However, beyond the conflict of blood, there has to be a great character or else, the vampire is hardly worth getting to know. Vapid silly people, make vapid silly vampires that are entertaining for short period of time but that quickly grow annoying. Inspired by reading an interview with Anna Paquin who said that she doesn’t really understand why some people are drawn to vampires, I thought I would take a moment to introduce you to some vampires that I think any good vampire fan should get to know:

Vlad the Impaler (Portrayed by Rudolf Martin in USA Network’s Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula) the man behind the legend, Vlad Dracul was famous for his exceptionally brutal treatment of his enemies at a time when brutality was almost common place. (Though apparently his actions were also grossly exaggerated in a PR campaign his enemies waged against him making it hard to tell fact from fiction.) USA’s movie has some historical inaccuracies but Rudolf Martin’s portrayal of Vlad is compelling and at times heartbreaking, particularly when his first wife commits suicide. Oddly, Vlad seems more horrifying to me than many of the vampires that have sprung up in his wake, even though in his native Romania he is considered a folk hero of sorts.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Directed by Francis Ford Coppola and Portrayed by Gary Oldman) The story of Vlad the Impaler is not without tragedy and heartbreak, and in this portrayal of Dracula the heart of the man was brought into the legendary monster. In the opening scenes we see Dracula’s first wife end her life, and it is in his utter heartbreak that Dracula turns his back on the church and embraces the darkness. In this version of Dracula, when the Count sees Mina Murray’s picture he realizes that his love has been reincarnated and he seeks her out. The movie is pure Coppola, dark and Gothic, the world is beautiful and richly textured but when Gary Oldman’s Dracula tells Mina – “I have crossed oceans of time to find you.” I cannot help but cheer for the villain and wish that he may have the love he lost and the peace he was denied.

Interview with a Vampire’s Louis de Pointe du Lac (Written by Anne Rice, Portrayed by Brad Pitt) I suppose that most people fell in love with Lestat, flashy, unapologetic, moving from one disaster to the next (perhaps more accurate to say creating one disaster after another). However, Louis who we first meet in misery talking about the loss of his wife and child and followed him through the grief and conflict he felt over being forced to take human life. (Even resorting to feeding off animals at one point.) I’ve heard it said Louis is an anti-hero, but I don’t really think that he does anything truly heroic, however his refusal to just accept that he is now a soulless predator and to embrace killing makes him a vampire that it’s hard not to be moved by. I suppose that Louis will always hold a special place in my heart because he was also one of my first vampires, the first with a conscience by any degree.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Spike (Portrayed by James Marsters) Spike wasn’t the only vampire on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in fact he wasn’t the only vampire to capture Buffy’s attention (if not her heart) but he was hands down my favorite Vampire. He came into the series as a villain and over the course of the next several seasons evolved into one of the most glorious anti-hero. In contrast to Angel, the vampire who was *cursed* by having his soul given back to him, Spike falls in love with the Slayer and fights to be the man that she deserves. He is a deeply complicated character, I don’t think he ever has any qualms about people being his source of food, but the desires of the man conflict over and over with the desires of the demon causing Spike to give viewers their most heart wrenching moments. He is also hysterically funny since he very rarely feels the need to hold back. Dark and glorious, astute and passionate, there is no vampire in the whole of the Buffyverse that holds a candle to Spike. I think one of my all time favorite Spike quotes happens when he’s still very much into evil, and he confronts Buffy and Angel about their attempt at just being friends:

“You’re not friends. You’ll never be friends. You’ll be in love till it kills you both. You’ll fight, and you’ll shag, and you’ll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you’ll never be friends. Love isn’t brains, children, it’s blood…blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be Love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.” (Lovers Walk, Season 2, episode

How can you not appreciate a man who is insightful enough to set a friendship ablaze in a paragraph and then make you laugh when he admits that he’s man enough to be love’s bitch?

