True Blood So Far….

We’re only two episodes into the new season of True Blood, and I’d like to give my thoughts on what have seen so far…

You know, it’s kinda funny. I’ve recently been talking with friends about how I’m sick of all this vampire crap that’s been flooding our entertainment world in the last few years. I have no interest in Twilight, couldn’t stomach more than five minutes of “Twilight for TV” – aka the Vampire Diaries, and I think the new ABC show – The Gates – looks horrible. Enough with all these vampires!

And yet, I am reading American Vampire, I just read Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and I watch True Blood. I guess I don’t have a problem with all this vampire stuff after all – as long as it’s done right.

And True Blood gets it right.

I started watching True Blood on DVD for the first season and watched the second season live. There was a lot I liked about the second season, the emergence of Eric Northmn as a character, the hilarity of Jason Stackhouse, and the overall expansion of the vampire world.

Then there was Tara – and that whole story line.

Which leads me to the first two episodes of season three. We picked up exactly where we left off last season. Bill had been kidnapped, Jason killed Eggs (I still cheer at that), Lafayette is helping Eric push “V” (Vampire Blood as a drug) for the Queen of Louisiana, and Sam was coming to grips with who he is.

First Bill’s kidnapping. At first we are lead to believe that his kidnapping is from a bunch of junkies looking to tap him for his blood. It seemed very random to me and I wasn’t too keen on that. Now we find out that these were in fact werewolves that were ordered to apprehend Bill and bring him to Mississippi to meet with that state’s Vampire King. They weren’t supposed to bleed Bill like that, but that did lead to us getting a few final moments of him kicking some werewolf tail.

Sure there were a few more naked dudes than I’m looking for – but werewolves don’t wear clothes when their wolves – so of course they’d be naked when they change back to human form. The same rules apply to shape-shifters (are you listening Heroes?)

As it turns out, Bill ends up being almost forced by the King of Mississippi to side with him in a war against Louisiana – and he’s using Sookie as his leverage.

I think I am going to like this storyline and I think this will be the major story of our season. We’ve seen the vampire world grow larger and now we are going to get an even greater glimpse into the political (and maybe even military) side of things.

As far as Sookie’s story so far. She’s basically doing two things. She’s running around asking people if they’ve seen Bill, and she’s trying to avoid werewolves. Well, actually I have to give her credit because while I’d be running away from some scary biker dude staring at me in the woods, she runs right into the woods to try to confront him.

While Sookie is being sought after by the wolves (and the King), Eric is stepping in to protect her in Bill’s absence. The interesting thing here is that Eric seems to be doing it because of some feelings for Sookie – or some feelings that she is very important.

I really enjoy the back-and-forth between the two of them, and loved where the episode ended with him, all fanged-out, confronting a werewolf in Sookie’s home.

Now, I want to talk about Sam Merlotte. I am sure I’m not the only one that was a little confused (and uncomfortable) with that scene between Sam and Bill. It seemed to start with Bill successfully glamouring Sam to get Sam’s shirt – but then it turned more intimate between them. Let’s just say they got really close – and by that point I was asking myself what the hell was going on?

And them Sam woke up.

But you still have to ask – why was he having that dream? I wonder if that was just a one-time thing or if we’ll see something like that again. Probably, they wouldn’t open that can and just leave it out to spoil.

But back to Sam’s story. There’s not much of importance here as far as the main storyline goes, but it was still cool to see Sam actually meet his birth family and find out that his brother is just like him. Hell, they even went for a run as a couple of dogs to, what I thought was bond – until Sam’s newly discovered brother lead him into traffic and almost got him killed. I’ll be interested to see where this goes and if it will tie into the main story or if Sam will have his own thing going on all season.

One of my favorite characters on this show is Jason Stackhouse. He comes off as so dumb that it’s almost charming. We are seeing Jason having to deal with shooting Eggs (thanks again Jason) and cover it up by saying that Andy did it.

At first the guilt was killing him, but then he got jealous of the notoriety that Andy was getting for being a Hero. At the end of the second episode, we see Jason tackle a drug dealer and he has this huge smile on his face.

I wonder, are we going to see Jason try to become a cop? That’s really all I have on that.

And that’s really the only things good I have to say about this new season of True Blood.

Now back to Tara.

I am so tired of this character. I didn’t much care for her being exorcised. I didn’t much care for her going all zombie-like with Eggs (I didn’t much care for that entire part of the story), and I really don’t care that she can’t deal with her murdering boyfriend being killed.

I love Lafayette – he is my other favorite character, and I think he steals every scene he is in. I also think he is being wasted by being stuck with Tara. She just doesn’t come off as likable to me and it’s hard to feel sorry for what she’s going through. I just don’t care.

Okay, that’s really the only complaining that I have to do. The rest I like. I enjoy the possible war of territories. I enjoy the Nazi Werewolves. I enjoy the “V” drug story. I enjoy anything with Jason and Andy. I even enjoy Jessica learning how to become a vampire (where’d that body go anyway?).

I say more of all that and less of Tara, get Lafayette out of there and have him focus on pushing “V” and let’s actually see a vampire/werewolf fight instead of the very start of the very end of one.

True Blood has already been renewed for a fourth season. HBO loves the show and is in full support, so we can be reassured that they will be able to have larger story arcs that span over this season and will have a payoff in the next.

When people ask me what the show is about, I give them the immature answer of “Vampires and Boobies,” but it really is so much more than that.

Okay, I’d watch it even if it wasn’t. Sorry, but that is a winning formula.

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