Zap2it Fall TV Preview 2008: Cable Comedy and Drama Series

True Blood
HBO

Premieres: Sunday, Sept. 7
Airs: Sundays at 9 p.m.

Stars: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer

What's It All About? Vampires have come out of the "coffin" and into the light -- or at least as close to the light as they dare to go -- thanks to the synthetic beverage Tru Blood, which alleviates their need for the real thing. Many people still fear them, but Sookie Stackhouse (Paquin), a waitress at a rowdy rural Louisiana roadhouse, is fascinated by them. But then, she has a secret of her own -- she reads minds. When Bill Compton (Moyer), a 173-year-old vampire, enters the bar, he and Sookie are immediately drawn to each other. But where vampires go, violence follows, so the relationship ought to have plenty of complications beyond the huge age difference. The series features an entertaining blend of sex, humor and unsavory characters, but the main reasons to watch are the knockout performance by Paquin and the broad vision of writer/producer Alan Ball, creator of HBO's acclaimed "Six Feet Under." Ball says of the new series, "After five years of peering into the abyss and contemplating life in the presence of mortality, I felt like, 'Let's do something else.'"

The series is based on the Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris.