VIDEO ESSAY: A Drop of BLOOD Through the Heart – A TRUE BLOOD Tribute

It's perhaps either a fitting coincidence or a realization of my own 20-something existential crisis that the making of this True Blood montage came shortly after I completed my video contemplation of the world of Mad Men's Don Draper. The similarities might not be obvious, but they are there: While Don Draper struggles to conceal his true identity as Dick Whitman as others around him try in vain to scratch beneath the surface, Sookie Stackhouse is still on a journey to reconcile her supernatural fairy blood with her human existence.

The essays contrast the question "Who is Don Draper?" with "What are you?" At its heart, True Blood is exactly about how we cope when we realize our constant, our humanity, is taken from us—new vampire Jessica's relationship with human Hoyt, shapeshifter Sam's investigation into the lives of his birth parents, and Bill's flashbacks to his first few decades as a vampire with Lorena are all examples. As the dearly departed Queen Sophie-Anne reminds Bill, "we started out [as humans] too." And when we left off in the Season 4 finale, mortality had never been more pressing than when Debbie and Tara had seemingly died—and perhaps even more shocking was Sookie's pulling of the trigger on Debbie in cold blood. I have a feeling that humanity, in addition to Tara's mortal life and Sookie's redemption, will be a huge theme in Season 5. And wild werewolves couldn't drag me away from seeing what happens next.

Serena Bramble is a rookie film editor whose montage skills are an end result of accumulated years of movie-watching and loving. Serena is currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Teledramatic Arts and Technology from Cal State Monterey Bay. In addition to editing, she also writes on her blog Brief Encounters of the Cinematic Kind.