True Blood

So what’s going on? Well after turning off half way through the pilot the first time, we’ve been watching True Blood quite a lot. Finished the second season and really getting into it a lot. The mythology of the series is growing as well as learning more about the characters. Okay, I’ll admit the second season seems to be quite splintered and segregated in terms of certain characters and had some incredibly slow stalling tactics it’s using so far – but the overall arc was intriguing. So what’s the show like after two seasons of vampire goodness? Let’s have a look shall we?

But digression is an easy habit to fall into. If you haven’t caught this yet, it’s based on some books where vampires are public knowledge and they drink synthetic blood and there’s people that want to be them e.t.c. The main character is a telepathic waitress called Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) who ends up in a relationship with vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) .

The first season took a while to get going, and the amount of sex is quite distracting but as the story of the first season gets going the characters begin to grow on you and some shocking twists kick in and hook you. Dodgy accents and Tara-the-annoying aside, there’s some funny stuff here. Ryan Kwaten (Vinny from Home and Away) is excellent  as Jason and steals a lot of the scenes that he’s in. Managing to get across sympathetic yet tormented unlucky guy to bumbling buffoon to loyal heroic warrior his character arc is one of the most involving and entertaining. Contrasting with Sookie’s relationship with the strange and ‘proper’ vampire Bill which delves into real melodrama at times but continues to be interesting.

Vinny from 'Home and Away' plays Sookie's brother Jason.

In fact, the series isn’t scared to separate the two main lovers for long periods of time and have them interact with other characters. Sookie interacts with several key vampires including sheriff ‘Eric’ and her friends while Bill gains a teenage vampire ‘daughter’ and ends up having to become a ‘father’. In a world where vampire romance stories has to be about the two ‘fated’ lovers all the time (and the New Moon trailer is depressing as sin) it’s nice to see them feel like real people rather than an attempt to recreate Romeo and Juliet. The show isn’t scared to paint them in a full blown relationship, and isn’t scared to NOT try and break them up. Other shows bring in other people to try and threaten the relationship, but despite some instances and people after Sookie and Bill – the relationship isn’t that threatened.

The other characters are good to watch, especially the secondary ones. From gay chef Lefayette, the dim Hoyt, bumbling detective Andy and other assorted residents of the town of Bon Temps there’s plenty to enjoy. Some great writing “Tara for once in your life listen to a white man,” litters the scripts and some great comic creations.

This does have some dark patches. Sookie’s friend Tara can verge on the side of annoying for pretty much most of the series, and the aforementioned pacing does really grate at times. Once things get going however, the seasonal stories really do kick in and get involving. The second season seems quite fractured in places with two separate stories with multiple strands crossing over loosely but in terms of deepening the mythology there’s some good stuff here.

There’s plenty of swearing, violence and sex – and it’s not afraid to show stuff that network shows would be a bit shy about. Though it can go overboard some of the time (like the another of breasts that seem to be out) it’s good to see a more mature and adult way of looking at supernatural stories. It’s from Alan Ball, who did the amazing Six Feet Under, and there are traces of the wit of that amongst some high supernatural concepts.

We hope this one to last a while. Check it out, stick with it and you’ll be rewarded.