True Blood for the Twilight Fan?

I admit it, I am a huge fan of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, like I love Twilight. So I've recently heard about this HBO show True Blood and have wondered what the big deal was since from what I had heard, it sounds like a Twilight ripoff. I was skeptical but also very curious. This True Blood thing could actually be good.

Over the Thanksgiving long weekend, I went home to my mother's house to visit with family, eat some great food, be thankful, and of course catch up on all the TV I've been missing since she has way better channels and the best thing ever, On Demand. I love On Demand. When I realized that I had tons of extra time, I decided to give this True Blood business a chance. In one 3 or 4 day span, I managed to watch the first 10 episodes of season one of True Blood.

Ok at first I thought the show was a little ridiculous and over the top, but I stuck to watching it. I really wanted to see what all the hype was. I also couldn't help notice the similarities to Twilight. Both involve vampires trying to live in society on alternatives to human blood. Both have some "good" vampires and some "bad" vampires. Both center around a love story between a human and a vampire. BOTH have a character who can read minds. And both have shape shifter creatures (Sorry if you haven't gotten to that point in either series.) Hearing all of the likenesses made me originally want to hate True Blood for "copying" Twilight.

After actually giving the show a chance though I thought differently. I got over the outrageousness of the first few episodes and as much as I tried to deny it to myself, I was slightly addicted. I had to see the rest of the episodes right away. Despite the likenesses there are way more differences. The show is a completely different take on the vampire genre than the book series. It has a completely different feel. It's scarier, racier.

It might take a little bit to get into, but I would definitely suggest giving this show a try. I can't really describe why or how, but I really do like True Blood. It's become sort of a guilty pleasure that I cannot get enough of. The best way that I've come up to describe it is that True Blood is somewhat like Twilight for adults (even though I am an adult and am so in love with Twilight anyway).