HBO | 2008 | 720 mins | Not rated
With popular HBO series’ Sex and the City and The Sopranos closing up shop in 2004 and 2007 respectively, some critics wondered if HBO would be able to maintain the success it had enjoyed throughout the 2000’s. While there have been some notable misses—John From Cincinnati and Tell Me You Love Me come to mind—the cable network has rebounded nicely with a handful of hits, including Entourage and Big Love.
On September 7, 2008 True Blood premiered. Created by Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), the series is based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series of novels by Charlaine Harris, and details the co-existence of vampires and humans in Bon Temps, a fictional small Louisiana town. While the series premiered to a modest audience of just 1.44 million viewers, and average of 12.4 million people watched the show on a weekly basis during the second season, and the finale was seen by 5.1 million viewers. Thus making True Blood the networks most watched series since The Sopranos.
For those unfamiliar with the show, here’s a little backstory: following the creation of synthetic blood, vampires have emerged from the stuff of legend and revealed their existence to humanity. Since they no longer need to feed on the blood of humans to survive, they long to be productive members of society. The problems of vampires don’t really concern Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a waitress at a restaurant and bar in the small town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie, has her own set of unique quirks; she’s a twenty-five-year-old virgin due in part to the fact that she’s a telepath, and can hear other people’s thoughts whether she wants to or not. Getting past the first date is kind of tough, when you know the guy is wondering if he’ll get you into bed that night.
Lots of things change for Sookie when Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), visits the restaurant. Handsome and kind, Sookie cant ‘hear’ Bill because he’s a vampire, ‘killed’ during the civil war. He’s come back to reclaim his family’s house and land, abandoned since his last living relative passed away with no heirs. Sookie and Bill quickly find themselves growing close, during the first season, the find themselves investigating a series of murders in Temps. While many believe they were committed by Sookie’s brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), that turns out to be wrong.
True Blood is one of those series that only seems to be getting better with age. Alan Ball and his writers give the characters such personality and soul; it’s hard to think of them as anything but human. Without giving too much away, the second season follows two primary storylines. One, involves what happens to Sookie and Bill when a vampire sheriff in nearby Area 9 named Godric (Allan Hyde), disappears. Bar owner and Area 5 sheriff Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard) enlists their help despite Bill´s hesitation, and this creates an conflict of sorts with Jason, who has taken off on a pilgrimage with the Fellowship of the Sun church, a very anti-vampire organization.
Two, a wealthy, and powerful spirit named Maryann (Michelle Forbes) showed up in Bon Temps last season, and invited Sookie’s best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley), to live at her grand house rent free. This seems like a good arrangement, because Tara finally has someone to take care of her. However, it soon becomes clear that Maryann isn’t what she seems. Sam As it turns out, Maryann and Sam (Sam Trammel), Merlotte´s owner, have a strange history, and things soon begin to spiral out of control.
One of the great things about True Blood is that it’s not a show about vampires. It’s a drama that happens to have vampires, shape shifters, and telepaths in the story. The vampires in the series aren’t the focus; they’re just something that separates this world from our own. The problems that vampires have and their agenda are incidental rather than than the driving force behind the show. What keeps you watching, is the eclectic and eccentric characters that populate the show. They’re all interesting and most of them have secrets.
Stating the obvious, True Blood is a dark series, both in tone and visual style. Lots of night shots and goth-club interiors are par for the course. The standard DVD set handles all the dark scenes, as well as the occasionally sunny moment. Skin tones range from appropriately ashen vampires to naturally tan humans. You won’t find as much detail here as there is on a Blu-ray, but for a DVD this is solid stuff, and quite cinematic in its scope.
The 5.1 surround track delivers the dialogue-focused audio without issues, but there’s nothing spectacular about it. It is at its most impressive when we are hearing the echoing thoughts that Sookie reads. The distinctively southern musical soundtrack also adds an additional layer of background intensity to the episodes. Ambient noise, like the chirping of birds, is sometimes prevalent, but by and large this is merely a serviceable audio presentation.
Subtitles are available in English, French, Spanish, Brazilian, and Portuguese.
True Blood: The Complete Second Season comes with the following special features:
• Cast and Crew Audio Commentaries (Discs 1, 3-5): Taken as a whole, The Complete Second Season’s seven commentaries provide an extensive overview of the storylines, new characters, returning favorites, gory scenery, sexual depravity, bloody surprises, and rapidfire twists and turns that frequent True Blood’s latest batch of episodes. Director Michael Lehmann and actor Nelsan Ellise take a few minutes to get rolling, but eventually deliver a candid glimpse behind the scenes of “Keep This Party Going;” director Michael Ruscio and writer Raelle Tucker sink their teeth into “Release Me,” strategically splitting their time between practical production details and character analyses; actors Stephen Moyer and Alexander Skarsgard settle in with “Timebomb” director John Dahl for a breezy, chummy, altogether revealing conversation about the series, its many protagonists and antagonists, and the cast’s chemistry; actors Ryan Kwanten and Sam Trammell follow suit on “New World in My View,” touching on everything from the show’s scripts, sets, locations, costumes, and directors to its cast, characters, special effects, shooting styles, and creatures; and series creator/writer Alan Ball, director Daniel Minahan, and actress Rutina Wesley provide an informative commentary for “Frenzy”. Last but certainly not least, the season finale, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin,” earns two separate tracks — one with actresses Anna Paquin and Michelle Forbes, the other with director Michael Cuesta and writer Alexander Woo — both of which top the set off nicely.
• The Vampire Report: Special Edition (Disc 5, 24 minutes): Hope you love in-character shorts, because The Complete Second Season has twenty-four minutes of faux news reports on tap.
• Fellowship of the Sun: Reflections of Light (Disc 5, 12 minutes): More in-character videos with Steve Nelwin in which the Fellowship of the Sun pastor and his wife host brief seminars like “Detoxify Your Marriage,” “It’s Hip to Be Alive,” “Who Needs Marriage?” and “Do You Want to Live Forever?”
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