Given that at its very core the vampire genre is about forbidden romance and the thrill and appeal of the unknown, it is little wonder that misunderstood Bill has come to dominate the hearts of fans with, as Moyer blithely puts it, "a healthy feminine side."
--
Real chemistry
As he leads an on-set tour of Bill's cryptic, mossy mansion, Moyer says that he and Paquin were in England when Season 1 first aired, so they never got the chance to watch it.
In the real world, the pair are dating and live together. They kept their romance a secret for 10 months before coming out with it on set; its inception was aided by the fact that during filming for the pilot "HBO very stupidly put us in the same hotel," says Moyer, adding that he knew "True Blood" was building a fan base but didn't realize the scope of it until someone sent Paquin a shirt emblazoned with the words, "Bill's Babes."
"She was like, 'I'm the original Bill's babe,' and she would occasionally wear the shirt around the house," says Moyer. Shortly after that he was tickled to discover another group of devotees called Moyerettes.
Clans of character-obsessed viewers aren't the only windows into the restless soul of eternal vampire love. Chat rooms, forums, podcasts, Twitter feeds created by fanatics masquerading as personalities from the show, Facebook pages, show recaps, detailed factoids and general, shared-interest camaraderie are all part of the parallel universe that breathes life into "True Blood" itself.
Within the world of the show there is plenty to latch onto. "The show is really heavy-duty," says Rose. "It's good and evil and confusing the two, and then looking at the important topics of today, like the gay issue, and women being promiscuous or not. It looks at everyday things, but through a very dark lens."
--
Riding the zeitgeist
"True Blood" premiered just two months before Barack Obama was elected president and Proposition 8 passed in California, effectively banning gay marriage in the state. Since the show contains plenty of references to outsider groups kept down, it is easy to conclude that it represents one of those moments in history when a piece of pop-culture ephemera taps into something greater than itself.
Maybe, Ball says, adding that some fans were likely drawn to the series as the country was coming out of the Bush era because it was a time that was "about institutionalized demonization of all kinds of groups." But really, he says, although those deeper topics are definitely present, the show, its fans and its creator are primarily concerned with campy glee.
