funny thing happened to me this weekend. I'm minding my own business, going about my life, when BAM! I'm suddenly sucked up into the magnetic vortex of Anne Rice's vampire universe. Why do I let this happen to myself? Why? WHY? I wasn't even looking for it or anything. It's like stepping out into the street when you think the coast is clear and getting blindsided by a huge truck. The truck of fandom. The fan van, if you will.

Oh, well. First, a sort of disclaimer: I've never actually read any of Anne Rice's books, but I now have an actual interest in possibly doing so, thanks to the 1994 movie and the musical. Am I planning on going out and reading them right away? Probably not right this second, what with school and everything. But whereas before this weekend I'd never have even thought of picking up one of these books, I can now see myself doing so sometime in the future.

So anyways, it all started with Youtube, the evil sucker of time. I was looking something up, and I sumbled quite by acident onto a clip from the '94 film "Interview With the Vampire". So I watch the scene, in which Claudia (played by a 10-year-old Kirsten Dunst) argues heatedly with Louis (Brad Pitt), and I though to myself, Huh. This is kind of interesting. And wouldn't you know, some evil person has uploaded the entire film on Youtube? So I somehow mysteriously end up watching the whole thing from start to finish. What can I say? I am weak, and cannot help myself, and I shall never ever learn.

Parts of the film were weird and icky and gross, but then other parts were very strongly and strangely compelling. Especially the character of Claudia, the eternally ageless vampire child, whom I found really tragic and fascinating. And boy did Dunst do an awesome job of portraying a person of great age as such a young actress, not to mention Claudia's intense pain and anger. I don't think I've seen Dunst act better in any other role she's taken on since. Brad Pitt was also awesome as Louis. (Who knew the sexiest man alive could look so delicate - all flowing hair and big eyes. Me like.) My very favorite part of the movie *spoiler coming* was towards the end when Louis rejects Armand after Claudia's death. I shall not deny that a part of me was saying Boo ya! In your face, Armand, take that! Sooooo, anyways. For the record, I'll also say that I thought Antonio Banderas was poorly cast as Armand, and although Tom Cruise did very well as Lestat his character was way too creepy and gross for me. All in all, the film went a little too over the top at points, but nevertheless managed to pull me in and make me care.

So, I watch the movie and end up getting pretty into it. But wait, there's more. Youtube's not quite finished with me yet, oh no, because one of the 'related videos' that pops up on the side of the page is a bootleg from the musical version, Lestat. I just so happen to be a musical theatre fan, so here we go again. Turns out, the show draws a lot from at least one other book in the series in addition to Interview, so there was a lot in it I didn't fully appreciate. It got pretty horrible reviews, and closed early on Broadway (although that doesn't always mean anything), but there were a few scenes/songs that I really liked. The best, in my opinion, was "I Want More", sung by Claudia. (She is the best character, after all. Great performance by Allison Fischer, by the way.) I also liked "I'll Never Have That Chance", "Kill Your Kind", and "After All This Time". The score's by Elton John, whose musicals in my opinion tend to range from bland to beautiful, but HE NEVER RELEASED THE SOUNDTRACK. It was recorded by the cast, but its release was postponed indefinitely and, as far as I can tell, no real reason was given for this. That was three years ago. Wtf? Grr, arrg, frustration. Oh, well. In scouring the internet for some kind of clue, the only thing I managed to find was a partial press demo of some of the songs from the live try out runs in San Francisco. Totally not good enough.

So thank you Youtube. Thank you for sucking up a significant portion of my weekend and giving me one more thing to be all fan-y about, and for seeing to it that I spend my entire Sunday with "I Want More" stuck in my head. I hope you're happy.

The Southern Vampire Mysteries (a.k.a The Sookie Stackhouse Novels) by Charlaine Harris

Winter break is a nice time for college students. We get about a month off from school with nothing to do but hang out and work part time. But the greatest part about all this mid-scholastic-year mellowing out is that it provides the opportunity for lots of uninterrupted, guilt-free reading and TV watching. This is not to say we don’t pursue such recreational activities during the semester as well, only that we’re not putting off any homework in order to do so. So if I randomly decide I want to watch the entire first season of the recently debuted HBO series True Blood, for example, I can and a few weeks ago I did just that. Now True Blood itself is an interesting series (starring Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, and created by Six Feet Under man Alan Ball), with which I have something of a love-hate relationship, but the point of this post is that it inspired me to hunt down and read the series of books it was based on. And that would be the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris.

