True Blood season two opener quick review

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True Blood season two opener quick review

18 June 2009No CommentPosted by Phil

Beware of minor spoilers for True Blood

True Blood has become a break-out series for HBO, not on the Sopranos level but according to this past Sunday's numbers, the second season premiere is the most watched HBO show since the Sopranos finale back in 2007. You can read the report over at TV by the Numbers.

Season one of True Blood was an interesting experience, at least for me, because it is actually one of the first television shows that I didn't like but also gave me enough intrigue to stick around for the next following episode. To put it simply, I almost stopped watching True Blood because I found it to be boring - there was not a lot of character development, things were cliche and there wasn't that much light shown on the creature world, for lack of a better term. It also has the Twilight effect on people - It feels like it's geared for teenage girls looking to be swooned by Bill Compton, and that's alright but that's not what keeps me around. Even so, while watching the series, there were a lot of the little things that kept me intrigued, for example; Lizzy Caplan, for starters - Eric, the viking Vampire, Bill being forced to turn a young girl into a Vampire, Michelle Forbes, and several other things. The overall arc, however, wasn't anything that I personally found interesting. I still watched the season, however, every Sunday from beginning to end and it left me curious enough for season 2, which I'll admit I wasn't that excited for. Now, a couple of days after the premiere, I find myself more excited for True Blood than ever - a total turn around! The season premiere from this past Sunday turned out to be an excellent episode that I found more entertaining than all of season one!

It picks up right where we left off, with Sookie and Tara finding a dead body in Andy's car. "A shocking murder outside Merlotte’s has Bon Temps reeling. Meanwhile, Sookie’s (Anna Paquin) relationship with Bill (Stephen Moyer) is tested when she learns about Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), and of his involvement in her uncle’s death. Sam (Sam Trammell) recalls a shape-shifting encounter he had with Maryann (Michelle Forbes) as a 17-year-old. Jason (Ryan Kwanten) gets a sudden windfall that allows him to pay for a leadership retreat with the Fellowship of the Sun. Two adversaries find themselves sharing a mysterious dungeon and, possibly, the same fate." [TrueBloodNet.com]

I think the main reason why I found this episode to be so excellent is that the story and structure seemed to be more focused on what it wanted to do. Last year the episodes, although having a directed plot, seemed to be all over the place in trying to introduce characters, arcs, sub-plots, lots of sex, murders, arguments between Sookie and Bill, make-up sexy, more murders, Lizzy Caplan's titty debut, etc. It just seemed too much.

The new episode, Nothing But The Blood, focused more on the characters and where they needed to go. A character that I found very uninteresting during the first season, Sam, now takes a front seat because of his story along side Michelle Forbes crazy ass character Maryann. We now know that Sam is a shapeshifter, but as for Maryann, I have no clue what she is. I get the sense that she's some kind of one time deity. Whatever the case is, the young actor playing a 17 year old Sam peaked his career in more ways that one - you'll know what scene I'm referring to, at least guys will know.

Last year I always thought, "When is this shit with Sookie and Bill going to stop - fighting, make-up, fighting, make-up." Guess what!? It hasn't changed, however, now with the inclusion of Jessica things seemed to be more interesting. A newly created Vampire, who's got personality - there is a lot of fun and comedy that could be had with that character.

Jason is becoming a sort of hippy. Granted I don't know much on where is character could go, Nothing But the Blood introduces his new circumstances with a lot of intrigue. Who wants to make a bet that Jason is going to get that preacher's wife in bed? It seems like the only logical development with Jason, but we'll see.

One of the coolest but more mysterious scenes is in the dungeon with Lafayette, the true reason why he's down there isn't yet known. What we do know, only finding out in the end, is that Eric Northman is leading an investigation on who killed the three Vampires from the first season. Why is that totally awesome? because Eric ripped apart some poor guy and ate him - lol, that shit was great and violent.

All and all, I was very pleased with the season premiere and although it doesn't content with my more favorite shows of this year like Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Battlestar Galactica, True Blood has given me enough to stick with it another season. That is, unless, they completely crash and burn in the next couple of episodes but I don't see that happening.

Take a look at the preview for next week just below. Also, True Bood also returns for my weekly Quick Thoughts on Monday's.

It looks great!