True Blood!

I rarely watch live television. I generally prefer to purchase TV shows as seasons and then watch the whole season in a short period of time instead of having weekly breaks. So a few weeks ago I purchased True Blood Season 1 and 2 (they were on sale, I assume because S3 was about to start).

I don't know what I was expecting from the show. I guess I was mostly expecting a murder mystery involving vampires. But, the first season spent very little time on the mystery itself. Instead, the show focused more on the people of the town, the politics, the racism, and the quirkiness of all of the characters. By the time the actual murder mystery took center stage, it was like ep11 out of 12. And a lot of the 12th episode was all about setting up the next season. Though it wasn't what I expected, the show was quite fun in its own way.

Season 2 was at once better, and worse, than the first season. While Season 1 had it's moments, Season 2 was more interested in shock. It had two main stories. One involved the disappearance of a vampire 'sheriff' in Dallas. The other, an evil maenad fucking with the town. Of the two, the stuff in Dallas was the most interesting. But that was over way too quickly. Maryann, the seasons 'big bad' was annoying beyond belief, and evil group-sex just didn't really sell the story very well. By the end, the whole town was fucked up, and there were some genuine creepy moments. But the ending fizzled completely. The Queen of Louisiana was a joke character, and there were moments where characters were forced into some of the dumbest actions merely to set up the story (I'm looking at Tara, and Eggs specifically). So Season 2, while still fun and more polished, also had more things detracting from it.

So  having now seen both seasons, I've started watching Season 3, which is now 4 episodes in, is certainly more engaging than either previous season. It's more complex. There is obviously more thought into what is going on. The King of Mississippi is making a move against the Queen of Louisiana, whom is in a vulnerable position, I guess, and is also selling Vampire Blood. The King has Bill captured and offers him a deal; work for him, give up the Queen's secrets, and he'll make Bill a sheriff. Oh, and not kill Sookie.

There is definitely a sense that more stuff is going on here. And for the most part it's more interesting. But, the third season is somewhat suffering from having too many plots. Too much screen time is being spent on characters that have nothing to do with the main plot. And while in previous seasons this has always been an issue, there is just too much going on now and it's slowing everything down. Considerably.

Fortunately, each individual sequence is generally interesting--even if they are completely irrelevant. Except for Sam. I like the character of Sam. And I like the actor, who is very charismatic. In some ways he should be the heart of the show. But his story is at this point so completely disconnected from the rest of the show that he might as well be on a show of his own. And my interest in his family's antics are about the same as Jason's Children of the Sun story arc in S2...while I'm sure things will intersect at some point, there just isn't enough good there to justify the time spent on it. I'd much rather watch more Jessica than Sam's family.

But now 4 episodes in certain things are beginning to merge. Erik's hunt of the nazi/werewolf club is going to lead him directly to the King. And the King now has the goods he needs to take out the Queen (with Eric also likely to be the obvious scape goat). Tara's been captured by a vampire goon/detective who works for the King (and he's been very effective in finding out information; including the fact that Sookie is a telepath). And Sookie herself is now in harms way.

So, at this point all that needs to happen is a bit more focus on a central story--either by starting to bring all of these stories back together; or spending much less time with them. If they can do this, then Season 3 has the potential of being better than either of the first 2 seasons. If they don't do that, then this season is going to end up very much like the others. Fun. Genuinely thrilling at time. But fundamentally flawed.