Is True Blood, Season 3 "Living Up" to Its Potential?

With all things vampire these days, you would think a running series like True Blood would keep things g-rated á la Twilight to get a bigger share of the audience.

Tsk Tsk. You should know HBO doesn't roll that way. While the graphic sex and violence in True Blood are what keeps the series from being Twilight teen fare, it's creator Alan Ball that has conjured a wholly realized world, where not only vampires exist, but shapeshifters, werewolves and telepaths also make up part of the Bon Temps landscape.

Almost midway through its third season, True Blood is barreling through like a freight train. The first three episodes have been admittedly crammed with plot lines that threaten to dilute the series and its main characters. Bill's abduction by werewolves is chief among them. There are new characters like Alcide Herveaux (played by a hunky Joe Manganiello), a werewolf who returns a favor to Eric Northman by watching over Sookie (Anna Paquin) as she searches for Bill among a den of wolves.

Just as Tara is beginning to deal with the death of her boyfriend, she's kidnapped by Franklin Mott, a scuzzy vampire played with a flippant psychopathy by James Frain. And let's not forget Sam's woes as he finds his biological parents, but wishes he hadn't.

Other subplots include Jessica and Hoyt's romance, Arlene's surprise pregnancy, and ever lovable lunkhead, Jason (Ryan Kwanten) and his quest to become sheriff.

While it seems that Season 3 might have a bit too much going on, episodes 4 and 5 are just now starting to merge the frayed threads, and a macabre and deliciously entertaining tapestry is forming. We now know that Franklin has taken Tara to Mississippi to meet the King (Denis O'Hare); the same king who was responsible for kidnapping and threatening Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) to work for him in exchange for sparing Sookie's life. And when Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) finds his bar being raided, his own run-in with the King (and Bill) is inevitable.

Juggling all these balls in the air has a way of backfiring, but with the story lines converging, Season 3 is just now beginning to jell and the whole is looking better than the sum of its parts.

What really makes True Blood an original may not be the sex and violence after all. It's the Southern Gothic touches, the streak of dark humor (Franklin asking a frightened Tara, "Wanna see how fast I can text motherf*cker?", then showing her. Jessica glamming customers into not tipping Arlene) and a wildly talented cast that lend True Blood its edgy tone. However you define True Blood for yourself, sudsy soap opera, soft core vampire porn, make no mistake it's one hell of a ride.

With storytelling and dialogue this juicy, I'll bite.

Season 3 gets a solid 4 stars.

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Sources:
True Blood, HBO, Season 3, Episodes 1 - 5

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Other HBO Original Series Reviews:

Rome - Season 1 DVD

Rome - Season 2 DVD