True Blood is a pretty bad TV show—I could go on and on about it, its mulitple Terrible Southern Accents, the bad acting, the awful special effects, the various and sundry plot holes, the typical condescension toward/complete misunderstanding of the American South—but I won't. I'll just say that it's bad and leave it at that.

But.

I do have to mention this. Two of the castmembers—Chris Bauer and William Sanderson—were each on HBO original programs that were much, much better. Bauer played Frank Sobotka on season two of The Wire (a show that I had never seen until about three months ago, but that I became balls-out obsessed with), while the great William Sanderson, in addition to his roles in Blade Runner, Lonesome Dove and Newhart, played EB Farnum on Deadwood, a fantastic show that was killed before its time.

Bauer and Sanderson play the two cops in the town, and I imagine the two of them, after a long day of vampiring, walking into a dimly lit bar, sitting quietly at a wobbly table. They do not speak for a long time. A waitress comes and they quietly make their orders. She brings them quickly and moves back behind the bar. Finally, Sanderson lifts his glass.

“I was on Deadwood,” he mutters quietly.

“I was on The Wire,” Bauer counters.

“Touche',” replies Sanderson.

And they drink in the gathering darkness.