true blood soundtrack

‘True Blood – Music from the HBO Original Series‘ will be released on October 26th through Atlantic Records, featuring tracks from the first series of True Blood including the sultry theme tune Bad Things performed by Jace Everett.

The show which is in its second series in the US has only recently premiered in the UK, Channel 4 launched the first series on October 7th, and according the the Guardian is ‘destined to become ten times bigger than everything else on TV.’

Mixing romance, suspense, mystery, and humor, True Blood takes place in the not-too-distant future, when vampires have come out of the coffin, thanks to the invention of mass-produced synthetic blood that means they no longer need humans to get their fix.

Set in a backwoods Louisiana town, the show follows the romance between waitress Sookie Stackhouse ,played by Anna Paquin, who won an Oscar at the age of eleven for her role in The Piano and winner of a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Sookie, who can read minds, and 173-year-old vampire Bill Compton, played by British actor Stephen Moyer.

True Blood – Music from the HBO Original Series features songs performed by a wide-range of Louisiana natives, reflecting the series’ steamy backwoods setting of the American bible-belt where the liberal minded are thin on the ground.

The artists span Louisiana’s distinctive musical heritage, from three-time Grammy award winner Lucinda Williams, Slim Harpo, and Lee Dorsey to Allen Toussaint and the legendary Dr. John.  This eclectic soundtrack of country, rock and blues also includes Bleed 2 Feed, an exclusive new song written expressly for the series by Lafayette-based swamp rocker CC Adcock.

Full tracklisting for the album:

1.      Jace Everett – “Bad Things”

2.      CC Adcock – “Bleed 2 Feed”

3.      Lucinda Williams – “Lake Charles”

4.      Lee Dorsey – “Give It Up”

5.      Th’ Legendary Shack*Shakers – “Swampblood”

6.      Cobra Verde – “Play With Fire”

7.      The Watson Twins – “Just Like Heaven”

8.      The Flying Burrito Brothers – “Christine’s Tune (A.K.A. Devil In Disguise)”

9.      Ryan Adams – “Two”

10.  Slim Harpo – “Strange Love”

11.  Allen Toussaint – “From A Whisper To A Wind”

12.  Dr. John – “I Don’t Wanna Know”

13.  John Doe Featuring Kathleen Edwards – “The Golden State”

14.  Little Big Town – “Bones”

It was good to see a more grown-up Micah return to Heroes in this episode. I had my suspicions that he was Rebel, considering his powers, but thought maybe he was another character that had just disapeared without explanation like his cousin Monica or Molly.

We also saw the end of another of the Ali Larter triplets when a frozen Tracey Strauss got blasted into ice cubes by Danko. Wonder when Barbara will make an appearance – and will she be good or bad (and sleep with Nathan Petrelli)? Speaking of whom, I wonder where Nathan has taken refuge now that Danko has discovered his ability? Does this mean he will be forced back into the hero’s gang with his brother Peter?

It’s strange seeing Angela forced into exile and great to see Peter rescuing her at the end. I am still wondering what Angela’s role in the current series is, and if Noah is actually working with her or against her. As usual Noah’s character is very grey, is he good/bad, is his behaviour just a cover for his true intentions etc etc…

I wonder if Peter will retrieve his powers by touching Sylar or by being touched by ‘baby touch and go’ Matt Parkman? I’m still hoping the writers will allow Sylar to save the day and become a hero at last. He is definitely one of my favourite characters and I love the ticking that accompanies him on screen. Will we still get to see the future Sylar with his son Noah? I hope so….

‘The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham’

More of our Lost questions get answered as we finally find out how Jeremy Bentham aka John Locke came to be dead!

As series 5 creeps on we are being fed more and more information that points toward Charles Widmore not being the villain that Ben has always made him out to be. In fact, Benjamin Linus is looking increasingly like the real ‘bad guy’ of the show. But, as always, I am forced to withhold judgement for now as these pesky writers do try and lead us avid Lost fans astray with their storylines.

We already knew that Ben’s scheeming and ruthlessness knew no bounds, even down to killing his own father, but I for one had assumed that it was his devotion to the Island and protecting it from enemies (particularly Charles Widmore) that fuelled this behaviour. In fact the reason he left the Island was to protect it and if he (Ben) is the evil one then wouldn’t Richard Alpert and the rest of the others have dealt with him by now?

In last nights show it was Widmore who appeared to be protecting John and helping him with his mission while Ben strangely saved John from hanging himself…..only to murder him!!! And when we see Locke trying to work out how he had returned to the Island at the end of the show, we find out that the Oceanic survivors (including Locke) all magically transported to the Island in the flash of white light while the others on-board flight 817 (including Ben) only made it to the Island by crashing into it! Hmmm….

One final act of evilness that I hope Ben hasn’t committed is killing Penny Widmore and possibly little Charlie but the end of episode 6 seemed to point to just that. As it stands at the moment – Widmore’s only crime is sending the soldiers to find the Island and get Ben (although why didn’t he go with them if he wanted to return to the Island?) while Ben is a rampant serial killer and conman…..hmmmm again!

