Thursday, June 24, 2010

No runners among "True Blood's" brooding vampires

HBO's vampire soap opera, True Blood, is in its third season and has just been renewed for a fourth. The series is based on Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series of novels, with the usual differences between the written version and the video version that drive fans crazy. I'm more of an athletics fan than a fang fan, though, so I've been wondering--where is Kevin Pryor?

A character in Harris' books, Kevin Pryor is a sheriff's deputy in (don't look for it on a map) Bon Temps, Louisiana. More interestingly, Pryor is a distance runner. Harris describes him in Definitely Dead as "...a thin young patrol officer who always won the 4K race at the Azalea Festival." A four-kilometer race is unusual, but Louisiana has always been different. An Azalea Festival seems less unlikely; there are azalea festivals across the south.

On True Blood, though, there is no Kevin Pryor. There is a Kevin Ellis, played by John Rezig, who seems to fill the same role. Kevin Ellis, however, isn't much of a character. During the run of the series he has appeared in maybe five episodes, where he's portrayed as an amusing bumpkin that you hope isn't trusted with live ammunition. Nothing is ever mentioned about his life out of uniform, particularly nothing about running.

So True Blood has no Kevin Pryor, and nothing much of athletic interest, other than a season two scene of some Fellowship Of The Sun recruits doing a training run at boot camp. But I'll keep monitoring Harris's Southern Vampire books and report back when I find out Pryor's winning time at the Azalea Festival 4K.

Links:

No comments:

Post a Comment