'TRUE BLOOD' 3.1 - "Bad Blood"

[SPOILERS] What a flat-out disappointment. I think the problem with season 3's premiere is how it picked up immediately after season 2's finale, without skipping a beat; thus it felt like an episode you missed last year rather than a whole new, exciting beginning. True Blood delights in giving us delicious cliffhangers that it answers immediately the following week, but performing that trick across seasons doesn't work for me. I'd have preferred a clean break from season 2's craziness, but instead "Bad Blood" continued the in-play storylines...

The subplots were all something of a mess, really. A collection of malformed ideas in their infancy. And there were signs that True Blood's expanding cast are going to cause the writers problems down the line. I'm all for True Blood becoming more of an ensemble piece, mainly because the romantic throughline of psychic Sookie (Anna Paquin) and vampire Bill (Stephen Moyer) is already running on fumes, but the writers are going to have to tread very carefully. With so many characters to service and subplots swirling around, "Bad Blood" lacked a focused direction and my attention felt very divided.

To recap the premiere's events: Sookie's frantic that Bill's vanished, presumed kidnapped, but the cops aren't keen to use their limited resources in chasing a vampire until 48-hours have passed; Bill has actually been taken by three men in a speeding car, who are already draining him of blood while he's bound by a silver necklace in their backseat; Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) received a visit from the Magister (Zelkjko Ivanek) at his nightclub, who's investigating the illegal sale of vampire blood in the area, accompanied by the Vampire Queen (Evan Rachel Wood) herself, whom the Magister's unaware is dealing the "V" with Eric's help; Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) comforted Tara (Rutina Wesley) over the death of her boyfriend Eggs; Jason (Ryan Kwanten) resolved to forget he'd accidentally killed Eggs, by having a threesome with two girls he picked up at Merlotte's, only to find his guilt's made him impotent; Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) fretted over what to do with the trucker she killed in haste, opting to keep the body beneath the floorboards; and Sam (Sam Trammell) tried to trace his biological family, in-between having homoerotic dreams of Bill at a motel...

There was a fair bit going on, but I was surprised by how little interested me. I still find Tara an incredibly grating screen presence, so anything involving her dysfunctional mother or love life never appeals to me, because her character has never felt in any way truly likeable.

And while it was a surprise to get an early answer about who kidnapped Bill, it wasn't very exciting (even when the kidnappers were revealed to be werewolves), although I enjoyed the creepy sequence of Bill drinking the blood of a frail old lady before "glamouring" her into forgetting his visit. Sam's search to find his family holds no interest right now, it just feels like something for Sam's character to be doing, and his erotic dream about Bill felt discordant to the point of teasing any untapped Bill/Sam 'shippers out there. I assume Sam's not actually gay, but this is a result of him feeding on Bill's blood? If so, homosexual feelings as a blood disease. Discuss.

Similarly flaccid (ahem) was Jason's impotence. Kwanten's a great comic performer, so I tend to dislike it when Jason's given a fairly seriously storyline like this. The only narrative with any spark or intrigue came from Eric, mainly because there's readymade tension over the fact the Magister's snooping around and may discover Eric and the Queen's deception. Also great to see Evan Rachel Wood giving her character a more nuanced feel, as she was something of a caricature last season, but even better to see the excellent Ivanek back on the show since season 1. I hope he'll be sticking around for awhile.

Everything else was just fitfully entertaining fluff, from Sookie's flustered concerns falling on deaf ears, to Jessica playing hide-the-corpse. But it's early days. True Blood can take awhile to set up its storylines, as the first season proved, although I'd hoped for something more immediately exciting and interesting than "Bad Blood" to start the third season. I think there's a danger that certain character don't really have much to offer, but you can't axe half the cast and replace them. Instead, you add some new faces (many of whom have yet to appear), and promote some supporting characters to regular status (like Kristin Bauer's vampire vixen Pam), then just hope you can find enough material for them all. Season 2 worked nicely because it split the storylines neatly into two locations and strands, which met (a little unstably) towards the end of the season. I hope a similar strategy will reveal itself for season 3, and soon. I really was expecting a lot more from this premiere.

WRITER: Brian Buckner
DIRECTOR: Daniel Minahan
GUEST CAST: William Sanderson, Evan Rachel Wood, Natasha Alam, Theo Alexander, Marshall Allman, Grant Bowler, Thea Brooks, James Frain, John Hillard & Zeljko Ivanek
AIRDATE/CHANNEL: 13 JUNE 2010 - HBO, 9PM