With House and Lie To Me in reruns, I’ve been drifting across the channels, not very hopefully wondering if there’s a series out there capable of catching my interest. Recently, I stopped on HBO's True Blood and wondered no more. From the opening song, I was intrigued with this show which mixes humour, sex, and blood in equal quantities. That the show features vampires ought to have been a dicier proposition, except these vampires are sexy fun bloodsuckers—what’s not to like?
I caught up with season one in one week on video and jumped into season two, desperate to find out more about Sookie Stackhouse, the telepathic waitress who loves Bill Compton, the ethical vampire, who knows enigmatic and possibly evil Eric Northman, Bill’s vampire sheriff. I couldn’t wait to see more of morally ambiguous but whole lot of fun Lafayette or his wary cousin Tara, Sookie’s friend. In fact, I couldn’t wait to see more of the citizens of Bon Temps, Louisiana altogether. A spot of research told me True Blood is based on the Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris and I must confess I haven’t read them—yet. I intend to, but having come to the series first, it stands on its own for me. My reviews will be on the HBO show and not on how it compares to the books. With that in mind, on to season two!
This season has had four main threads running through it: Jason Stackhouse’s immersion into the cult of the Church of the Fellowship of the Sun; Tara’s immersion into mysterious Maryanne’s world and Sam’s suspicion of that world; Jessica’s rebellious relationship with her Maker, Bill; and Lafayette’s capture and torture by Eric. By episode three, we finally get to see how the strands are weaving together—and in Maryanne’s case, not a moment too soon. That particular part of the story has been dragging just a tad. But as soon as we get to the vampires trying to get their humans to behave like folks should when in the presence of the supernatural, the series comes alive, because trying to herd the good citizens of Bon Temps is like trying to herd cats.
Episode three opens with Bill and Sookie having a heck of a row due to Sookie’s decision to take newly made vampire Jessica to see her family, despite Bill’s orders not to. Last week's episode showed us how well that turned out—Jessica’s violent father scared her so badly she revealed she was a vampire, very nearly resulting in a blood bath. Bill had to glamour the family almost out of their minds to contain the damage and he is not pleased. At all. With Jessica crying in the back seat about how she hates Bill because he’s so mean and Sookie trying to get Bill to understand Jessica, while Bill shouts at her that she has no right to interfere in how he treats his “daughter,” it’s clear that Jessica may have lost one family, but she’s now part of a new one.
Article comments
1 - Mongo
I agree with your observations about Eric. Eric has been around a long time and while not the boy scout relative to Bill, he exhibits a kind of lawful wisdom.
Great write up, hope you do more of these!
2 - Gerry
Thank you, now that I've found the show, I do intend to keep writing about it. I'm hooked!
Yep, I think Eric will turn out to have a mix of good and evil, because I think the show is undercutting the notion the Newlins have of the choice between light and dark being easy to see and easy to make. I expect we'll see more of their dark side as we see more of Eric's light.
Thanks for stopping by and hope to hear from you again!