Welcome Back, HBO!

• Sep 5, 2008 05:12 PM ET
• by Matt Roush

Feels like old times, having a Sunday HBO lineup to get excited about again. But excited I am, having seen the first five episodes of the wildly entertaining new vampire mystery/romance/comedy/thriller hybrid True Blood, and the first four episodes of Entourage's much-improved fifth season.

I posted my initial thoughts on True Blood in a Dispatch filed shortly after HBO's presentation during TCA press tour this summer, at which time I had screened the first two episodes. Since then, I've watched more and have also devoured the first two books in Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, which are also great fun. (Season one of True Blood roughly tracks the plot of Harris's first volume, Dead Until Dark.) All I can say is: I'm hooked.

Alan Ball's colorful adaptation goes way over the top as only pay cable can do, both in terms of sexuality (especially where Sookie's horndog brother is concerned) and in terms of broadly played Southern caricatures, but I appreciate the show going to extremes with the simple goal to entertain. There's nothing self-important about True Blood, and for me, that's quite a relief. After watching HBO flatline for much of the last year with its series, from the pretentious John From Cincinnati to the dreary obsession with dramas about therapy, it's a pleasure to watch a show that swings big and goes straight for the jugular.

"What are you?" says Bill, the courtly Civil War-era vampire (nicely underplayed by Stephen Moyer), who walks into a redneck bar one night where he meets and is immediately fascinated by spunky young telepathic waitress Sookie (Anna Paquin, whose guileless performance is an utter delight). Sookie isn't just unnaturally drawn to Bill, breathless with wonder, she's delighted that his thoughts are closed off to her. (Her life is an aural nightmare of sensory overload.) They hit it off instantly, despite objections from friends and family- with the exception of Sookie's eccentric granny, played to the hilt by the great Lois Smith. "Who cares what they think?" says Sookie, who knows all too well what they think.

What do I think? That HBO may have its next cult hit on its hands. Just in time for Entourage to pull itself out of its Medellin funk in a new season that finds Vince finally waking up to the mess he's made of his movie-star career. (The season opens with critic Richard Roeper rehashing the "Hindenberg of a screening" at Cannes of Vince's indie flop Medellin- and am I the only one that thinks the trailers for Benecio Del Toro's upcoming Che Guevera epic looks almost as bad?) I had lost all sympathy for the casually arrogant Vince and his self-absorbed hedonism last season, and for the first part of Sunday's season opener, as he hides from the real world on a Mexican beach, I harbored similar thoughts. But some inspired twists await as Vince dips his toes back into the Hollywood waters only to be nipped by sharks that reveal to him just how far his star has fallen.

In three weeks (Sept. 28), HBO's Sunday lineup will expand with the limited-run sketch-comedy Little Britain USA, based on the hilarious BBC series, and the oddball animated comedy The Life and Times of Tim. This happens to be the same night Showtime is launching new seasons of its breakout hits Dexter and Californication. Factor in the strong network competition this night (especially ABC's Desperate Housewives-Brothers & Sisters combo, NBC's Sunday Night Football and the occasional overrun of CBS's The Amazing Race into the 9 pm/ET hour) and that's reason enough to invest in these pay giants' On Demand services if you haven't already done so. Discerning viewers won't want to fall behind on any of these shows.