Finally I have figured out my frustration with True Blood. This was a rare series that I came into with very little knowledge of plot, or notion of concept, and therefore I got to watch it raw. The initial concept intrigued me enough. For the unfamiliar, vampires are real and are now 'out' and, in some cases, living in as part of mainstream society. The opening scene depicts how ingrained vampires now are. Vampires are shown to be holding normal jobs, but there are hints to the subculture aspect that 'out' vampires cause and the bigotry that goes with it. A fine opening which both drives home the homosexual allegory and defines the realistic portray of vampires the show promotes. Sadly the writers didn't maintain this disciplined approach and, personally, my interest waned as a result.

The attempt to build the 'world' is certainly noble, and such ambition should be encouraged, but the drift towards shapeshifters and fairies just didn't do it for me. Certainly any show that contains vampires is fantasy from the outset but with the blood heavy depiction of murder and violence I had the vibe of trailer trash homicide show, and a dose of realism. The rapid departure from this disappointed me as I felt they hadn't entirely spent the potential of disciplined approach to vampires. Bill's character aided this with his expository speeches about the vampire myth. The later vampire court scene and his attempts to guide a new vampire he had sired made for interesting television, though were eroded by the Grey's Anatomy style 'will they won't they' of the romantic subplot. (I'll acknowledge that this may be the whole point of the show, but the relationship jumped around so much that I ended up not caring.)

Add to this the annoying character of Tara, who seems to be in her own show, and I just struggled with the whole thing. There seemed to be this desire to have a million things going on at once with zero attempt to converge them into a climax or resolution. Perhaps not zero, as the revelation of the killer was well done, though without a decent motivation for orchestrating such a massacre. The drug scenes were fun too, as was the interaction with the hillbillies and local vampires. Ryan Kwanton's character is so dumb and wide eyed that he is the easiest character to relate to, since he is confused in his emotional response to his sister dating a vampire, but soon develops his own taste for blood. Stephen Root's brief cameo is great as well, you rarely see such restraint from him, and aids the realistic depiction of loneliness that the series does well. So there are highlights across the series to be sure, but generally I was more frustrated that my initial expectations were not maintained as the series went on.

I'll check out the second season with my expectations readjusted. Don't get me started on the use of the cliff hanger series ending though- that will be another blog for sure.