Some Bears Of “True Blood”
I’ve been watching True Blood and I can’t seem to decide whether I like it or not. I love the concept, but the characters appear to be either one-dimensional or unsympathetic. Furthermore, for those who know me, I’m a prude and there’s way too much sex going on. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against explicit sex on cable television, but this show is basically — inadvertently or not — comparing vampires to homosexuals. The show has used terms such as “coming out of the coffin” and this clever gem:
Anyway, the “danger” of such a metaphor is it just instills the “myth” of homosexuals being always “hungry” for sex (truth is, all human beings are “hungry” for sex). Worse, being compared to vampires, it even perpetuates another fear of heterosexual folk: gay people will victimize and molest both children and straight adults.
I am probably reading too much into this, but I guess I personally wish that the vampires and people presented in the show are, well, multi-dimensional and sympathetic. Luckily, the straight folk are also always hungry for sex, so I guess it all balances out. Also, as much as I love Anna Paquin’s character of Sookie, It’s just hard to root for a heroine who can read other peoples’ minds. However, the main vampire, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), is the only character so far that I could truly root for. He’s the saving grace of the show, in my opinion.
Anyway, enough of my criticisms. Regardless of my feelings about the show, I’m pretty much hooked and will watch this show and see where it leads. Also, there’s this cool web-comic where it gives you a background on the mythology of True Blood:
http://www.hbo.com/trueblood/comicreader/
The following are some screenshots of a cute husky bear from the opening credits. I’m not sure if these are “stock footage” or if he’s an actual actor.
The following are screenshots of some bearish men in episode 4, Escape From Dragon House. It’s pretty unfortunate as they had like 5 seconds of screen time each where we get to hear their thoughts. Bonus question: Guess what kind of thoughts we would hear from these “bearish” men?
Jonathan Spencer (previously posted about him here)
Posted in: Actors, Photos, Television
BearMythology 
Glad you decided to come back! It’s nice to have you on the web.
And don’t forget the super-handsome bear from the opening segment of the pilot episode:
John Henry Canavan
I have to say: I never liked vampires until I saw him! His smile just before the opening credits is priceless! Here’s his IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003457/
And his website:
http://www.johnhenrycanavan.com/
Here’s the opening with most of John Henry Canavan’s scene:
More John Henry Canavan links:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0003457/
http://www.johnhenrycanavan.com/
I never thought vampires were sexy … until I saw him!
I see where you are coming from with the Vampire / Gay comparison…and yes the sex scenes are not my thing either, but so far I’ve liked True Blood. Maybe I’m just a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan who has found a new “Campy Horror” show to watch…or maybe its the hope that John Henry Canavan will make another appearance…sigh. So cute.
Sorry for the redundant posts. One went through immediately (the YouTube one) while others didn’t until this morning.
Anyway, according to the IMDb, Mr. Canavan only worked on the pilot episode (out of 12) but we can still hope for an appearance in Season 2!
Don’t worry about that. I should have caught it. For some reason, any posts with links go to a “spam” folder and I tend to not really pay attention to them. 🙂
Anyway, yes, the very first time I saw episode 1, my jaw literally dropped for seeing a hot bear as a vampire. I do hope that we get to see more of John Henry Canavan. So far though, the show tends to show big, bearish guys just as “extras.”
aaa