The second season of HBO’s vampire drama “True Blood” begins tonight, Sunday, June 14 and if you haven’t taken the time to get acquainted with the show to this point, but are interested in jumping in and not missing a moment of season two I felt it would be best to give you a quick initiation. I will be reviewing each season two episode every Sunday morning, so get the recap below, watch the episode each week and stay up-to-date as we move along.
The show is set in Bon Temps, Louisiana and centers on Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) and her relationship with Bill (Stephen Moyer), a vampire. Sookie is living in her grandmother’s house who died in the first season at the hand of a man filled with rage toward those that show kindness to vampires. Her brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten), is probably best described as the town slut and just about everyone he has sex with in the first season ends up dead, all at the hand of Rene Lenier, the same man that killed Jason and Sookie’s grandmother.
Sookie’s best friend is Tara (Rutina Wesley), a foul-mouthed and highly entertaining character who has serious anger management issues. However, both she and her mother have exorcisms at the hand of Miss Jeanette in the first season to get rid of the demons inside of them. Tara’s exorcism is to get rid of her anger while her mother’s is to rid her of her alcoholism. Both exorcisms appear to have worked, but Tara finds out late in the first season Miss Jeanette is a fraud working at the local pharmacy.
Tara’s cousin is named Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) and for most of the first season we are treated to his unique brand of comedy. Lafayette is something of a local drug dealer who also sells V, vampire blood, to Jason getting him addicted, not to mention giving him a raging erection due to an overdose (a fantastic first season moment). However, his desire for V, coupled with a bout of depression, takes him to an out of town vampire bar known as Fangtasia where he meets Amy (Lizzy Caplan). The two fall in love and ultimately abduct Lafayette’s V contact and in the end Amy kills him.
The death or disappearance of a vampire is something the vampire community takes very seriously and the Bon Temps territory is policed by Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) whose involvement in the first season is rather limited, but his character is one of the extreme highlights of any episode he is in.
A couple of other important characters include Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell), who owns Merlotte’s bar and restaurant where Sookie, Tara and Lafayette all work. Sam’s bigger secret is the fact he is a shape-shifter. This secret is revealed late in the first season and has yet to play any major role in the series, but new secrets surround his character as a newcomer to town named Maryann (Michelle Forbes) and he have some kind of unknown connection that plays a large part in the second season.
Maryann, to put it mildly, is quite the wild card. She first appears as the savior of Tara who is jailed for drunk-driving after crashing her car as a result of briefly seeing Maryann naked in the middle of the road with a giant pig at her side (no joke). Obviously no one believes Tara saw what she says she saw and not even Tara remembers the scene well enough to know it was Maryann standing there. So, when Maryann bails Tara out of jail and offers her a place to stay she jumps at the opportunity considering the continually dysfunctional relationship she has with her mother who actually refused to post Tara’s bail.
Finally, there is Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), a vampire Bill turned as punishment for killing a vampire who was attempting to harm Sookie. Jessica’s role in the first season is small considering she only became a vampire in the tenth episode, but wasn’t seen as one until the eleventh. However, she plays a large part in the first four episodes of the second season and looks as if she may have a lot to do for some time to come.
So, those are the story details. If that doesn’t move you perhaps I can appeal to your more visual tastes.
The women in this show are extremely attractive and are featured in just about every scene. For the ladies in the audience the men are equally attractive and for all sides, there is plenty of skin on display. As a matter of fact, if nudity is your thing you won’t be disappointed, especially in the first four episodes of the second season.
If it isn’t sex that moves you perhaps gore is more to your liking. “True Blood” has a lot of it, and the second season proves to have even more. Hell, even the sex scenes include blood smeared faces and when a vampire cries… yup… blood.
I will admit the comedy takes a little getting used to and the characters are all over-exaggerated, but the more you watch the show the more these two qualities grow on you and eventually become your favorite parts of each episode. Tara’s mouth in particular is highly entertaining, just how she says lines like, “Woman’s got a voodoo bus out in the woods,” has me laughing every time. Lafayette is also equally entertaining in much the same way.
The first season of “True Blood” is only twelve episodes, but to say a lot is covered in those twelve hours would be an understatement. If after reading the above you would like to actually watch the first season that is easy enough as it is already available on DVD and Blu-ray. Get in quick, this show is only getting better as time goes on.
Below is the teaser trailer for the second season and you can read my review of tonight’s season two premiere episode, “Nothing But the Blood,” right here.
