Ever since Bela Lugosi’s classic performance in Dracula back in 1931, the vampire has mostly been portrayed as a suave and sexy beast. Bela’s depiction of a slick-haired Dracula that swooped in from the night to bite poor Lucy Weston was so formative to vampire lore that it continues to color our idea of how a vampire is supposed to look and act. “True Blood” attempts to remake some of those 77 year old stereotypes while amplifying the vampire-as-sex object theme to near ridiculous heights. Although I haven’t made an official count myself, I’d bet the boob to blood ratio is pretty high. That said, its good to have a show that wants to deal directly in sex and gore on HBO. If you’re going to go to the sex and violence well, you might as well come back with a bucketful.

By now, Sookie is up to her unscarred neck in vampires. Bill’s house is lousy with vampires and their odd sex/food slaves. In order to protect Sookie, Bill lays claim to her and her virgin blood which apparently, is about the sweetest available. Through this turn of events we learn about Hepatitis D, a vampire only blood illness that is harmless to humans. I’m continually surprised by how long it has taken to reveal some of the most basic lore of this series vampires. Its most certainly a slow boil. If it ever gets to a boil at all. Sookie after being clearly frightened by the events of the past few episodes, breaks it off with Bill, only to be haunted with desire for him later that night in her dreams.

Bill returns to the three vampires from the beginning of the episode and we finally get to see the internal conflicts that the vampires must feel about coming out into the human’s world. This is an element of the plot that should be explored further and should’ve been explored much sooner.

Sookie’s brother Jason’s bizarre downward spiral continues as he discovers that his girl
on the side has also been with a vampire. Jason is clearly standing in as the archetype ignorant racist. The portrayal is shallow and poorly acted. Although the character’s motivations are believable, the execution isn’t. Eventually his obsession with the vampires kills his libido and he seeks out vampire blood as a means to gain back what he lost. As the episode draws to a close, Sookie finds Dawn (Jason’s side woman) dead in her home. Thus making a second murder that Jason could be tied to.

All in all, the show continues to show flashes of its potential. Sookie’s best friend Tara Thornton (played by Rutina Wesley) is believable and whip smart. I hope we see more of her.

As we mentioned earlier this week, “True Blood” has been picked up for a second season already. I’m not certain that HBO’s renewal of “True Blood” for a second season this soon is a good thing. True Blood is now a quarter through its first season and its still slowly drawing out the very basics of the plot. Giving the writers and producers a renewal now might only encourage the slow pacing of the series.