Eric Northman (Written by Charlaine Harris, portrayed by Alexander Skarsgard) I love the True Blood TV show, but Eric the way he is written for True Blood is only starting to scratch the surface of the vamp that readers of the Southern Vampire mysteries know and love. Eric is old, powerful, and confident but he’s also sometimes shockingly vulnerable. (I admit, he’s easy on the eyes and that’s nice.) There’s a scene with Sookie where he tells her – “you’re mine” and then follows it up with “aren’t you?” and to me that epitomizes the very reason why I am so enamored of the viking vamp – the confident assertion followed by the uncertainty. Eric really sees the object of his affection and he wants to give her everything and protect her. I suppose in the days of liberated women who can do for themselves that’s a trait that some people don’t appreciate but still his fiercely protective nature does make him endearing to me. However, I also love that he is such a contradiction because just as he is fiercely protective he also doesn’t sell Sookie short, he appreciates her strengths. The struggle for Eric is to be the vampire he has to be to get the things he wants and to be the man he wants to be for the woman he loves, and frankly I love that about him.

“I hurt with you. I bled with you – not only because we’re bonded, but because of the love I have for you.” (Dead in the Family)

Did I also mention that he’s easy on the eyes? I would be remiss to leave that detail out.

Bill Compton (Written by Charlaine Harris, portrayed by Stephen Moyer) if I think that True Blood is selling Eric short, I have to say that they’ve done a bang up job breathing life into Vampire Bill. In the books, I find Bill to be a hindrance, I feel like he’s always in the way of Eric and Sookie (who Harris may not let stay together but dang it – I’m perfectly happy with them that way right now.) but in the series Bill is somehow more, well just more. He’s not my favorite character but I appreciate that he is a strong and noble character. Bill is constantly just bailing on Sookie in the books, content to have someone else in his bed while he gives her longing looks from across the room, but TB Bill doesn’t take set backs in his relationship without a fight, as is evidence in the speech he makes to Sookie when she confronts him about a tiny little murder he committed for her:

“Sookie! I cannot and I will not lose you, for all the ways I have dismayed and grieved or failed you, I swear, I will atone. But I am not sorry. I refuse to apologize for what you have awakened in me. You (his voice breaks), you are my miracle, Sookie. For the first time in a hundred and forty years, I felt something I thought had been lost in me forever.”

Bill is conflicted, he wants to “mainstream,” he wants to be a man and not a monster but he knows that his need for blood, his thirst, his very nature will always be his Achilles heel. Watching him struggle with who he is and what he wants, is captivating.

I can’t tell a lie, if I had to chose between Bill and Eric – for me it would be Eric hands down, but I can’t just leave Bill off the list, he’s far too great a character and he brings too much to the table to not bother including him at all.

I suppose aside from the great characters and the interesting conflicts, I have to admit that maybe Spike was right and the reason we are captivated by vampires all comes back to blood, I leave you with his words of wisdom:

“Blood is life…It’s what keeps you going. Makes you warm. Makes you hard. Makes you other than dead.” (The Gift, season 5, episode 22)

I also don’t have Starz. Movies aren’t enough of a draw to encourage me to get movie channels, I tend to sign up to follow the series that I love and Starz has always been all about the movies, well until now.  I heard rumblings that there had been some gladiator show that might be worth checking out, but frankly I felt like it was just a cheap knock off of HBO’s Rome, or should I say my beloved Rome so my attitude was kind of *meh* about it.

The book that was unlikely to have every captured my attention is now a series on a channel that was of very little interest to me, and I am enthralled.

Because it is clear and concise, but spoiler free, I stole the following overview from Wikipedia:

The Pillars of the Earth is a historical novel by Ken Follett published in 1989 about the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge, England. It is set in the middle of the twelfth century, primarily during the time sometimes called the Anarchy, between the time of the sinking of the White Ship and the murder of Thomas Becket.

It sounds really dry, and frankly if I told you some of the major plot points bring in the evolution of architecture, I know that it sounds worse, but the book is full of really compelling characters and political intrigue that make it hard to put down once you get rolling on it. (There’s a rather large cast of characters to get to know so sometimes it’s a little confusing in the beginning.)

I couldn’t be more pleased with Pillars of the Earth on Starz, almost everything is just as I imagined it. The cast is full of very talented actors, actors whose names you might not recognize but whose faces you’ve undoubtedly seen once or twice. The settings are just as I pictured them, in fact there is one particular scene in the woods in the first episode that makes me feel like I can feel the cold on my face.

