True Blood: Season 2

Eric Northman
Originally uploaded by Vampire_Bill

I know True Blood is only two seasons along, but I have to say I am already interested to see where they might end. As faithful yet different to the books as season one was, season two ups the ante on adaptations and I have a feeling season three will do even more.

Season two of this HBO series deals with Sookie & Bill being called into Dallas to help Eric uncover what has happened to a vampire sheriff even older and stronger than he, and back in Bon Temps people are again being mysteriously murdered and the people of Bon Temps are caught up in the throes of hormones and their inhibitions have supernaturally disappeared. On the surface this is pretty similar to the book – at least the Dallas part of the scenario – but where the series manages to deviate, and improve upon the books is the series of events in Bon Temps.

First and foremost I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that Alan Ball chose to keep Lafayette around. In the books he’s the first victim in Living Dead in Dallas; Lafayette was an interesting character in Dead Until Dark (the only Sookie Stackhouse book he appeared in) but in True Blood Lafayette is downright fascinating. Alan Ball has a knack for taking characters that represent the outer fringes and making them downright essential. I can also tell you that Tara is a completely different character than she is in the book series and I couldn’t be happier for it. I’ve been reading the latest Sookie book (Dead in the Family) and I keep having to remind myself that this Tara is different than the Tara in True Blood - that’s a sign of good creative juices on Ball’s part no?

In regards to plot where season two of True Blood deviates the most is the storyline with Maryann Forester. While Maryann’s character is in the book, as is her need to create and feed off of debauchery I have to give one more point to Ball here. While the storyline in Living Dead in Dallas is entertaining the whole Bon Temps storyline kind of lost me – especially how Maryann eventually left Bon Temps.

For the series Maryann is a god-like creature who arrives in the happy town and decides to latch onto Tara, and instead of feeding off the debauchery already present in the town she creates it in order to facilitate the rituals she needs. Only Sookie and Sam sense something different and dangerous about Maryann and neither can do anything about her alone.

Perhaps the single coolest thing for me as an avid reader of the Sookie Stackhouse series is that for the first time in season two of True Blood we get to see Queen Sophie-Anne and Hadley. I won’t tell you how they become important in the series but just keep an eye out for them as you lucky people with HBO get to watch season three unfold before DVD.

Chow: How much blood do you think he's lost?
Pam: Oh, I still think he has something to offer.
Chow: I hate to let it all go to waste like this. Seems a shame we have to wait for Eric.
Pam: Well, maybe one day you'll be sheriff and you can make the rules.
Chow: I doubt that.
Pam: Me too.

True Blood: Season One

trueblood22
Originally uploaded by truebloodnet

I watched season one again in anticipation of season two coming to DVD. I do adore this show.

Part of what I love so much about vampire shows and lore is that every tale can have it's own mythology and this show has a very unique one.

I encourage you to check it out.

Pam: You've already set her free. The same as Eric freed me.
Bill: Everyone she's ever known will recoil from her. Everything she has ever loved has been stolen from her.
Pam: Oh please! There's no comparison. You've given that pathetic lump of temporary flesh the ultimate gift. You're a maker. You're a hero.
Bill: I find myself doubting whether you were ever truly human.
Pam: Thank you.
To Love is to Bury

True Blood: Season 1

I watched True Blood season one again. I still love it though I honestly could do with the amount of sex in the show being toned down. We get it, they love to show the true definition of fang banger and Jason Stackhouse is a man-whore.

I am actually quite excited to see where the show goes after such a good adaptation of the first book because there is no way they are going to stick to it all. However, I think the real moral of this story is that I need HBO so I can just watch the seasons as they happen.

True Blood

God Hates Fangs
Originally uploaded by snorrem

Sookie Stackhouse is a normal small town, southern girl; she lives with her grandmother, is a waitress at the local bar, and is subject to the criticism and scorn of the town – because she’s telepathic and can hear what those around her are thinking. As such Sookie doesn’t really fit in around her and other than her close group of friends exists slightly out of the world everyone around her lives in. It’s for this reason that when the vampires come out of the closet Sookie is excited instead of repelled by the news; two years after the “great revelation” Bon Temps has its first vampire resident in Bill Compton and controversy abounds when he and Sookie develop into more than friends.

True Blood is a great series. I can’t speak for the majority of Alan Ball’s works (though they have received great criticial praise) because True Blood is the first of his shows that I have seen more than sporadic episodes. What I can say is that the show works because it is tongue-in-cheek, well written, incredibly acted and so unique it stands out even among vampire/fantasy shows.

I am a fan of the Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris which True Blood is based on and in watching the season one I was shocked at how well Dead Unitl Dark translated into season one. The changes that were made to the plot and the characters don’t seem to harm the story Harris told in her books, but instead helped give the television series a flare all of its own along with streamlining events and people so that a television audience could understand them.

What I was surprised by is how much I am enjoying Anna Paquin as Sookie. She doesn’t look like the Sookie I pictured when I read the books but she perfectly embodies her so that now she is all I can picture.

I am sorry to know that I will have to wait for season 2 until it comes to DVD and will be unable to watch it as it airs.

Creator: Alan Ball
Sookie Stackhouse: Anna Paquin
Bill Compton: Stephen Moyer
Sam Merlotte: Sam Trammell
Eric: Alexander Skarsgård

Coming Soon

I've watched all of these, but haven't had the time to review them yet. I will get them up as soon as possible. I've decided to add TV shows on here, but only when I watch the entire season at once, so True Blood: season one will be on here first and soon I'll have my thoughts on Battlestar Gallactica: season one.