The main character of Charlaine Harris’s, Dead until Dark, has no best friend. She’s a freak around the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps because of her ability to read minds (but she’s “not psychic!!!”) and she lives with her grandma. What is poor lil Sookie Stackhouse to do in the HBO series adaptation True Blood? Enter Tara Mae. Tara is Sookie’s only best (black) friend. Tara has lived a hard life, as seen in multiple parts in season one of the show. Flashbacks are shown of her alcoholic, abusive mother as Tara runs to Sookie’s Gran’s house for safety and shelter. Her father is not in the picture. This is all perhaps supposed to explain her anger all the time. Tara yells at anyone for the slightest things and makes everyone around her at Merlotte’s uncomfortable with her attitude.

More so than the best friend role, Tara is the Angry Black Woman. The writers of the show couldn’t have just made Tara a normal woman who treats Sookie like the overdramatic child she is. They had to make Tara the one who takes the backseat to Sookie’s shenanigans, lusts after her loser brother, Jason, (WHY?) and not a smart, strong, hardworking woman like Tiana from Disney’s The Princess and the Frog (2009). In real life, Tara would be the one who owns the bar and is successful and has a loving, supportive relationship with whoever she wants.

Tara has moments where she really shines through. Truthfully, she’s the only one on the show with any amount of acting ability. Sookie and Bill are so hard to watch most of the time, but let’s not get me started on that. Any time Tara attempts to make the plotline even somewhat focus on her, Sookie steals the scene and starts making it about herself and inevitably turns the subject to a boy problem, forcing the show to fail the Bechdel test. We haaaaaaate Sookie. I really wish Tara was given more screen time in the first season. I also wish Sookie was given far less screen time, but it is what it is.

The Angry Black Woman stereotype is not a new thing, by any means. It happened to Nicki Minaj when she was reportedly in a feud with Taylor Swift over who knows what. In media outlets, Taylor and Nicki would be shown side to side with Taylor getting a nice calm, normal red carpet picture and Nicki getting an unattractive, mouth wide open, “angry” picture. It was clear what the purpose was. Several people called the various media outlets out on their biases, but I don’t remember if any of them responded or changed the pictures. It’s not fair. There doesn’t need to be an Angry Black Woman. We’re all friends here.