A bite-sized guide to ‘True Blood’

Below is an article called A bite-sized guide to True Blood that was published on The Independent:

* True Blood, the latest HBO hit to reach the UK (C4, 10pm tonight), is named after synthetic blood, a substance which has allowed vampires to step out of the dark – not into the sun, mind.

* Bon Temps is the Louisiana town in which True Blood’s action takes place. Its inhabitants are a heady mix of Cajun, American and Vampire.

* Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), our heroine, is one of the town’s friendlier faces. Vampires aren’t the only supernatural phenomenon in Bon Temps: Sookie can read minds…

* Merlotte’s, the bar where Sookie works, is run by Sam Merlotte, Sookie’s long-time admirer.

* Bill Compton is a charming 174-year-old vampire with whom Sookie becomes intimately involved after drinking his blood.

* Vampire blood, also known as “V”, induces pleasurable hallucinations when drunk by humans – a highly illegal practice.

* “Fang-banger” is the insult for those who have sex with vamps, and “fang-banger” murders drive the plot of the series. There will be blood. And lots of shagging. Tim Walker