It’s hard for me to rave too much, because I don’t want to give any major plot points away, but if you read the book and loved it – check out the show. If you like that time period of British history – check out the show. If you are remotely intrigued – check out the show! Go on, what are you waiting for!

I had vague recollections from my childhood of Doctor Who, Tom Baker’s Doctor specifically. I remembered his scarf.  I remember things like that from the old episodes – K9, the voice of the Daleks, etc. I don’t remember the plot and I was certainly not old enough or invested enough to come back around when the BBC breathed new life into the Doctor. However watching the End of Time parts 1 & 2 was at least enough to pique my curiosity.

A few episodes into the fifth season and I went back and watched as much of the new franchise as I could thanks to Netflix on demand. I watched it every chance I got – fascinated, intrigued, and delighted.  Some episodes I watched over and over again, I’ve even loaded up a few favorites on my iPhone.

The season is over, I got to watch the season finale a few days before the rest of America (or the parts of America that wait on BBC America) with my fellow Doctor Who fans at Comic Con. I don’t know the last time I watched a TV show with such joy and anxiety, and at the end I was beyond satisfied with the ending – I was thrilled. I even enjoyed more of the rest of the season when I saw how much thought and how many seeds were planted for the season along the way.

I cannot wait to see what the future of Doctor Who holds in store. Neil Gaiman is on tap to write an episode (well actually according to his twitter, he was working on it weeks ago.) The finale set up a scenario that would be impossible on any other show, but with Doctor Who they really could have an Egyptian god loose on the Orient Express in Space.

“All of time and space; everywhere and anywhere; every star that ever was. Where do you want to start?”

Anyway, Rod announced that we were going to see the Eastwick panel for ABC’s new show and I rolled my eyes. He went on and on about how great the movie was, and was grievously wounded when I admitted that I had never seen it. When they announced that they were going to show us the entire premier and they dimmed the lights, I counted myself lucky that we only have an hour to go before the panel is over, and then – it got me. I don’t know when it happened but suddenly I realized that I wasn’t just tolerating the show but I was enjoying it.

The characters are well played by their perspective actresses and actors. I have to admit that Paul Gross, who plays Darryl Van Horne, stole the scenes that he was in and afterwards he stole the panel every time he talked. I suppose that he’s following in big footsteps since his role was played by Jack Nicholson in the movie but I think he owns the role completely when he’s playing it. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Eastwick starts in earnest tonight on ABC, I can’t remember the time exactly and I guess it would vary from time zone to time zone, but if you get a chance check it out.

I discovered True Blood last year when it started. Last year at Comic Con HBO was getting the word out, they had street teams getting petitions signed for (and against) vampire rights, they gave out a comic book that discussed the general premise of the show, and somehow I managed to acquire some True Blood pint glasses.  I usually enjoy vampires and the premise seemed interesting so not only was I “in” but  I dragged my friends along with me. (I had a True Blood viewing party with some friends for the series premier.)

I love the writing on True Blood. I love Lafayette’s wit and wisdom, the way he is tough and vulnerable all at the same time. I love that the characters are complicated and well developed. There are characters that are likable even when you don’t want to like them. It makes my skin crawl, my heart race, my eyes water…it evokes real feelings. I love this show, I love talking about it with my friends who watch it – debating theories on what’s going to happen next (or sometimes on what just happened!).

However, this weekend I also discovered another vampire show the BBC’s Being Human. The general premise of the show is that a vampire,  a werewolf,  and a ghost are roommates. I know it almost sounds like a bad joke, but it’s a drama-comedy. The writing is sharp, I have fallen in love with the wonderfully flawed characters. They are struggling to remain in touch with their humanity and to live normal human lives.  I’ve only got one complaint, the werewolf has some special effects that seem a little cheesy, but let’s face it Hollywood’s big budget flicks have kind of spoiled us and I’d take a substantial story over flash effects any day.

I love that both shows have stories and plot lines that take you by surprise. However,  True Blood brings in elements that are unexpected and thrilling to true geeks.  I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to give any spoilers but I have to say that C.S. Lewis actually gave me a hint as to what was going on in True Blood and that brought me no end of joy.

I just can’t wait to see what happens next!

HBO’s True Blood website

BBC’s Being Human website