So it was with a great deal of anticipation and, I’ll admit, extremely high expectations that I settled in to watch the first four chapters of True Blood Season 2: “Nothing But the Blood”, “Keep This Party Going”, “Scratch My Back”, and “Let’s Take a Trip Together”. All I can say is WHEW! If you thought last season was hot, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet! Things start up shortly after the events that ended Season 1 with Bill (Stephen Moyer) teaching his new vamp progeny Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) the ropes, with some much needed help from Sookie (Anna Paquin) once she warms up to the idea of sharing her man with another; Tara (Rutina Wesley) adapting to her cushy new life with the enigmatic Maryann (Michelle Forbes) and bad boy housemate Eggs (Mehcad Brooks); Sam (Sam Trammell) continuing to battle his inner demons but finding a little respite by becoming chummy with new waitress Daphne (Ashley Jones); Jason (Ryan Kwanten) still trying to find himself but being drawn to the anti-vampire church Fellowship of the Sun; and Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) … well, let’s just leave a few things a mystery for the time being.
Oh, and did I mention that, like its predecessor, Season 2 starts out with a murder? Only this time, instead of being strangled, the victim’s heart is ripped out. So you can expect to see a lot of William Sanderson’s Sheriff Dearborne and Chris Bauer’s Deputy Bellefleur snooping around the scene.
So, thanks to Bill and Sookie, plus Maryann’s as yet unexplained powers, we’ve got that eroticism thing I discussed earlier well in hand. What about the brutality element? That is provided courtesy of bloodthirsty Eric (Alexander Skarsgård), who shows off his dark side as he figures prominently in this season’s events. Along with Eric’s evil ways, there’s a new monster in town that promises extra carnage and mayhem. All in all, there’s more graphic gore and violence in these four entries than we saw in all of Season 1. There’s also a very juicy subplot that involves a threesome heading out of Bon Temps to track down a missing vamp “Sheriff” named Godric. Their arrival in Dallas coincides with the end of Episode 4, the appropriately titled “Let’s Take a Trip Together”, which additionally reveals just enough info about Maryann to further confuse viewers as to her true identity.
And that should be enough to whet your appetite to tune in this Sunday, June 14th, when True Blood returns to HBO. It’s one of those treasured instances of a series taking everything that was good about its first season and building on that by amping up the sex and slaughter. The only bummer is that while all of you are reveling in Season 2 this weekend, I have to wait a whole ‘nother month to re-dig my teeth into it!