Tuesday, June 30, 2009

I really am a bit ashamed of it

My fondness for HBO's True Blood series. Some of those characters are as naughty as they can possibly be, really. If you're my mom or grandmother or auntie, please do NOT watch this show, ok? Promise me? And even if you're not related to me, but you have children under the age of twenty-one living in your house -- forbid them from watching this. I mean it. Don't allow them anywhere near it. It's shocking and it crosses a LOT of lines I'm just not accustomed to seeing be crossed on a television screen. It's unwholesome.

And more than a little addictive and funny. The acting is simply superb. It really is.

I think my favorite characters just may be Tara and Lafayette, two black characters in the Louisiana town of Bon Temps. In this exchange, they are protecting the main character, Sookie, from all the townspeople who are gathering with food after Sookie's grandmother died. Remember, this is on HBO, so the language is pretty rough:
----------------------
Lafayette Reynolds: [looking at all of the food brought by the town] What the f*** is it with white people and jello? I don't understand.
Tara Thornton: [annoyed] What the h*ll we gonna do with all this?
Lafayette Reynolds: Toss it. Sookie don't need no bad juju cooking.
Tara Thornton: Bad juju?
Lafayette Reynolds: Way to a man's heart is through his stomach. That sh*t true as gold. You put some love in your food and folk can taste it. [picks up the cornbread] Smell this. You can smell the fear and nastiness comin' off that cornbread.
Tara Thornton: [takes a bite] Tastes just fine to me.
Lafayette Reynolds: See b*tch. You gonna wish you ain't did that. Watch.

-----------------------

I think I've HAD food at church socials that fit that description... fear and nastiness (not recently, mind you)... heh... and the jello thing? I've wondered that, too, particularly after having lived in Des Moines, which is reported to be the city in the United States which can boast the highest per capita consumption of Jello.

Anyway, these two characters -- while they are riddled with flaws -- are strangely likeable and are amazingly acted (Nelsan Ellis and Rutina Wesley).

No comments: