I had a very quiet love affair with True Blood during its first season run. I kept things under wraps because I am fully aware of the harlequin romance trash that it is and didn’t want to sully my image as some kind of genre authority by admitting that the on again, off again romantic life of Bill Compton and Sookie Stackhouse was something that occupied a frequently accessed part of my brain. I qualified it as valid to myself by making obtuse comparisons to Dark Shadows but I shouldn’t really have to qualify anything since I have no problem admitting that I love trash. This is coming from a guy who routinely admits actually liking Breakin’ 2 far more than he should. I really had no idea that it had amassed any kind of following, though. The sort of people who talked openly about True Blood were not the sort of people that I associate with and I’m sure that by this point, other horror fans, like myself, are more or less out of the closet, but at the time we would give each other knowing glances and outwardly dismiss the show so as not to let the cat out of the bag. Yet, as the show hit DVD, none of my anxieties about appearance made a difference. Everyone still came to me for some kind of synopsis and opinion as if it were written all over my face and I would gladly engage them on the topic.
So the second season premier roared onto HBO this past sunday and reeled in Sopranos grade numbers. Specifically, the first episode, Nothing But The Blood, achieved it’s highest ratings, pulling down 3.7 million viewers. We have an official hit on our hands, if you’ve ever had any doubt. True Blood is the anti-Twilight. It spits in the face of Stephanie Meyer’s Mormon vampires and wears its kinks on its sleeve, which is fine by me. It has, ostensibly, abandoned the plots of the Charlaine Harris novels (it vaguely followed the first novel in the first season), according to my wife who has read them all, and is clearly taking the story in a new direction and in case you forgot what was going on, this first episode of the season reminds you of everything that is happening. It all makes for a slightly underwhelming episode. What lies ahead of the break is a wildly spoiler-heavy account of the Season 2 proceedings. Read at your own risk.
As the first season ends, Lafayette is caught by surprise by some unseen force. Sam Merlotte clearly has some kind of existing relationship with the mysterious Maryann, who presently has Tara under her thrall and living in her house. Renee was revealed to be the fangbanger killer and is summarily wasted in a joint effort by Sam and Sookie. Jason is cleared of all charges after he is arrested on suspicion of being the killer and while in jail he is persuaded to join the Fellowship Of The Sun, a religious sect and deeply hateful group against vampires. Bill is left to care for Jessica, the vampire he created as atonement for killing Longshadow, after she proves to be too much for Eric and the Fangtasia crew. There’s also a dead body in the back of Detective Bellefleur’s car.
Nothing But The Blood opens exactly where the season finale went to black. The dead body in the back of Andy’s car, speculated to be the body of Lafayette, who dies in the novels, turns out to be Miss Jeanette, the huckster voodoo witch that performed exorcisms on Tara and her mother. A gaping hole in her chest reveals that her heart has been torn out. Bill’s “child”, Jessica, the brat that she is, creates tension between Bill and Sookie and matters worsen when it is reported to Sookie that her pervy uncle has been found dead. She ultimately forces Bill to confess to killing him and neaarly storms out yet Bill somehow manages to work the situation all the way to the bedroom where she and Bill have the kind of sex that only happens in soft porn and True Blood. Meanwhile, Jason gets caught up in the magic of the Fellowship of the Sun and is introduced to their charismatic leader, Reverend Steve Newlin, who persuades him to take part in their pricey leadership program. Lafayette, it is revealed, is being kept in the Fangtasia basement, chained to a wheel that he and some other captives are occasionally forced to turn, presumably, this has something to do with the ultimate fate of Eddie the vampire and Lafayette’s relationship with him in exchange for V. Sam, it is revealed, has had past dealings with Maryann when, as a teen struggling to survive after being abandoned by his family, attempts to rob her house and winds up caught. After they have sex, teenage Sam robs her and makes off with the loot, which, it turns out, he has kept after all this time. Her re-emergence in Bon Temps prompts him to try and give it back. Maryann is interested in more. To top it off, Tara and Eggs, finally get together after the subtle prompts of Maryann, who places some importance on their hooking up.
The end-result for the first episode of the season, Nothing But The Blood, is a mixed bag. The fate of Lafayette is somewhat of a relief as he was one of the more amusing characters from Season 1 and the people directly involved with Maryann are the only ones with any sort of plot progression. The scope of True Blood is pretty big, though, and with so many characters to report on and only an hour to do it, cuts have to be made. There just wasn’t enough vampire. Eric makes a brief appearance toward the end of the episode. Jessica’s schtick is going to get old fast. I can only hope that Bill’s comment about 2/3 new vampires don’t last a year is some kind of foreshadowing for her.
It’s nice to have True Blood back, though. They’re setting up the pieces for a season that will be even bigger than the first and take on a much wider scope. If the Bill and Sookie relationship is ever going to be interesting, however, they’re going to have to start adding a new dynamic that is deeper than the misunderstandings and obstacles of morality that come with human/vampire relations. Sookie is driven away and then wooed back as the main mechanic of their relationship but not much else happens. It seems as though Sam has finally given up on her, so where does she go next? It’s clear that the series has broken ties with the Harris novels but it may not be unreasonable to think that she’ll find her way to Eric, eventually.
June 17, 2009 9:05 am
i hope so, screw laffayette Pam is my fav character..