Well i officially love True Blood. I finally watched the second episode of season two and now I feel prepared to assess this season. For people who don't know the show, though, i'll begin with my thoughts on season one.
Season one was all over the place in my opinion. I loved the show. I hated the show. I didn't care about the show. I needed the show. The finale left me satisfied and wanting more, but wandering why...
Before the start of this season I rewatched most of season one to reassess how I felt about the show and hopefully draw some straightforward opinions. Well, I definitely gained further clarity about the show and my opinions, but I was still a little lost in my own opinions.
True Blood is essentially a soap opera drama like Alan Ball's previous show, Six Feet Under. While on the surface it seems like typical vampire fodder, with my mom immediately writing off the show after seeing a particularly gory scene from an episode, but those people are failing to see beyond the outer layer. It's essentially a drama, which just happens to have vampires in it.
My problem with season one, in retrospect, was that it was too much just a family drama. I needed that extra twist, that running theme to hold my interest, and I felt that the glue holding the show together was too weak. There wasn't enough about the vampires and the killer story angle wasn't that compelling. Maybe that sounds like I'm negating what i said early about how the vampire aspect doesn't matter, and it doesn't if you can appreciate a quality drama, but for my money i want the mythology. I find it all fascinating. The other stuff, eh. I've seen it before.
So from season one i concluded that I hate the character Tara. She is the star's, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), best friend and is probably the most annoying character ever on television. Her annoyingness exists on two levels, with the most obvious being her voice. The second level primarily revolves around all the annoying things she does and the constant complaining, which is made so much worse by her voice.
The star of the show, Sookie, is tolerable. Her aww shucks charm isn't that potent, but the character as portrayed by Paquin is just so innocent, almost annoyingly so, that I want to root for her.
My favorite characters are Sookie's love interest, Vampire Bill, and Tara's cousin Lafayette.
Vampire Bill, or Bill Compton as he's actually called, is a vampire that wanders into the bar where Sookie works, which leads to all of season one's actions. Of all the gin joints in the world....
Bill is a charming character, and as played by Stephen Moyer, is eerily similar to what a civil war vampire would look like (or does look like...). His character unfolds in a very appealing way throughout the season, and the process is very rewarding.
Lafayette is hard to pin down. He's a short order cook. A drug dealer. A DPW worker. A hooker. A good friend. Super gay. The moral compass of the show. His character is
complicated, interesting, funny, and based on creator Ball's decision to deviate from the books by saving Lafayette's life (should have said spoiler alert there) in the season two premiere, a fan favorite.Anyway, I finished season one and was excited for more. Season one ends with a cliff hanger that sets the bar pretty high for season two.
Season two then jumps head first off that cliff with reckless abandonment. The show feels like it's going in a completely different direction, as it now seems interested in exploring the mythology of it all, which gets my inner geekiness very excited.
Not only that, the relationships are a little more interesting, as we're able to see how a new vampire, who was recently a teenage girl, gets to play off other characters. This development is especially interesting and entertaining, but it has the potential to be very dangerous on the show.
The show has also introduced a new mystery, which is basically ignored in the second episode.
My thoughts are a little, well very disjointed right now, but as the season goes on hopefully i'll have more coherent ramblings. If not, then i implore you to find someone who is paid for their work and might care to present their work in an entertaining and sensible manner. Until then, let me recommend you catch up on True Blood.
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