Well, I'll concede that TB is not Masterpiece Theater, that the supposed main characters, Sookie and Bill, are mild to moderately annoying much of the time, and that the MaryAnne story line was not all that. Nonetheless, I would put True Blood firmly in my quality teevee column. They have some of the best supporting characters going. Jessica and Hoyt, Eric and Pam and their whole Fangtasia Empire of Evil (yes, I'm including Mr. Chow!), all the Merlotte's crew - Sam and Arlene and even Tara (though she sometimes grates) and of course the magnificent Lafayette. I need a special sentence just for the brothers Bellefluer, Terry and Andy, because they are so beautifully damaged. The show did one of the great reclamation projects of the 21st century in taking Jason Stackhouse from a cartoon of a porn star in a cartoon porn movie to an actual human being whom I now love and want to protect at all costs from everything that would harm him, even himself.

They have had some interesting storylines. Thankfully, the MaryAnne business is not representative of what the show can do when it's good. Tara's not my favorite character, but the season one storyline about her mom and Miss Janette and the casting out of evil demons was quite well done and kind of heartbreaking. I really loved the early story of Sookie's gran and her fascination with Bill. I liked the Tam/Sara relationship S1 and miss it still. Even though I got tired of the nekkid Jason very quickly S1, they still managed to grab me with what happened to him and Amy and vampire Eddie. (Stephen Root, y'all!) And Eric's appearances were fun, if all too brief in S1. And there's always Lafayette. Yes, Lafayette is always fabulous. Bill and Sookie are kind of annoying, but the stuff with her uncle was touching. Much like S2, the main mystery around the Bon Temps serial killer was probably the weakest story of the season.

In S2, I thought all the secondary plots were top notch. Jason and the Fellowship of the Sun? Awesome. Eric and the Dallas vamps and Godric? Awesome. Bill and Lorena? Well, maybe not awesome, but very good. Hoyt and Jessica's tragic romance? Oh my stars, awesome! Terry and Arlene and her teacup humans? Yes, I believe they were awesome. I love Terry and his special lady. The tragic fall and fall of Andy Bellefluer? Awesome. Pam, Eric and Lafayette and the wages of sin, or V, or something like that? Do I even need to say it was awesome? I mean, I guess some of the secondary plots were clunkers. Anything with the Queen, I didn't enjoy and the Evan Rachel Wood creature is mystifying. I don't get the appeal. I didn't care all that much about Eggs and Tara which is making her a little bit tough to take just at the start of this season. Sam and Daphne didn't thrill me, but that just might be because it was tainted with MaryAnne juice. But overall, I found S2 to be quite good. And I have high hopes for S3.

The show does really well with character development, maybe not as well with the big season long arcs. I don't know that I'd call it mindbendingly innovative, but I'd say it's a quality show.

So my clever plan of us buying episodes of True Blood S3 from either the Playstation or XBox store? Not gonna work. Neither of them seem to be offering it. Am I hosed, and will just need to wait until the season is done and released?

Thankfully, the MaryAnne business is not representative of what the show can do when it's good.

I think that's what I was watching in the lone episode I saw... at least, I believe that's what they were calling the woman who was planning to be married after the sacrifice. Most of it seemed so muddled that I just kept wondering where all the wonderfulness was that everyone else kept raving about. It's entirely possible that it's just the type of show that you can't drop into without having seen the backstory leading into current events. I was interested in Sam, the bartender with the appparently fucked-up childhood who's now determined to track down the missing pieces of his past, and who was willing to risk his own life for everyone else in the community because he clearly considered them all a part of his extended family. And by -- I think they called him Eggs? -- the man who was so distraught when he came back to himself and found blood on his hands but had no recollection of how it got there.

Jilli, I think so. I'm in the same boat -- was hoping they'd do a season pass for iTunes, and no dice.

I do think TB is a show you can't really drop in. Unlike some shows I could name, if you don't like TB's pilot, you probably won't like the show, so start with the pilot - a lot of stuff gets set up there.

what do you all think of this "review" of "True Blood" (contains spoilers for the premiere ep:

[link]

Netflix the season 1 and season 2 dvds and watch them in one long TB orgy.

My recommendation.

Also, what you will want to do.

(Particularly with season 1.)

The whole Marianne thing was too slow, too long and not that great - but I'm guessing the big pay off was seeing Sam turn into a beautiful white bull and getting him injured so that Bill could heal him with his blood and we'd get Sam's erotic Bill dreams this season.

if you don't like TB's pilot, you probably won't like the show

eh...this is true and not. i wasn't overly impressed with the first season as a whole. it wasn't until season two that i started to feel the love and felt like they hit their stride. i definitely think you have to start with the pilot though. of course, i'm also a purist and have to watch shows from the beginning.

On the whole, I liked the first season better than the second - I think it was because I didn't care for the 2nd season's main plot. The side plots were decent, but the main plot was not.

Interesting. Thanks for the recs. I may have to check it out.