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Suzuki Sets the Scene: Merlotte’s Bar and Grill was the most challenging set for Ingerslev’s team to design. With little time, they had to incorporate a number of key features, notably how each of the rooms had to stay within eyeline of one another, while creating a clear path for the director of photography to follow the characters on foot with a Steadicam, and at least 25% padding on all sides (to protect the sets and camera), including behind the bar. The set is so authentic — functioning beer taps, and all — that many who visit it have remarked that they thought it was an existing bar.

Encore: As Sookie turns back to talk to Tara while she drinks margarita, we hear “Strange Love” performed by Slim Harpo. James “Slim Harpo” Moore was born in 1924 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the eldest in an orphaned family. He worked as a longshoreman and began performing his style of post-war rural blues in bars under the name Harmonica Slim before circles started to call him Slim Harpo. He was known for his warm, lazy, sexual voice, and his song “I’m a King Bee” was recorded by The Rolling Stones. The Stones, along with The Pretty Things, The Yardbirds, Pink Floyd, and Them all covered Slim’s songs. His biggest hit came in 1966 with “Baby, Scratch My Back” which went to #20 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a #1 R&B hit. During the ’60s, he owned a trucking business, while he continued to perform. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack in 1970 at the age of 42.

Out back of Merlotte’s Bar and Grill. Look out for drainers, Vampire Bill! Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to talk to strangers? (Eleanor Tivnan)

1.02 ~ The First Taste

Original air date: September 14, 2008; Written by: Alan Ball; Directed by: Scott Winant

Bill: Humans are usually more squeamish about vampires than you are.

Sookie: Who am I to be squeamish about something out of the ordinary?

Bill rescues Sookie from the Rattrays, saving her from certain death by having her feed on his blood. Later, Bill visits with Sookie’s grandmother and receives a cold welcome from Jason and Tara.

In “Strange Love,” we were shown what the main characters get up to when left to their own devices. In “The First Taste,” we see how some of the characters are handling all the changes in Bon Temps, who’s evolving and who’s having a hard time. Territory, and what it takes to hold on to it, is the major motif in this episode.

Ryan Kwanten’s performance is exceptional. Jason is losing his grip and Kwanten plays it with a mix of bewilderment and quiet rage. Jason is nothing if he isn’t The Man, and vampires in town cramp his style. He’s sharing all his women with vampires: lovers, Sookie, and even Gran, who dresses him down in front of Bill. And if he were a vampire, he would be able to break free of the cotton scarves Dawn uses to tie him to the bed. What he loses, he tries to replace with sustenance, always refueling or self-medicating, whether he’s consuming beer, food, or women. Freud might say that Jason is stuck in the oral stage. And we have yet to see where he lives.

Tara continues on a similar bender, often seen nursing a drink or a swizzle stick. She too is all but homeless, hers a home she’d prefer not to return to, where she’s likely to find her mother passed out. The difference with Tara is that she knows her choices are bad. When she confesses to Jason that all they want is to be seen, it’s the first time we could believe that she and Jason share something in common. They’re born soldiers looking for a fight to pick because they can’t get in on the real battle. It brings to mind the Martin Luther King Jr. quote “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” You just can’t call Jason and Tara fence-sitters, but they’re the blankest slates in terms of how drastically their characters could change over time. It will be interesting to see if, and how, they adapt to increased tensions.

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