As you all probably know, the HBO series True Blood, based on the Charlaine Harris novels, was one of my favorite new shows this past year, maybe my very favorite. The new season is kicking off with fun altmodel cam boy and local vampire blood dealer Lafayette Reynolds possibly in trouble and more murderous whodunit and more surprisingly well done and extended sex scenes. I’m not sure the first True Blood Season 2 teaser pics and True Blood Season 2 promo photos really do the show justice.

I am sure that a bunch of the product placement tie-in billboards and suchlike around Los Angeles are a bit cringe-inducing. There are billboards for motorcycles, cars, automotive insurance, and and Gillette razorblades and other not terribly vampy products. (I don’t necessarily want to give tons of bonus exposure to silly things advertised this way, but I have to give Gillette a shout-out because years ago I worked the product launch for the Gillette Sensor and it was the most awesome and creative technical theatre gig I ever saw.) Pale-skinned dark-haired vampy femme fatale Dita Von Teese says, “I don’t understand this vampire bandwagon. Just saw a billboard advertising razors that “vampires prefer”. Vampires don’t have to shave!” I could get into a dissertation about the necessary equilibrium between enjoying the success of what you love verus avoiding having what you love co-opted. But really this brings me to another much more pressing and vital concern about the new season of True Blood.

What is up with vampire hair on Alexander Skarsgaard? In the season opener, big wig vampire sheriff and nightclub impressario Eric Northman, played by the always charismatic yet unsettling Alexander Skarsgård had foils in his hair. Like he was bleaching highlights in. It appears that he will be wearing shorter hair for Season 2. It is too early in this portion of the series to get into much philosophy of prejudice, or presentation of sexuality and sensuality in media, or the nature of the erotic, so I can’t help turning over and over in my head whether I feel like vampires should have to deal with hair growth. It would suck to have hair chopped off in a battle with another vampire if it could not grow back. If no regrowth were the case, then all vampire altercations would look like hair pulling catfights. It would suck to be turned on a day your hair dye was not fresh or you hadn’t shaved your shavable parts. Hair and nails do grow a bit after death, but not much. Would vampire hair just regrow to the length and/or shade it was at time of death?

Should the fictional undead require hair dye and razors? How do you want your media to handle vampire hair growth?

Alan Ball’s True Blood on HBO is moving along at a brisk clip. (If you haven’t viewed through episode 109, you may want to stop reading here.) Episodes 108 and 109 really highlighted the theme of who is really the hunted in Charlaine Harris’ world of vampires who have come out of the coffin.

We’ve learned that human beings can get high on vampire blood or V. We also learn that, while vampires can drink the synthetic blood substitute Tru Blood, nothing is enjoyable quite like the real thing. So there are plenty of small-minded folks in the True Blood world who fear vampires because they could hunt them and feed off of them, even if they are not doing so. Yet there are also reasons for humans to hunt vampires, although again most do not do so. Time to look in a mirror to figure out who is the hunted and who is the hunter.

Some vampires, such as the jaded 1,000-year-old nightclub impresario Eric, played by Alexander Skarsgard, are annoyed by the whole vampire pride and vampire rights amendment thing. They are satisfied with their position in society and are perfectly happy to exercise their power from the shadows. There is a scene where the human leading lady Sookie Stackhouse, played by Anna Paquin, is kissing vampire leading man Bill Compton, played by Stephen Moyer, and their chemistry is notable. Eric’s most trusted retainer turns to him and says that if she still had feelings, she would be moved by this public display of affection. Eric replies, in the most bored voice imaginable, that he wouldn’t.

The best culture clash in the most recent two episodes is where Sookie’s best friend Tara Thornton, played by Rutina Wesley, turns to her alcoholic and possibly formerly possessed mother and her friend, who are all decked out for church, and points out that putting on a ridiculous hat and going to church isn’t going to make them better or happier than Tara. I personally kinda like the jelly bean colored Southern church-going style of hats, but I don’t really have a hat-shaped kind of head. My skull and hair are generally wrong for most hats I’ve tried on, although I always welcome hat source suggestions.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s episode of True Blood. There is going to be a vampire tribunal, presided over by a vampire elder played by Zeljko Ivanek. Zeljko Ivanek is perhaps best known for his portrayals of Governor James Devlin on Oz and of the driven prosecuting attorney Ed Danvers in Homicide: Life on the Street. The Ed Danvers character was so popular that he was brought in as a crossover character in a number of episodes of Law & Order, even after Homicide was canceled. Zeljko Ivanek has actually done a lot of political and legal acting roles over his long career, so I think he will be very entertaining as a vampiric judge who gets to decide when it is or is not all right to kill.