I am one of those who doesn’t think that the award-winning film “American Beauty,” written by Alan Ball, is that good of a movie. I found it a little too obvious and pedantic in its attempt to unearth the not-so-quiet desperation in late 1990s suburban America. It didn’t move me.

Then came Alan Ball’s next project — “Six Feet Under” — and, putting aside a few lulls in the middle of its run of five seasons, I consider it one of the highlights of 21st-century American culture. Following in the trailblazing path of “The Sopranos,” it used the long-form nature of a television series to develop the subtleties and complexities of its characters with a literary patience and depth.

Alan Ball’s latest project premieres tonight, and from most accounts, “True Blood,” the fantastical story of vampires fighting for rights and recognition in the modern world (based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries of Charlaine Harris), falls somewhere in between the glibness and the richness of his two previous major works.

But even a blatant attempt at political allegory is refreshing, since it signals a thematic ambition that has been missing of late — with a few exceptions — on the small screen.

I’ve written plenty about the power of allegory, from Narnia to “Battlestar Galactica,” from “The Wire” to “Mad Men.” And, at least according to Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times, “True Blood” should be giving us plenty of “pop politics” to talk about:

The vampires on “True Blood” … have “come out of the coffin,” as one woman puts it, thanks to a Japanese substitute that supposedly satisfies their inhuman blood lust. They are seeking acceptance and passage of the Vampire Rights Amendment in a society that is still prejudiced against the life-threatening lifestyles of the living dead.

Vampires have Washington lobbyists, support groups and talk show pundits. They also have their own louche bars, and the one closest to Bon Temps is Fangtasia, where reckless mortals, known as Fang-bangers, trawl for the intoxicating taste of vampire sex.

That sly sendup of American culture and pop politics is one of the more amusing features in this new venture by Alan Ball.

Like most other reviewers, Stanley gives the first five episodes a mixed review. Throw in the fact that we’ve already had the ultimate vampire allegory in “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” (which is the gold standard in so many other ways as well) — and I certainly approach with caution.

But vampires, as Alex Remington points out in the Washington Post, are a deep cultural vein that can always be mined for more meaning. And Ball seems to be aware of the dangers of making a single-minded allegory:

The vampires are a very fluid metaphor, and that’s why I like them. Had the show been done 50 years ago, they could very easily be seen as a metaphor for people of color. I’m not making a show about the trouble that gays and lesbians have. There is some legitimacy to that, but I don’t think that’s all it’s about.

At the same time, he recognizes that it’s the allegorical resonance that provides the show’s cultural power:

I think I just find the pop culture landscape so barren in terms of seeing things that excite me on an intellectual, emotional and entertainment level all at the same time. I don’t want to just sit there and let something that is predigested wash over me and not really think about all of the weird, ambiguous and scary parts of life. I think trying to avoid those is ultimately self-destructive and also destructive in a global sense, because as a race we face a lot of really, really terrifying problems, and we live in a violent, irrational world. I like to confront that in symbolic ways through entertainment. I’m interested in things that reach down into your soul and your psyche and force you to confront the monsters that live there.

What can I say? He had me at “weird, ambiguous and scary.”