REVIEW: True Blood

Since the new True Blood season will start soon (June 26th, to be exact), I decided this would be the perfect time to write a review.

I started watching True Blood about a year ago now, and I'd finished the first two seasons a few weeks before the third was about to start.
The series tells the story of Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress from Bon Temps, who also happens to be a telepath. When the vampires 'come out of the coffin', opinions on their presence among humans are strongly divided. According to the vampire community, they can live among humans without having to drink their blood, because the Japanese have developed some kind of synthetic blood on which they can survive.
When one evening Sookie meets her first vampire in Merlotte's, the bar where she works, her whole world gets turned upside down. Because of Bill, she gets mixed up in vampire affairs and more (supernatural) adventures.
In season one, one murder after another seems to be committed in Bon Temps. Sookie is determined to find out who did it, since her brother Jason got mixed up and the police are convinced he is the murderer. She calls in Bill's help and ends up meeting lots of other (some of them not so nice) vampires.
Season two focuses on some problems the vampire community is facing. One of them is Godric, an ancient vampire that seems to have been kidnapped. Eric, Bill's boss, suspects The Fellowship of the Sun, an anti-vampire sect. He needs Sookie's telepathy to find him back. In the meanwhile, some creature is attacking people in Bon Temps.
In season three, Bill is kidnapped. Sookie is trying everything she can to get him back, but some people are not really happy with that idea. Luckily, there's also people who want to help her, including Alcide, a werewolf. A few new vampires also appear, some of them evil, and some of them simply insane.
True Blood is definitely not your average vampire story. It took me some time to start watching it, since the Twilight hype had kind of put me off vampires, but True Blood turned out to be absolutely everything Twilight was not. There's the innocent waitress and her sexually obsessed brother, lots of sexy vampires, a hilarious gay cook who also happens to be a drug dealer, a decent amount of blood and sex, hilarious moments, shapeshifters, werewolves and a thick Southern accent that will grow on you.
It's hardly possible to not like this series if you like vampires, fantasy and suspense. To start with, there's so many differing characters, each with their own personality and whims, that you can't but like at least a few of them. Some of them are quite superficial, but to others there's more than meets the eye.
The plot is always extremely interesting and remains exciting until the very last minute of the final episode. The often interconnected plot lines make it that bit more thrilling. There's so many different aspects to the series that there's something in it for everybody. There's humourous scenes, there's romance, some action, some horror, there's even drugs and more than enough sex and violence. The only bad thing I can say about True Blood, is that the cliffhangers really kill me. They're worth the wait every single time, though.
A little tip: if you're too impatient for the next season, start reading the Sookie Stackhouse series on which True Blood is based. Right now there are eleven books (I'm reading the tenth). The books are really amusing and you'll definitely recognize many parts from the series.
Look! Aunt Petunia is a witch!

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