True Blood Season 3 - Bad Blood Review

While a little bit cheeky, sneaky and somewhat questionable in the eyes of many media corporations, using the internet to view the first episode of the hit US drama/horror True Blood’s third outing was inevitable after having becoming a fan of the show during the last season. Well aware how this sort of behaviour can affect ratings of shows and break their duration on screens considerably, the time it takes the US to export these smaller franchise shows makes the OAP Olympics 100m sprint champion look like Usain Bolt after a dozen cans of Red Bull.

True Blood season three picks up mere seconds after the end of season two and if you squint at the horizon hard enough, you can see the oncoming shit storm gaining speed.

For those of you unaware of the story of True Blood, all the events occur in the small Louisiana town of Bon Temps, an out of the way down filled with the stereotypical yokels that spring to mind when thinking about the USA’s southern states. In the True Blood universe vampires have unveiled themselves and live side by side with humans. Sookie Stackhouse is a psychic waitress who one night serves local vamp Bill Compton and quickly finds herself entranced by him. Over the last two seasons their relationship has had its ups and downs and concluded with Bill proposing before being kidnapped while Sookie pondered on his offer of marriage.

Bad Blood drives straight in at the deep end of the story pool, starting up right where season two left off. Bill Compton has been kidnapped by an unknown group of humans; Tara is in pieces after the death of Egg by the hand of Sookie’s brother Jason after frantically waving a knife in the face of local cop Andy Bellefleur, and Vampire Sheriff Eric is finding his V selling operation coming close to being uncovered by the vampire authorities. Sphincter clenching stuff.

As is standard True Blood protocol, dark humour dialogue is intertwined superbly into the narrative with resident fool Jason Stackhouse either being at the source or end of it. Jason’s murder of Egg is taking its toll on the jock turned born again Christian turned... jock with morals. Whilst he is adamant about turning himself in and doing the right thing, Andy Bellefleur is insistent that how events went down leaves many questions unanswered that will only cause more problems. Andy’s advice to Jason about staying a free man is filtered down to four fantastically chosen words. “Conscience off. Dick on.”

With the story continuing from the previous season, the atmosphere from the off is dark and is as far away from a hand holding, skip down the yellow brick road affair that it avoids making the show dull and tedious to watch.

There is particular heartfelt emotion for Tara’s grief over Egg. Her heartbreak is much more believable than Sookie’s pining for Bill, as Egg was her salvation from a dark place inside of herself during the second season and with his demise, she is a shell of a woman she was. A shell lined with wicked one liners that Tara has no problem unloading on anyone who she feels is undermining the integrity and innocence of her departed lover. However as emotional as she is, this doesn’t fell like Tara we have come to know and love. Being moody and offensive to everyone is just part of what makes her character so enjoyable, the overly emotional Tara just feels a tad out of place.

A series of True Blood wouldn’t come together without a story arc for the series involving an (at first) anonymous, malevolent force that seeks to bring a world of pain to a few of Bon Temps most unlucky residents. Season one had the psychotic serial killer Rene offing anyone with a fancy for vampires, season two had Maryann, the equally psychotic Maenad adamant paying homage to her God.
The dying moments of the first episode show who is going to be the problem for Bill Compton and company this season. A breed of enemy that has been dropped in passing conversation before. An enemy that is classically associated with locking horns with vampires for centuries. Haven’t guessed it yet? Werewolves seem to be raising their hairy heads this season.

Surrounding a lost Bill and taking the form of wolves instead of enormous canine powerhouses, these werewolves seem to act as though they are in control of their primal urges and favour team work to lone wolf tactics. True Blood has finally got the opportunity to provide the answer to the very recent question, which is more badass, the True Blood vamps and other creatures or the Twilight equivalents? Bit of a daft question really, it would be far simpler to ask which franchise has seen more boobs and give them the award for most true to original source vampire category.

Cutting to black with a declaration for a fight, True Blood season three seems to have all the energy and potential of the past two seasons. It does well to mix elements of the southern states traits such as profound belief in God, good ole’ boys looking for their next lay and labour intensive careers with the paranormal goings on of the vampire community within their own ranks.
The remaining eleven episodes look well to be compelling, nail biting and enjoyable, laced with just the right amount of dark humour to lighten up even some of the darkest moments.