I was for sure that this had been talked about somewhere else on Nubblies. I was wrong.
True Blood is one of the best things to come out of HBO in a LONG time imo. I watched every episode as it came out from the first season, and caught up on the second season last year when I first got to Korea. To the nay-sayers who might bring up the whole "vampires are popular again blah blah twilight/etc. etc.", the vampires in this series are fucking kick ass real vampires. The behavior of some of the lead vampires, (Notably Eric, who I i liked more and more every single episode) and the way they work in the traditional lore with some much needed gore and cleverness after all this Twilight fairy prancing around bullshit is genius.
This show makes you honestly want to be a vampire.
For those that haven't seen it, one of the most clever things about the show is that it superimposes the existence of vampires as a knowable, everyday fact of life in an alternate reality of Earth, in current times (takes place in a fictional town in Southern Louisiana). What's so interesting sociologically about it is that the way it is viewed (especially in the South, and more conservative parts of the world as we are led to believe through news reports) through the looking glasses of Blacks fighting for their civil rights in the 60's ("Equal rights for vampires!) and all the violence that came along with it...except with the added badassery that vampires are actually superior beings. It also adds in the notoriety of being an "open vampire" so to speak or "fraternizing with vampires" aka fucking them or letting them drink your blood (this doesn't turn you, automatically, I like that part), associating this idea with homosexuality and how uncomfortable it makes people. ("God hates Fangs"). The second season focuses more (often comically) on a far right evangelical sect of Christianity who has taken it upon themselves to destroy this demonspawn, and it's quite scary how close a supposedly fictional church can come to IRL evangelists.
On top of all the sex, violence and interesting societal parallels, there are just some awesomely written characters. The vampire Sheriff Eric, whom I previously mentioned, Lafayette (probably my favorite--a hilarious southern black flamboyantly gay yet totally badass diner cook), and Jason Stackhouse being some of them.
Some bad parts: Too much twilight-esque romance between Bill and Sookie (God, how fun is it to say "SOOKIE!!" in Bill's accent?) and Sookie and Tara's characters in general. Tara was cool for a while, but she started to really piss me off in the second season, with her fucking overly-nigger attitude that simply wasn't necessary for her her role. And Sookie's character, played by gap-toothed Rogue Anna Paquin, I just can't fucking stand. Actually I don't know too many people who think much of her at all in the series, even though she's the main character. But there is always enough going on in the show where it's worth dealing with her dumbassery. You should watch this show.
The last half of the second season got a bit weird, but it was still totally addicting, and it left it as a good cliffhanger at the end of Season 2. Has Season 3 started yet? Is it soon?
EDIT: Shit just watched that gif and didn't recognize it, guess it started up while I was on my trip. Looks like I have some torrenting to do.
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