Television

It's been almost a decade since Alan Ball burst into the mainstream pop consciousness for writing American Beauty. That film earned five Academy Awards, including statuettes for best director (Sam Mendes), actor (Kevin Spacey) picture and original screenplay (Ball).

Two years later the Atlanta native went to work for HBO with Six Feet Under, a wildy original and influential series that introduced viewers to, among other things, a gay character who wasn't the flamboyant and goofy sidekick. David Fisher (Michael C. Hall) wasn't funny at all. He was reserved, brooding, conflicted and conservative.

Three years after "Six Feet" was laid to rest, Ball is back on HBO with True Blood, a series that deals with life and the undead, as opposed to life and death. The show, which premieres tonight at 8, is set in a world where vampires no longer are confined to the shadows, preying on the blood of reluctant humans. In the first novel from her Southern Vampire mysteries, upon which the series is based, Charlaine Harris describes it as vampires coming "out of the coffin." We're here, we're dead ...

These bloodsuckers still can come out only at night, but when they do they can enjoy a drink at the local icehouse with everybody else. They even have the option of sipping Tru Blood — bottled synthetic blood that comes in various blood types and is best served warm, around 98.6 degrees.

Adopting an argument often used by supporters of same-sex marriage, a spokesperson for the legally recognized undead claims, "We pay taxes, why shouldn't we enjoy the same rights as everyone else?"

Of course, changes in the social fabric don't come overnight. There are plenty of people who still see vampires as the vicious, walking dead. But not Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a pretty young waitress at Merlotte's, the preferred meeting place in the small town of Bon Temps.

Sookie knows what it's like to be different. She is burdened with the ability to read people's minds, which is no pleasant thing. She spends most of her time trying to block out what people around her — especially friends and family — are thinking, which can be exhausting for someone who works in a crowded bar. .

Like her grandmother (Lois Smith), Sookie is intrigued by these outsiders and longs to meet one. Enter Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), a 173-year-old vampire who fought in the Civil War and recently returned to Bon Temps to take up residence in his family's old home.

Bill is an old-school gentleman who does things like request permission to call on Sookie. He's fascinated by her kindness and lack of fear and thinks she's not human. Sookie is equally fascinated, mostly because she can't hear Bill's thoughts — possibly because of the lack of brain waves.

So begins the courtship of Sookie, which people close to her such as her brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten), best friend, Tara (Rutina Wesley), and boss, Sam (Sam Trammell), are whole-heartedly against.

To appreciate True Blood — and it can be an acquired taste — you have to swallow a certain amount of Southern gothic camp.

Tara's character sports an over-the-top southern drawl that can be like nails on a chalkboard. Bill's awkwardness in social situations doesn't jibe with a guy who's been walking among humans — albeit nocturnally — for as long as he has. You sometimes get the impression he has just dropped out of the sky. Part of this could be that he's unaccustomed to being around the living. He certainly seems more comfortable — and menacing — when he's hanging out with those like him.

Another thing about the series' first four episodes is that it's never made clear just how a person becomes a vampire. Bill's roots are revealed, but when others do things that would seem to turn them into the undead, they don't.