Last night I went to FX’s launch of True Blood, its new US import from the HBO stable. It was very fantastic and FX really pushed the boat out – the venue, renamed from Ghost to Fangtastic for the night, was amazingly gothic; there was a Cajun blues band; and a special True Blood cocktail, essentially a Bloody Mary with pig’s blood in. So it was all fun and cool and everything, but what about the show? FX had the good grace to keep speeches short and didn’t show a full episode, but I’ve been a bit naughty with this one – I’ve watched the first series online. So what’s it like?

For all our True Blood news and (soon to be be) reviews, go here.

I’ve said it once and I’ve said it before… I don’t normally like vampire shows. I get why people like them. Vampires are, by their nature, outsiders and that’s always sexy, right? And biting someone and drinking their blood is also a sexy thing. To some.

But I’ve never really been interested in this whole, gothic world. Never liked Buffy or Angel or Twilight or any of that shite. But then Being Human came along and it was fantastic. And now True Blood is here (well, almost) and that’s fantastic too.

Why is it fantastic? On top of all the vampire drama, it’s because True Blood is more to do with being an outsider in a world that doesn’t like or tolerate outsiders. So, for a vampire show, this is quite political in a way (especially when you consider how fearful American society was in the wake of the Iraq war and the hate propagated by Bush and his chronies).

The top layer of the story concerns a small town in the deepest south, in a country where vampires and human enjoy an uneasy co-existence. A young waitress, Sookie Stackhouse, who can hear people’s inner-most thoughts, lives there with her entertainingly potty-mouthed bezzie Tara, her grandma and her sex-addicted brother, Jason. There’s also camp-as-Christmas

The Japanese invention of synthetic blood (bought over the counter in off licenses) has nullified the vampiric threat, but a series of murders in threatens to destroy the harmony between humans and vampires, and make all latent vampire racism show its ugly place.

On the surface it’s all pretty much better-than-average fantasy/vamp fare, but what really elevates True Blood above the usual is Alan Ball’s writing, the sexy, gothic, swampy, sweaty Deep South atmosphere and the acting. As Sookie, Anna Paquin is a revelation.

Definitely a must-watch, True Blood starts on FX on 17 July.