Rarely do real-world events unfold like a Hollywood film. There were the twin Bush-era catastrophes of 9/11 and hurricane Katrina, of course, but the recent Democratic convention boasted its own cinematic sheen. The Clintons offered high drama — down to Hillary’s staged, heroic halting of the roll-call vote — and there was even that minor, meth-fuelled assassination subplot. But watching Barack Obama’s triumphant acceptance speech in front of 84,000 people at Denver’s INVESCO Field was like watching a movie scene — especially in hyper-real high-definition.

Obama’s speech reached record viewers: nearly 40 million Americans and countless more across the globe. Many were watching on hi-def TVs. This may seem like a trivial observation, but the rise of HDTV could help Obama’s stadium gambit pay off large.

From my couch, HD made for a blistering sight with all those flashbulbs popping, fireworks exploding, confetti flying and the massive crowd chanting Obama’s “Yes, We Can” mantra. It had a slightly creepy Riefenstahl air — if only because Triumph of the Will depicts the only political rally of such size and fervour that I can recall — but mostly I was taken aback by the crystal-clear wow of it all. Obama sounded great, to be sure, but more importantly (in image-conscious American politics) he looked great: young, vigorous and vital with gleaming skin and a beaming smile. Not like a rock star at all, but a matinee-idol answer to a politician.

 

His 72-year-old opponent, on the other hand, may actually benefit from hurricane Gustav partially kiboshing the Republican convention. If John McCain looks faded on standard-definition, dude is Grandpa Simpson in HD — wrinkles interrupted only by blotches, liver spots, cancer scars and shock-white hair.

Much has been made about the similarities between this election race and the one between Kennedy and Nixon in 1960. It’s well-known that a majority of people listening to the first-ever televised presidential debate on the radio declared the oily-looking, older vice-president the victor. The TV audience resoundingly preferred the fresh-faced young Irishman. (Famously, telegenic Kennedy shaved and had makeup applied before the debate; Nixon didn’t.)
Now, multiply that by 720 lines of progressive-scan resolution. It’s not by chance that when Obama and McCain purchased ads during the Olympics, McCain’s aired in standard-def. But he won’t be able to avoid HD when the two square off in the debates.

Once again the election could swing to the younger, prettier candidate — though admittedly, the gun-totin’ sexy-librarian look of McCain’s bizarro-world running-mate Sarah Palin does light up a flat-screen.

Coming out of the coffin
For a TV-show creator, it can be something of a curse to be intrinsically attached to your breakthrough project. While some are content with variations on a theme, Six Feet Under’s Alan Ball bolted in the opposite direction. And what could be further from LA funeral directors than small-town Louisiana vampires who live forever?

Ball’s campy-sexy new HBO series True Blood — based on Charlaine Harris’ popular Southern Vampire Mysteries books and starring the ever-quirky Anna Paquin as telepathic vamp-lover Sookie Stackhouse — messes with the usual mythology.

Unlike every other vamp story, including Buffy and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight franchise, True Blood brings its bloodsuckers into the light. When synthetic blood is invented by the Japanese, vampires announce their existence and begin the challenge of integrating into a society that they still consider yummy. This allows the Deep South–set series to use them as an unsubtle metaphor for victims of racism/homophobia/xenophobia — as one character spits during the second episode, “a lot of Americans believe you people don’t deserve special rights.”

Or, come to think, maybe that was from the Republican convention….

 

TRUE BLOOD AIRS SUNDAYS, 9PM ON TMN.

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