DVD Reviews

True Blood: The Complete Third Season - Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Jun 7, 2011, 19:12 GMT

The Maenadian reign of terror may be over, but Sookie Stackhouse and the townspeople of Bon Temps face a new calamity that makes the bacchanalian evils of Maryanne Forrester seem tame by comparison. In Season 3, Sookie desperately tries to locate her fiancé, ending up in a netherworld of human and undead interlopers, among them the powerful Vampire King of Mississippi, Russell Edgington. ...more

The third season of True Blood flows on and some fans might have a raised eyebrow about the origins of Sookie Stackhouse, but what they will find is a well-acted and compelling season besides for the odd revelation.

Vampires are amongst us and have come up with an artificial blood substitute that has allowed them to step out of the shadows. The small Louisiana town of Bon Temps has its fare share of night stalkers as well as other supernatural creatures. Potential spoilers follow if you’ve not seen seasons one and two, so don’t read the plot description if you’re new to True Blood.

Besides starting with season three would just be confusing. Waitress Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin) had just been proposed to by vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) when he’s suddenly abducted. Bill finds himself in Mississippi in the clutches of the Russell Edgington (Denis O’Hare), the vampire king of the magnolia state. Sookie teams up with werewolf Alcide (Joe Manganiello) and vampire sheriff Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) to try and find Bill.

Sookie’s boss Sam (Sam Trammell) sets off to find his heritage, her best friend Tara (Rutina Wesley) is wracked with grief, her brother Jason (Ryan Kwantan) is wracked with guilt, her buddy Layfayette (Nelsan Ellis) finds love with male nurse Jesus (Kevin Alejandro) who is caring for Layfayette’s institutionalized mother (Alfe Woodard), and many others are introduced and recurring characters have their stories expanded.

True Blood is based on a series of southern gothic vampire novels by Charlaine Harris (taking most of this season’s plot from Club Dead). Of course, the continuing story of Sookie and Bill are the main course but that doesn’t mean that it’s all there is.

Season Three seems to start off slowly but it kicks into high gear as the season goes on. We add werewolves to the mix and meet Alcide, an interesting character and potential conflict for Sookie.

Speaking of interesting, the stand out this season may be Denis O’Hare who goes full throttle into his role. The complaint may be that too much is going on (that plot description only covers a small percentage) and that every turn or supernatural critter doesn’t turn out as compelling as it could be.

The origins of Sookie’s powers may leave your eyes rolling. Even when it stumbles, True Blood still continues to paint fabulous characters, but this season may not inspire as much as the previous. It’s still fine television though.

True Blood is presented in a 1080p transfer (1.78:1). Special features, all in high def, include a picture-in-picture enhanced viewing mode for each episode that have bonus scenes, character insights, and other goodies, there are also six commentaries ("Beautiful Broken" with actor Alexander Skarsgård (Eric) and director Scott Winant, "It Hurts Me Too" with writer Alexander Woo and director Michael Lehmann, "9 Crimes" with actress Kristin Bauer Van Straten and director David Petrarca, "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues" with creator Alan Ball and Denis O'Hare, "Hitting the Ground" with Anna Paquin and Joe Manganiello and writer Brian Buckner, and "Evil is Going On" with Stephen Moyer and director Anthony Hemingway), each episode also has a “post mortem” and previews and recaps, disc one has a 11 minute “Anatomy of a Scene” for episode two, disc five has over two hours of the character perspetives (also in the p-i-p mode), a True Blood lines interactive guide to the characters and creatures, and a 3 minute music video from Snoop Dog.

True Blood is still addicting television, but there are a few plots that don’t seem to go in the direction we may want them to. This season seems a hair lower than the rest, but it’s still a good season and show. Fans will especially want to pick it up to prepare for season four.