Now all the survivors are back hopefully future episodes will concentrate on the Island and start revealing a few more of it’s mysteries….oh damn I forgot about Desmond maybe there are a few on/off episodes left to come!

Oh dear, ITV just can’t make family sci-fi shows as good as BBC One can it?

It was a sad goodbye to Charlie Boorman on Sunday as he finally reached his destination in Ireland to Sydney by Any Means. Great show but I did miss the banter he and Ewan usually share on their escapades.

Two new shows I am perservering with are the completely over-hyped Fringe on Sky 1, Sunday 9pm and Sanctuary on ITV4, Monday 9pm.

They are both the type of show I usually enjoy but I’m finding it very hard to warm to them. The formats are okay, if a little unoriginal, and the effects are good but the characters seem a little shallow.

Unfortunately for them the shows they are trying to emulate are just too excellent to match.

New Star Trek movie aside, I think Lost creator JJ Abram’s will find it very hard to repeat the success he has with the cult show.

With 2008 disappearing faster than our high street banks!….I’m eagerly awaiting news on the return of any of my favourite shows and it looks like the Sky 1 website has just the thing…photo’s of the new series of Torchwood currently being filmed in Cardiff. Click on the link to get your fix!

At last a decent series to replace Doctor Who, Primeval and all the other Saturday primetime shows that we enjoy watching with the family.

Knowing how rubbish some of these shows turn out to be, I tuned in to Merlin on Saturday with low expectations…..low and behold we all sat glued to the screen and enjoyed every minute of it.  One of the reasons it was so enjoyable was probably down to the brilliant CGI which was created by the Doctor Who special effects team.

We also took great pleasure in ‘character spotting’ ……that is seeing how many characters from our other favourite TV shows popped up this week and no doubt others will follow.  Tony Head who played a scarey Headmaster in Doctor Who was the first and soon followed by Eve Myles, who isn’t very scarey in Torchwood, but had us hiding behind our cushions as the very creepy witch trying to avenge her sons’ death.

This looks set to become a firm favourite in our household so I hope the rest of the series is as good.

All of my favourite shows seem to be disappearing off of the screen; Lost, Inbetweeners, Desperate Housewives (disappearing mid-season really is poor!),Torchwood, Bionic Woman and I hear that this season of Brothers & Sisters will be the last – thank goodness we still have Heroes and a few episodes of Doctor Who left to fill the summer void!!

If I enjoyed the soaps or reality TV then my viewing schedule would be overflowing but alas, British soaps are far too depressing and the majority of DIY, reality, do-up-your house, sell-your-house-and-make-lots-of-money, go-live-abroad-disaster-that-turns-out-ok! shows have been so overdone that watching them is predictable and boring.

I watch TV for entertainment, to escape reality and maybe to learn something new and interesting – so what will be dominating our primetime viewing for the next 13 weeks – BB9!!!

For those of you who get the extra channels, ITV3 are screening the whole first series of Primeval on Saturday starting at 2.15pm. It will be followed at 8.15pm with ‘Primeval – Behind the Scenes’, unfortunately there is nothing of interest to fill the Pushing Daisies void or indeed the Lost void on Sunday, unless you have been watching Greek, BBC3, 9pm, I haven’t watched it so I can’t comment on it’s entertainment value. If you are missing Pushing Daisies then visit the ITV.com site to view a ‘magic unseen’ episode called ‘Dummy‘.

Does anyone watch a great show that they could recommend? Please just drop me a line in the comment box below.

It looks like I might have some time on my hands, time to get on my bike, get the gardening done, hopefully we will have a long hot summer…..!

You may be wondering why I haven’t commented on this show yet. It’s because I had to record it due to severe schedule clash on Sunday night, and when I went to watch it I thought I had mistakenly recorded Norman Vaughn (sorry showing my age!!) the quality was so bad it was unwatchable.

Does anyone else have a problem with their Sky + box when recording certain channels? It’s very frustrating and I am now going to have to wait until Tin Man is repeated on Friday night to air my opinion on it…..

I’m sorry to see the end of this series although this episode was pretty dull for a finale – no Tom, no evil Bionic Woman!

The highlight for me was seeing Jamie and Rebeca watching Heroes on the hotel tv!

What superhero will they resurrect next?

Lost is returning on Sunday 4th, to finish it’s season 4 run so there should be an intense few weeks coming up!

Men in Trees – Living, 8pm – also returns to finish it’s current season on Thursday 29th.  We should find out if Jack has survived floating around the Baring Sea in a dinghy!

I’m really looking forward to the three-part fantasy Tin Man, starting on Sunday 11th at 8pm on the Sci Fi channel.  It’s based  on L Frank Baum’s novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz but looks like it will be even more weird and wonderful than the film version.  With quirky actors like Alan Cummings and Zooey Deschanel starring, hopefully it will live up to my expectations!

If anyone has persevered with this series of Desperate Housewives you can expect a big storyline coming up in the form of a hurricane which hits Wisteria Lane.  Bree’s home gets badly damaged and she has to temporarily move in with Susan, Carlos and Victor battle over Gabrielle and Mrs McCluskey’s house is destroyed – all this culminates in the death of one of the residents – now who is more dispensable  Mrs  McCluskey or Victor……?