The eye candy Let's start with gratuitous shirtless shots. There is something for every taste: beautiful badass Eric Northman, stupidly sexy Jason Stackhouse (played by Aussie Ryan Kwanten, who has become a stone cold fox since his time as Vinnie on Home and Away) gentlemanly Bill, delicious Jesus Velasquez, eye-catching Eggs, furry Alcide Herveaux and sweetheart Sam Merlotte: the eye candy is fangtastic. And there are plenty of beautiful women in the show for the women who love women - the sexy and rather domineering vampire Pam's hot trysts with ladies could be why she has been voted GayNZ.com readers' favourite female character! The theme song The terribly delicious track Bad Things from singer/songwriter Jace Everett has become a staple on the gay karaoke scene and has people actually watching the opening credits. The lyrics 'I wanna do bad things with you' make it a sexy soundtrack for foreplay! The gay rights analogies From 'coming out of the coffin', to TV debates with hateful Christian fundamentalists and dubbing non-vampires 'breathers' there are plenty of parallels with the gay rights battle in the bid for vampire rights True Blood portrays. It's certainly something the author of the original book series Charlaine Harris had in mind when she published the first novel in 2001. "When I began framing how I was going to represent the vampires, it suddenly occurred to me that it would be interesting if they were a minority that was trying to get equal rights," she has stated. "It just seemed to fit with what was happening in the world right then." But then again TV series creator Alan Ball isn't so sure, saying "If you get really serious about it, well, then the show could be seen to be very homophobic because vampires are dangerous: They kill, they're amoral." Either way, it's making the shows millions of viewers think about gay rights and that can't be all bad. The gay characters Casual gay sex is as commonplace as straight hook-ups on True Blood and exists as part of the storylines as simply and without fuss as gay characters do. Lafayette, gay cook and reformed drug dealer and prostitute, is so popular he gets to live on in the TV series instead of being killed off (as he is in the books), and enters into a relationship with tasty witch-nurse Jesus Velasquez. Lafayette is alternatively as camp, as drag and as butch as he wants to be, instead of fitting into some one-dimensional stereotype like most gay TV characters. There was the bisexual Sophie-Anne Leclerq (played by real-life bisexual actress Evan Rachel Wood) the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, and the evil 3,000-year-old Vampire King of Mississippi Russell Edgington whose only weakness seems to be his gorgeous Greek consort Talbot. He has been taken care of for now, but will he be back? And of course there is Tara, who has just found love with a woman after running away and finding a new identity as a cage fighter. And it's not that tired story that she has fallen for a woman because she has been treated badly by men, but rather, as the rather enlightened actress Rutina Weasley has told Entertainment Weekly: "I don't think [Tara] was expecting [a lesbian relationship]. I think it just happened. I think it was one of those things where you just fall in love with who you fall in love with. I don’t think she labels herself as one thing or the next. She just started hanging out and the next thing you know, she was in love." Anna Paquin Watching the Kiwi girl who has made it in the big time, but seems to remain unpretentious about it all, is one of the best things about True Blood, (especially when she accidentally slips into a New Zealand accent mid-sentence). The kid who stole our hearts at the 1994 Oscars is someone we can all be proud off, not just for her acting success but her bravery in coming out as bisexual and continued raising of awareness about the prejudice bi people face. She's certainly one of GayNZ.com's favourite people! We just love it With all that there is also the fact, as one fan puts it, that Bill could kick Edward's ass and the vampires are mostly mean and don't sparkle in the sunlight. There's the hilarity of the one-liners, the pace of the story and the fact a New Zealand TV channel is actually pretty up to date in screening it: well done Prime! Season four of True Blood is screening on Mondays at 9.30PM on Prime. GayNZ.com and True Blood fans - 27th July 2011
Credit: GayNZ.com and True Blood fans
First published: Wednesday, 27th July 2011 - 2:39pm