True Blood (second season)

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True Blood (second season)

August 4th 2010 02:24

Things are heating up around the small Louisiana enclave known as Bon Temps, and it’s not just the humidity. Temperatures are rising, and in some cases the blood is boiling. The vampires are feeling the heat from the Fellowship of the Sun, a Texas-based Church run bunch of zealots who are determined to wage war on the foul and unnatural blood-suckers. Of course it’s Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), the plucky waitress from Merlotte’s Bar & Grill, and her old-fashioned undead lover, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), and Sookie’s dumb hunk brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), that become the most seriously embroiled. But being a small town and all, everyone is soon implicated in one fashion or another. Welcome back to the second season of the best soap opera ever, Alan Ball’s adaptation of Charlaine Harris series of romantic-horror novels, known to viewers as True Blood (2008-10).

True Blood Alexander Skarsgaard, Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer

Eric (Alexander Sakrsgaard), Sookie (Anna Paquin) and Bill (Stephen Moyer)

The determined agenda of the Fellowship of the Sun might be of concern, but there is something much darker weaving its magick through the minds, bodies and souls of Bon Temps residents; the mythological desires of Maryann Forrester (Michelle Forbes), who sets up camp at Sookie’s house and causes all manner of grave concern. Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) seems to be the focus of Maryann’s bigger picture, but Tera Thornton (Rutina Wesley) and her new lover Eggs (the impressively-built Mehcad Brooks) who Maryann has in the palm of her hand are also feeling Maryann’s formidable power.

Ryan Kwanten as Jason

Nelson Ellis as Lafayette

Like any soap opera True Blood weaves multiple sub-plots in and around each other with its ensemble cast. Each episode immediately follows the previous and ends in a small medium or large cliffhanger. The pool of writers and directors has a distinct blue-printed style to follow, but each employ their own subtle nuances. I’ve not read any of the novels, but apparently they television series is quite faithful to the books, if perhaps upping the ante on the blood and other bodily fluids. Of course this is what makes the show so sensational and memorable; the sex and the death. Even Alan Ball’s previous creation, the superb Six Feet Under, didn’t harness the same level of sexual intrigue and mortality, despite it being about a dysfunctional family operating a funeral home. The vampire undead have always conjured a high level of sex appeal, so it makes sense.

True Blood Rutina Wesley and Michelle Forbes

Tera (Rutina Wesley) and Maryann (Michelle Forbes)

Mariana Kloveno as Lorena

It’s unusual for a television series to get better, but in the case of True Blood, the second season is superior to the first, even though the first season has many great episodes, scenes and characters (some of whom never made it the second season). I can’t wait to watch the third season, but I’m wary … My other favourite supernatural soap opera, David Lynch’s legendary Twin Peaks, dropped the ball in the third season, having wrapped up the central mystery at the end of the second season it was forced to introduce a myriad of new sub-plots and characters, none of which managed to carry the show through. Six Feet Under also suffered in its third season, as did the fantastic revisionist Western series Deadwood. Fingers crossed True Blood breaks the “third season curse”.

Deborah Ann Woll as Jessica

One of the stand-out elements of True Blood is the writing, but more importantly, the characterisations. Obviously a lot of credit must go to author Charlaine Harris for her richly etched and emotionally dynamic characters, but big props must also go to Alan Ball’s casting. The performances are uniformly excellent (even if Rutina Wesley gets grief from real southerners who say there are no such women like her down south Louisiana way). It’s true, Tera can be a bit much at times, but her neuroses are strangely endearing.

Evan Rachel Wood turns up late in the season as a whimsical vampire queen

True Blood Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin

Apparently sex with a vampire is amazing

There are, of course, stand-outs: Nelsan Ellis continues to shine as the scene-stealing Lafayette, and Sam Trammell’s Sam Merlotte is just a great guy paws-down, but special mention must go to two characters introduced at the end of the first season and one introduced part way through the second season; fiery young vamp Jessica Hamby (Deborah Ann Woll), Michelle Forbes’ maenad, Maryann, and Mariana Klaveno as Bill’s exotic and wicked maker Lorena. Hamby, Forbes and Klaveno deliver some of the best acting of the whole second season. I don’t like singling out the performances in True Blood, because they’re all so good, but those three women are worthy of the praise. In fact there are way too many alluring women in True Blood (Ashley Jones as buxom Daphne, Sam’s love interest, was another one). But, of course, the men are just as striking, and Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgaard)’s maker Godric (Alan Hyde) particularly tickled my wife’s fancy. But I digress …

True Blood is the horror elixir television craved; the first season did some serious whetting, but it’s the second season where the feasting starts. Tuck in! Savour the taste! It’s addictive!

Here’s the second season promo trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

5 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Matt Shea

August 4th 2010 03:46

20/20 Filmsight

Nice write-up Bryn, and I've got to say that this season grabbed me a lot more than the first, even if it stumbles just a touch with some of the late developments. I just loved the Jason/Fellowship of the Sun subplot - so much fun. Forbes is a great addition too. In any case, the whole series carries a lot more propulsion than the first.

Comment by Bryn

August 4th 2010 04:09

Horrorphile

Yeah, now that the core cast have been introduced, the writers can let fly

Comment by Anonymous

August 4th 2010 14:40

awesome show....and I must say as someone who comes from Se Texas right across teh sabine from where this is supposed to be taking place and who has distant relatives in Mississippi I must say they have done a great job wirtht he accents and culture...I knew or knew of people just like most of the characters in the show

Comment by JohnDoe

August 4th 2010 18:15

Film & TV on DVD

Great review Bryn,

i agree Season 2 is a step up from the first. You will be pleased to know that Season 3 seems to be expanding the goodness with more laughs and engaging predicaments.

On a side note, the books provide a very thin outline of the series and most of the best sub plots in the TV show were not in the novels. Phi is forever commenting on the way they have expanded everything for the better. For instance, Lafayette is a minor character in the first book that doesn't survive to the second novel. Tara is only mentioned a couple of times in passing but has no part in the core of the story.

Comment by Bryn

August 5th 2010 01:17

Horrorphile

Anon that's good to hear.

JD, cheers mate, so you're watching season three right now then huh? I'll be waiting for the DVD release once again, so we can watch it all over a couple of weeks. Lafayette is one of the best characters! I'm tempted to read the first novel, but methinks I'll come away disappointed.

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