First, a word in praise of local library networks. This series currently has eight books in it, and is still going strong. (The ninth will be released in May, but I’m fairly certain it won’t be the last.) And while I was definitely interested in reading them all, I wasn’t too keen on making the kind of financial investment it would take to buy them. It had been a while since I’d actually used my local public library, and I’d almost forgotten how convenient (and free!) it was. After a bit of hunting, I was eventually able to track down all eight books and check them out en masse, and was even pretty proud of myself, as if utilizing public resources was some huge personal accomplishment. But, anyways, on to the books themselves.

The series features Sookie Stackhouse, a southern blonde bombshell of a barmaid who lives and works in northern Louisiana, and who just so happens to be telepathic. What’s interesting about these books, and different from many (all?) other vampire novels, is that the living dead have been integrated and (more or less) accepted into modern human society. That doesn’t mean the vampires don’t have their own complicated politics, power struggles and practices of which the humans know nothing, because they sure as heck do. Not to mention the other “supe” (supernatural) communities, such as the weres (werewolves), shifters (shape shifters), witches, and the fairies, all of whom have yet to come out to the humans and admit their existence like the vampires did. Sound complicated? Well, it is. And our telepathic human heroine gets inexorably caught up in all of it. But this complex and imaginative world is something that Charlaine Harris has developed gradually over the course of the series, slowly expanding it with each new installment. In an almost Harry Potter-esque way, she’s taken a clichéd concept and created from it a sprawling and engrossing world that feels very real in spite of its fantasticalness (is that a word?).

Sookie herself makes an okay heroine, but since the books are narrated in the first person her voice is fairly important. She’s pretty blunt and in-your-face, but considering what she’s been through and what she deals with on an average basis I can’t really fault her for it. Growing up as a telepath in a small town like Bon Temps is never easy, and one of the reasons she first gets involved with the vampire community (or at least with one vampire in particular) is because it represents an opportunity for her to deal with her otherness in some way. Another thing about Sookie is the fact that she tends to acquire a lot of admirers within the various supe communities. (Humans guys, on the other hand, tend to avoid her because of the whole telepathy/reputation for craziness thing.) Her seemingly universal appeal would seem a little contrived, except for the fact that she shares a different and interesting relationship with each of her would be lovers, who are also well-rounded characters in and of themselves.

And while we’re on the topic of Sookie’s beaux… Let me just say that I felt a sort of grim satisfaction when her first love interest (you know, the one that sweeps her off her feet in the first book) turns out to be somewhat of a jerk. I’d never really liked him anyways, and I do like how the whole series doesn’t rely on that particular romance as its foundation. I like that while Sookie suffers heartache over him, she learns and grows from the experience, and also starts to navigate the politics and intrigues of the supernatural community on her own. Plus, I gotta admit that one of my favorite things about this series is the character of Eric (local vampire sheriff, former Viking, budding business tycoon, and possessor in spades of joie-de-vivre.) He’s got a pretty complicated relationship with Sookie that nevertheless is always lots of fun, and does a lot more for me than the Bill/Sookie one ever did. They’ve never officially gotten together (except once briefly when he was suffering from magic-induced amnesia), but they’ve definitely got something going on. Pam, Eric’s second-in-command, is also great. Together the two run a vampire bar for tourists in Shreveport that’s called – wait for it – Fangtasia. Ha! Anyways, those two are probably my favorite characters, but there are heaps to choose from.

I do have some reservations about the series, however, and let me just say that it’s definitely not for younger teens. Explicit sex and violence are pretty standard components of many, if not all, of the Sookie books. Call me a prude, but there’s definitely some stuff in there that I could have done without. As for the, uh, caliber shall we say, of the prose, I read a review of these books that compared them to "literary water": no substance or nutrition whatsoever. But I'd argue that they're more like literary kool-aid: yummy and fun, if not as good for you as broccoli, for example. But the fact that I burned through all eight books in two and a half weeks (the first two and a half weeks of a new semester) just goes to show how addictive they are once you really get into them. Now I just have to wait until May 5th so I can read the ninth installment, Dead and Gone.

Just one more thing. I know this post was mainly about the books, but here for your listening pleasure, is the song featured in the opening credits of HBO's True Blood. Kinda sets the tone for the series anyways.

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