True Blood Season 3 Review

• 20th May 2011

True Blood is back and it’s just as trashy as ever. Season 3 jumps right back where Season 2 left off.  Bill’s been kidnapped, Eggs shot and the townsfolk are blocking out memories of worshiping a maenad. You have to feel sorry for Sookie Stackhouse and the other inhabitants of Bon Temps, Louisiana.  Although for us three years have elapsed since we were first introduced to our mind-reading protagonist and her vampire lover, for the characters themselves it’s been a matter of weeks, and what a lot they’ve packed in.

Season 1 set up a world where vampires have “come out of the coffin”; shape-shifters exist in secret and that nice guy going out with your friend is actually a serial killer.  Season 2 split its time between the story of a maenad searching for her god by turning the townsfolk into black-eyed orgy-going minions, the search for a missing vampire in the midst of an existential crisis and the struggle of Fellowship of the Sun Church to destroy all vampires (but in a perky way).

Season 3 moves off at a typically breakneck pace, opening the world up further to encompass a community of werewolves divided, a vampire king bent on world domination and, of course, fairies.  I shit you not.  Don’t worry though, the levels of blood-drenched sex and violence remain a constant so if you tune in for that reason, you won’t be disappointed with Season 3.

We open in the aftermath of Bill’s kidnapping on the night of his proposal to Sookie. Sookie reacts to this in the way she always does by immediately blaming Eric; who is, for once, completely innocent. Bill has, naturally, been taken by a group of V-addicted werewolves on the orders of the King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington (played with camp aplomb by newcomer Denis O’Hare).  It seems the King has big plans for Bill and even bigger plans for Sookie; that is if anyone can work out what the hell she is.

Meanwhile, Eric has been framed by Queen Sophie-Ann for selling V, which has left his progeny, the wonderful Pam (finally and deservedly a cast regular) at the mercy of the masochistic Magister. Eric flies to Mississippi for help while simultaneously plotting the King’s downfall as revenge for the murder of Eric’s human family over 1,000 years ago. Back in Bon Temps, Sam has tracked down his birth family and discovered he has a younger brother, also a shifter who’s being forced into dog-fights by his violent, alcoholic father and doormat mother.

Over at Merlotte’s, Lafayette finally gets a back story and a boyfriend, but the course of true love ne’er did run smooth, so naturally his lover turns out to be a witch who opens Lafaytte’s mind up to the darkness within. We see Jason blackmailing Andy Bellefleur into letting him be a cop (just contemplate the craziness of that for a moment) and falling in love with one of the inbred inhabitants of neighbouring Hotshot. There’s also the on-going story of Jessica and Hoyt struggling to maintain a relationship in the face of her vampirism and his mother.

And finally, there’s Tara.  Poor Tara.  Never did a character deserve a break more than lovely Tara.  If I didn’t know better I would suspect Alan Ball had something against Rutina Wesley because he really puts her through the ringer this season (again).  She goes on a serious downwards spiral following the death of Eggs, leading to her meet Franklin, a vampire one could charitably describe as being batshit crazy.  Their scenes together are a brilliant fusion of the highly comedic (“Tara, look how fast I can text “motherfucker”) and the terrifyingly grizzly.

This is one of the areas where True Blood excels; showing how something can be totally absurd and completely horrific all at the same time.  Never more so in the sex scenes, perhaps typified by a fight that evolves into violent sex, during which Bill turns Lorena’s head a full 180 degrees because he hates her so much be can’t stand to look at her.  It’s horrible to watch, but also laugh your ass off funny.  Lorena of course thinks Bill’s behaviour demonstrates how much he loves her (“Oh, William, I so love you”) but that’s because she’s a complete fruit loop. It’s this marriage of horror and comedy, with a healthy dose of sex that’s made True Blood such a winning formula and is no doubt the reason it’s been re-commissioned for a fourth series.

The problem with True Blood however and this season in particular, is that there are so many characters and so many plots that nothing gets the screen time it deserves.  I feel a bit like I’m scraping the surface of everyone’s story rather than getting to the bones of what makes them tick.  Other shows would dedicate a whole season, for example to Eric’s quest for revenge.  Given that his plan and its execution is a Machiavellian masterpiece a thousand years in the making, a cumulative screen time of about 40 minutes doesn’t really do the story, character or actor justice.

The problem is made worse by the already overflowing cast being added to with an avalanche of new (albeit brilliant) characters. In addition to the wonderful Franklin and Russell, we’ve got Sam’s red-necked family, Alcide the (very) sexy werewolf, his ex-girlfriend the superbly trashy Debbie Pelt, her fiancé Cooter, Lafayette’s crazy mother and new witchy boyfriend Jesus, and of course Russell’s bitchy partner Talbot (love, love, love him).

All of these characters are so well acted that you wish someone would come along and give each their own spin off show, just so you could actually get to spend some time with them. You know there’s more to see, but you don’t get a chance to see it before characters start getting dispatched.  It seems a waste to come up with so many brilliant new characters with such potential and then not give them enough time for the audience to fully engage with them.

I realise that the books are a bit like this, full of characters that come in, are brilliant, but have to be side lined because there’s just not enough space for them.  Don’t get me wrong, I love that there’s always lots of different things going on. It helps with the pacing and stops the show from becoming a one note Bill-Sookie-Eric love triangle but I would like a little bit more depth rather than the snippets we get.

Overall though, this is a minor concern. No-one watches True Blood for the characterisation.  People watch it because it’s frenetically paced, beautifully shot, heavy on the sex and violence and just trashy enough to make you feel a little bit dirty about yourself when you watch it.  It’s a guilty pleasure really and one that I would highly recommend.

Special features: there are a fair few special features that make this a worthwhile purchase if you’re a fan of the show.  Six of the episodes have audio commentaries – which isn’t bad considering there are only 12 episodes per season and it’s a good mix of people from in front and behind the camera, which always leads towards more interesting discussions.  There are also minisodes and so-called “Post Mortems” to help flesh out the world somewhat and add a little extra to the characters.  A particular favourite being Eric and Pam auditioning a new dancer for Fangtasia, very funny indeed.  There is also your basic “Anatomy of a Scene” stuff and finally the Snoop Dogg “Ooh Sookie” music video, which, frankly is worth the price of the box set alone.

Suzanne King