True Blood: Season 1 (2008)

*CONTAINS SPOILERS*

What I liked:

• The sets that were used. Looked all great and Southern to me.
• The courting between Sookie and Bill. It was pretty sweet, lots of tension.
• The theme song. Jace Everett’s Bad Things was just the perfect theme song for this.
• Alexander Skarsgård as Eric Northman. Just enough of an accent underneath it to let you know he is a little foreign. He is the pure embodiment of a Viking, and it shows. His attitude gets me, and his presentation is perfect.
• Kristen Bauer van Straten as Pam. I absolutely love this casting. She was absolutely perfect, capturing Pam as she is supposed to be: beautiful, loyal to Eric, bitchy, slightly enigmatic. I liked it.
• Jason Stackhouse having a bigger role than in the books. Let’s face it, he is such an absolute idiot, that cannot be denied, but he is lovable and entertaining.
• Todd Lowe as Terry Bellefleur. His portrayal was great, and he captured that war vet thing quite well, though he was not nearly as antsy as I would have expected. Nevertheless, he is adorable.

What I didn’t like:

• Too little Eric Northman. Yes, you read that correctly.
• Anna Paquin. I am not her biggest fan at all, she actually irritates me, so sometimes she just grated on me.
• The lack of physical chemistry between Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer. Everything was fine when it was all just lusty looks and chatting, but the minute it came to physical interactions, it all just seemed so wooden, making the whole build up end in a serious anti-climax.
• The wrong teeth are the fangs. Last I checked they were supposed to be the canines, not the lateral incisors.
• Not really getting around to Eric’s fascination with Sookie – he is portrayed as very indifferent to her, when actually he is drawn in by her, wishing to know more, even though she doesn’t like him.

Rating:
Not a bad way to start a new series at all. I liked how it started, how the characters were introduced, how it began coming together. Bill Compton’s arrival was also presented pretty well. The courting between him and Sookie was quite sweet to watch, though it completely lost the plot when it came to the physical side of it all, which is a disappointment (I know how that sounds) seeing how big a part of the story it is. I thought the score was pretty monotonous. It starts out just fine, but then the same people get the same tracks, and it gets old quickly. The acting was fine for the most part, though there were places it was a little stiff. Rutina Wesley was well cast to play Tara Thornton, though I am not a fan of her character at all. I don’t mind a loud and angry character, she was just pretty annoying. Bill’s punishment for saving Sookie was also pretty cool, sad for him yet it all comes together well. Jessica is an absolute pain. Pam is worth the watch, time and time again, she is sassy, smart, sexy, and an extremely bitchy (undead) person, but it just works for her. Alexander Skarsgård  impressed me endlessly as Eric Northman, and also provided much of the delectable eye candy of the show (I mean that tall, blonde hair, blue eyed Viking? SOLD). Lizzy Caplan’s character Amy was the worst thing ever. Not just the hippy stuff, but everything about her as a person sucked. Eddie was right, she really was psychopathic. It was amusing for me to see how much trouble Jason was in, though on the other hand it was not supposed to be funny. His character really is an idiot, but he is always trying his best. I have much love for Nelsan Ellis as Lafayette, he rocked that role Bill’s gradual semi-acceptance into Bon Temps is done well, never too sudden, never not happening at all either. Overall, while True Blood is no Hannibal or True Detective, it is a fast and easy way to pass the time, provided you don’t take it too seriously.