In the wake of learning that one of their closest friends was actually a crazed serial killer bent on taking out anyone who was favorable towards vampires, the town of Bon Temps won't have too much of a breather before a new kind of evil starts working its way into the hearts of the town and it's residents.
The season starts with Sookie and Bill being asked by Eric (Alexander Skarsgard), the vampire sheriff for Louisiana, to travel to Dallas in order to find out what happened to another sheriff, Godric (Allan Hyde), someone that the imposing Eric has a lot of respect for. While Sookie, Bill and Bill's newly created vampire, Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), are away though, it seems the people of the little town start to get a little out of hand.
It seems that the new resident, Maryann (Michelle Forbes), is having a strange effect on the populace as everyone starts drinking, dancing and partying more than normal, and when the orgies start up, things get even crazier. Unfortunately, the only one who suspects anything is Sam who has has some history with Maryann. What's worse is that Tara (Rutina Wesley) has been spending a lot of time with the strange woman and one of her wards, Eggs (Mehcad Brooks). Suffice it to say, once Bill and Sookie make it back to town (after a crazy adventure of their own), the place is out of control and they have no clue as to what's been going on.
Besides the story of Sookie, Bill, Jessica and Eric in Dallas and the rest of the Bon Temps citizens, Sookie's brother, Jason (Ryan Kwanten), is off on his own trip. After the events of last season, Jason has found himself lost (more so than usual). He soon finds a calling in the anti-vampire church, The Light of Day Institute, and feels he is being called to do God's work. He is sent off to a leadership conference for the institute, and soon finds this isn't exactly what he was looking for. Unfortunately for Jason, that's not what the institute's leaders, Rev. Steve (Michael McMillian) and Sarah (Anna Camp) Newlin, feel as they quickly promote him to the church's more proactive, and para-military, group, "The Soldiers of the Sun." While this section of the season is amusing, there are a lot of times when it feels pointless since it doesn't seem to have any connection to the other two storylines, but Jason's little adventure eventually ties into the season's other plots and cleans up any feelings of wasted air time that might have been felt early in the season.
What I really enjoyed about True Blood: The Complete Second Season> was how well it flows from the first season. Where a lot of shows will have very clear separations between one season and the next, the introduction of Maryann in the previous season coupled with the frequent references to last season's murders and Jessica's turning make these 12 episodes feel more like an extension of the first season than a completely separate one.
While there are a lot of times when there is a noticeable grain to the film, it seems like these times are more for visual style rather than an issue with the high definition quality. In general, the Blu-ray picture and audio is superb. One of the interesting tidbits that becomes available with the Blu-ray version of True Blood is the special feature "True Blood Live Feed." To set it up, you log into Facebook and sign up based on the code the Blu-ray disc gives you, and while you watch True Blood, you will automatically post status updates, earn gifts to give to friends and even get your profile photo edited to make you look more vampiric. You can also post clips of the season to your Facebook wall with the simple click of the Red button on your remote, or for those PS3 users out there, (Triangle), select Red, then (X). However, this feature seems a bit sadistic as you get to the end of the season and realize you will be posting spoilers for all your friends to see.
The other special features include a return of "Enhanced View" where you get everything from "Character Perspectives" to flashbacks and flash forwards of particularly interesting scenes to news updates from both pro-vamps and anti-vampire groups to help you decide which side of the fence you stand on. The Character Perspectives are always interesting as you get a little insight into how several Bon Temps residents think about what's going on in the episode. This season's perspectives include Hoyt, Pam, Karl and Steve Newlin (okay, Karl and Steve aren't exactly Bon Temps residents, but they are still non-trivial characters in the show). To top things off, you can actually watch all of these Perspectives together on the last disc, along with a fake news cast called "The Vampire Report" and TV snippets of the Newlin's and their anti-vampire messages.
True Blood is simply a great series (though very adult, and definitely not for any under-aged viewers), and Season Two follows up on the first season expertly. If you haven't had a chance to see either season, then you need to pick them both up (or at least rent them), and if possible, definitely watch the Blu-ray versions since the increase in visual and audio quality is well worth the added price.
