TRUE BLOOD Created by Alan Ball
S.4 Based on the best-selling series of novels by mys-
tery writer Charlaine Harris, HBO’s breakout supernat- ural serial True Blood (RM#101) takes place after the bloodsuckers have announced their presence to mankind and are attempting to integrate into society – not a smooth transition, it turns out. Additional plotlines feature shapeshifters, witches and a variety of other creatures that lurk in and around Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sex between mortals and supes, bloodshed and blooddrinking, drugs, murder, vio- lence – almost nothing is taboo on True Blood, mak- ing it not only one of the hottest shows on cable TV, but also one of HBO’s biggest hits. MSK
THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
Created by Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec S.3
This vampire show (based on a series of YA novels
by L.J. Smith) seems eternally doomed to be written off as Twilight on television, but its similarity begins and ends with the human/vampire love triangle at its epicentre and the second season introduction of were- wolves. The larger plot arc sees a town that’s been at war with vampires for generations, with Elena (Nina Dobrev), the show’s teenage human heroine, being equally valuable to the vamps and the weres (as an oc- cult object that could release their curse/grant them more power). A dark high-school/small-town drama with monsters, murder, mayhem and more double- crosses and twists than should rightfully be allowed, as well as a jaw-dropping cliffhanger at the end of al- most every episode, make it more like True Blood lite than Twilight
anything.MSK
THE WALKING DEAD
Created by Robert Kirkman and Frank Darabont S.2
Nothing was bigger for TV horror last year than
Serial Thrillers: (Clockwise from top left) The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Lost Girl, Torchwood, and (inset) Todd & The Book of Pure Evil.
misfits to American small screens starting this month, it’s unlikely this hybrid of The Evil Dead, The Breakfast Club and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (which we fea- tured in RM#105) will remain Canada’s best-kept se- cret for very long. After leaving us hanging at the end of the hilarious first season, word out of Crowley High is that production on Season 2 has just begun; the tit- ular tome is set to conjure all sorts of buzzkill-inducing beasties for our herb-lovin’ heroes, including “a killer birthday cake, skin snatchers, deadly nerds” and the necessity of staging a rock opera so epic that it’s gonna take the cast of Glee back to bitch school. TT
TORCHWOOD
Created by Russell T Davies S.4
A testament to the popularity of Doctor Who, spin-
off show Torchwood features immortal time traveller Captain Jack Harkness, a character who initially de- buted in the first season of the relaunched Who. He’s the head of one of the branch offices of the Torchwood Institute, a top-secret agency tasked with the preven-
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tion of malevolent extraterrestrial incursions into our world. The Children of Earth miniseries took the place of a proper third season last year and most of the show’s original cast were killed off. The Season 4 miniseries, a British-US co-production currently airing on Starz, sees remaining characters Harkness (John Barrowman) and Gwen Cooper (Eve Miles) joined by several new American cast members. Titled Miracle Day, the ten-episode arc concerns the string of events that are set into motion when everyone on Earth sud- denly stops
dying.MSK
O
The Walking Dead (RM#104), the Frank Darabont- helmed (loose) adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s much celebrated zombie apocalypse comic book series of the same name. The six-episode first season saw small-town cop Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) re- unite with his family and become the leader of a group of survivors camped just outside of zombie- infested Atlanta. They eventually make their way to a CDC (Center for Disease Control) bunker, only to be thrust back into the dangerous countryside. Sea- son 2’s thirteen episodes see them finding refuge at a farm, and promises more violent human drama, gore effects by Greg Nicotero’s team and hopefully the return of Michael Rooker’s one-handed raging redneck character! DA \
THER GENRE SHOWS CURRENTLY AIRING ON A TV NEAR YOU: the third season of Space/Syfy’s supernatural fantasy series Sanctuary (with a fourth season already in production), an adaptation of the 1985 movie Teen Wolf and a scripted horror-comedy called Death Valley on MTV, and Terra Nova – about a family in the year 2149 who time-travels to help stop an Earth extinction event. There’s also a
couple of noteworthy pilots currently making the rounds: Poe, a one-hour crime drama that chronicles Edgar Allan Poe as the world’s first detective in 1840s Boston, and Awakening – a series centred around a zombie uprising, described by its Canadian creators as The Vampire Diaries meets The Walking Dead. One thing’s for sure: with this many genre shows on deck, it’s fair to conclude the boob tube brain trusts have realized that we’re simply ravenous for escapist scares and celestial diversions. Read into that what you will...
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