The premise of True Blood is that scientists have successfully made a synthetic blood that is not only great for medical procedures, but also happens to have all the required chemicals for vampires to stay alive (or whatever). With this invention, the vampire population made itself known and proclaimed that they will not feed on humans, and use this synthetic blood as their meals. From their, the drink True Blood was created (in various blood-type flavors, of course), and many vampires started trying to go "mainstream" and live amongst humans again.
Fast-forward two years where vampires are fighting for their rights as citizens of the USA and a new vamp has just moved back home to Bon Temps, Louisiana (a fictional town in the fictional Renard Parish). This vampire, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), lived in Bon Temps back when he was alive, and his recent decision to go mainstream has him moving back into his family home (now that the last people of his family have passed away). Bon Temps doesn't really have a lot going for it - the only place to go is a bar called Merlotte's and it seems that most of the pretty women in the town work there as waitresses. One such waitress is Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin, Rogue from the X-Men Trilogy).
Sookie, while appearing to be the stereotypical Southern belle (complete with God-fearing tendencies and very little cursing), has the strange ability to hear people's thoughts. While most of the town knows (or has heard the rumors of) this, everyone acts like it doesn't exist and they just ignore this ability. Sookie's closest friends and family-members know of her ability and have asked (or demanded) that she stay out of their heads. When Bill walks into Merlotte's, Sookie is immediately smitten with him and their relationship grows closer and closer as the season progresses.
The owner of the bar, Sam (Sam Trammell), definitely doesn't like Sookie's new guy, and not just because he is a vampire, but also because he has been harboring feelings for the girl since he first moved to the town a few years back. Quite frankly, nobody is too thrilled with Sookie's new relationship. Her brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten), finds the situation despicable, and her best friend, Tara (Rutina Wesley) just wants her to be careful. In fact, the only one that seems to be on Sookie's side in the matter (besides Bill, of course), is her grandmother.
Well, Bill's arrival isn't the only thing shaking up the town. A strange series of murders has also cropped up. The victims are, for the most part, young women. What makes matters worse is that Jason seems to always be the person they were most recently (slept) with. This puts Jason as the local police department's top suspect, but no one really believes he is the killer. Most proclaim him simply "too stupid" to be able to kill someone. I don't want to go any further into the plot of the season lest I reveal some crucial twists, but suffice it to say that this season not only does a great job setting up the world of True Blood, but it also has several compelling side-plots like the murders, some less-social vamps that come into town, and what happens when you take a new drug called V Juice (vampire's blood).
All of the actors in the show did a great job. Paquin and Moyer have some real chemistry on the screen and Trammell does a stellar job in the love-triangle and Kwanten does a superb job as the stupid-but-handsome guy who has really bad luck. But two characters really stole the show. Tara is a strong, proud African-American woman who is quick to point out people's apparent bigotry (even when there really isn't any), and her cousin Lafayette (Nelsen Ellis) is not only the bar's cook, but also the town drug-dealer and male-prostitute. Individually, the characters are great and really spice up the whole show, but when the pair are on screen-together, it's hilarious.
Unfortunately, there are a few odd issues about the Blu-ray release that need mentioning and kind of soured the overall experience a bit. Don't worry, it has nothing to do with the show's great visual and audio quality. The episodes themselves are terrific and feel great (especially when the characters are talking outside of the bar and I hear the mosquitos buzzing around my surround sound. The problems I had were little, but noticeable. There is no Play All option on the discs (at least not as far as I could tell), and for some reason, each disc (save the last) has a menu option for the first episode of the next disc and only gives you a preview. This was really odd to me and the first time I came across it, I thought there was a full episode. The only thing we could figure (actually, this was Geck0's thought) was that this was for people who rent movies from NetFlix where they get one disc at a time. The other issue I had wasn't in the quantity of special features, but more in the way to access it.
Special features include maps of Bon Temps, interesting snippets about how some of the vampires in the show were made and just general knowledge and rumors about the characters of the show. The problem is, pretty much everything can only be accessed via the Enhanced Viewing option, which is basically a pop up video. While a lot of this stuff is interesting, it is rarely worth the second watching (especially since any audio from the special feature turns down the show's sound). The ones I found most amusing were Lafayette's commentary about the people of the land, but quite frankly, these special pop-ups are so infrequent that you will be watching more of the show than the specials and every time the audio turned down, I got a little annoyed. If the specials were more frequent, or there was some way to access them without having to re-watch the show, things would have been a lot better.
True Blood is a must-see series, but be warned, it's on HBO and it takes full advantage of the freedoms the premium channel offers. There is nudity (both male and female), blood and adult situations. This is not Buffy and is not meant for any kids in the house. And for you readers in Louisiana, don't worry - the show takes place in the rural areas of the state, but I never found myself insulted by the characters, actors or locations (and I'm from Baton Rouge).
