I Smell a Spin-off: Sam Merlotte's Shifty Business

Original Show: True Blood

Spin-off Idea/ Description: After selling his bar, long-time Bon Temps resident and shapeshifter, Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) decides it's about time he got away from all the crazy supernatural beings, and went and travelled America. He buys an RV and starts travelling, but soon realises that it's not so easy getting supernatural beings out of your life when you are one. Having experience in such matters, as Sam travels from town to town he starts helping people with their supernatural troubles, whether it a young boy coming out as a shifter, or scaring off a persistent vampire, Sam quickly learns the people of America need his help, and he's happy to provide a helping hand (or paw).

Possible Title Ideas: Shifty Business, Shifter, Drift & Shift, New Moon Rising, Howling for You.

Idea originted from: Sam's season five storyline in True Blood. Two of Sam's shifter friends are found murdered, and wooden bullets with a silver interior are found at the scene, implying their killers are hunting down supernatural beings. Later Sam and his girlfriend Luna, who is also a shifter, are shot, but survive the incedent. Sam convinces Sherriff Andy Bellefeur to let him help him in the invetigation because of his heightened senses, and during the investigation his abilities save Andy's life, and he smells out clues that help him indentify the masked killers.

Format: Monster/ Case/ Lesson of the week.

The show would be similar to: True Blood, Supernaural, Grimm and Scooby-Doo.

How could it be written out of it's parent show?: Sam would have to have a legitimate reason for selling his bar and wanting to leave Bon Temps. At this stage of the series, halfway through the fifth season, if his girlfriend Luna is killed by the supernatural beings hategroup, and he realises that Andy and Jason are hesitant to prosucute the men because of they shared dislike of supes, he may leave town, having become aware that he will never be truly accepted for who he is.

Will it feature any stars from it's parents show?: Sam Merlotte of course. I also suggest he take another minor True Blood character with him so that's it's parent show can focus more on its main characters rather than continously developing boring sideline plots. Hoyt, Terry and Alcide would all work well in my opinion, but I'd choose Hoyt Fortenberry (Jim Parrack). He'd be Sam's slack-jawed but lovable side-kick that Sam constantly has to get out of trouble. Plus, Hoyt could have his own story of redemption. After the events of True Blood's fifth season and his involvement in the supernatural beings hategroup, he can't face what he tried to do to his friends, and leaves with Sam to help him help other supes in need in attempt to right his wrongs.

How about any guest stars?: I could see that happening, but not often. A show like this would need to stand on it's own two feet, mostly seperate from True Blood.

Possible plot ideas: Other than helping everyday people with their supernatural (vampire, werewolf, were-panther, maenad, witch, ghost, or otherwise), problems, and Hoyt's redemption, I could see Sam running into people from his past, like some he met at Maryann's or after he was abandoned as a teenager. His adoptive parents could show up and some point, too.

Target Audience: This would target True Blood's audience, obviously, but be slightly more skewed to the young male demographic.

Could it work as a show?: I think it could. It's monster/ case/ lesson of the week format has proven time and time again to be popular with viewers. Plus, like many other procedurals, it has the oppurunity to have famous guests stars on every week to get viewers watching. I can see it now: Sam and Hoyt must help a woman (special guest star Kathy Bates) with her supernatural alligator problem.

Could it ever actually happen?: No. True Blood is based off a series of novels by Charlene Harris, and Sam Merlotte is a fairly important character in those novels. True Blood would have to finish, and the Charlene Harris would have to give the go ahead for Sam to have his own spin-off, which will never happen.

That Moment In Television

What was that moment in television, for you, when TV became more than just something to do while you ate dinner? Or when you had nothing better to do? That moment in which you fell in love with a TV show. When a mild interest turned into a flew-blown obsession. It may have been something that made you laugh hysterically. Or cry uncontrollably. Or it may have been an unexpected plot twist. Or the first time instead of just watching TV, what you were watching actually made you stop for a second and think. I think all hardcore television fans, whether they solely adore one single show, or many, has had one of these moments. Today I’m going to share mine with you, and how this moment shaped my love affair with television.

The scene in question I’m going to be discussing is from the season two episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer titled ‘Passion’. It also involves the death of a character and therefore spoilers. Anyway, Buffy was the first (adult) television show I religiously watched (sorry, Scooby-Doo!). I was very very young at the time, eight or nine if I recall correctly. My parents watched it occasionally, but it was when my Dad brought me home the first season on VHS (oh, those were the days) when I really started to get into it. Once season two started I was taping it every week. I don’t really know what would inspire an eight-year old to be enthralled by a show like Buffy, but all I can think of is that it was genre defying. It had something for everyone. It was science-fiction/ fantasy, but it was also action, horror, comedy, drama and romance as well, plenty of things to keep me entertained.

Angel, Buffy’s vampire boyfriend, has lost his soul after having a moment of pure happiness with her, and reverted to his true vampire self, Angelus. Jenny Calendar, an IT teacher at Sunnydale high, has been revealed as a descendant of the gypsy tribe that cursed Angel initially. As a member of that tribe she was advised to impede Buffy and Angel’s relationship to ensure Angel didn’t lose his soul. Obviously, she fails, and when her role in the events is revealed to Buffy and the others she becomes estranged from their close-knit group. Desperate to undo her wrongs, Jenny tries to translate the ancient curse using her computer to re-install Angel’s soul. As she completes this one night late at school Angel reveals himself in the shadows destroys the translation and then her computer.

Although I young I remember thinking that because Jenny was a main character on Buffy, that she couldn’t die. As she was running for her life through the deserted halls of Sunnydale high, throwing cleaning carts in front of a rabid Angelus in an attempt to stop him, I was thinking: she’s going to get away, somehow she’ll escape. Oh, how wrong I was. It’s strange how even at such a young age I had become unconsciously aware of basic storytelling rules and conventions. I had read enough books, and watched enough television and movies, to understand that good is supposed to triumph over evil, and that generally doesn’t involve heroes dying. Not that I thought no one died at all. I was aware that plenty of nameless faces often lost their lives in good versus evil tales. In fact Angelus had already killed innocent women who happened to be hanging out in dark alleys or walking home by themselves at the wrong time. It wasn’t that I thought on one would died, just not Jenny. Because Jenny wasn’t a nameless face. She was an important character who had been in Buffy since its first season. She had helped Buffy fight against the forces of darkness; she had had a relationship with Giles. She was someone audiences knew, which is probably why it had such an impact on me when Angelus snapped her neck.

So that was the moment watching television changed for me, because I had to stop and think: wait a second, they can’t do that! But Joss Whedon and Co. did. They defied a standard rule and convention of ‘traditional’ television and snapped its neck, and didn’t care what anyone thought of it. One may argue that there are a lot of far superior ways in which Whedon has disregarded and broken standard storytelling rules and conventions over his career, but this will always be the defining one for me. The one that made me realise the good storytelling, good television, is daring, shocking and defies logic.

So now it’s fair to say I love unpredictable television. Procedurals bore me because they follow a strict set of rules and conventions, I live for television that pushes to break these rules and take audiences out of their comfort zones. So here’s to Whedon and Co. for this moment in television.

What does everyone else think? Have you seen this episode? Think it’s worth mentioning? Feel free to tell me your defining television moment, I would very much love to hear them.