True Blood, Season 3

I've just finished watching season 3 of True Blood, the HBO show about vampires and other supernatural creatures wandering around the bayous of Lousiana. It's a lot of fun, and while detailing some pretty heavy shit, never takes itself too seriously. When the main character, Sookie Stackhouse, finds out that she's a fairy, she says, "I'm a fairy? How fucking lame."

When season 2 ended, Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) had just proposed to Sookie (Anna Paquin). Bill is a vampire, of course, but is a good guy, or so we think. Sookie, trying to compose herself, goes to the bathroom. When she comes back, Bill has been kidnapped.

It turns out he was snatched by werewolves. In the True Blood world, werewolves are biker types and not very bright. Unlike vampires, they are unknown to the public. These particular werewolves are controlled by a nasty vampire named Russell Edgington (Dennis O'Hare), who is the vampire King of Mississippi (I love that the vampires have archaic royal structure but adhere to the borders established the U.S. government). Edington is a great villain--a 3,000-year-old vampire who has a Li'l Abner accent and rockabilly sideburns.

The main spine of the series is the game of wits between O'Hare, Moyer, and Erik Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), Moyer's rival for Sookie. Skarsgard learns that Edgington was the vampire who wiped out his family a thousand years ago when he was in Sweden, so he plots his revenge, using Sookie's telepathic power. Sookie doesn't know who to trust, especially when she learns that because she has fairy blood, she's delectable to vampires. She calls herself "vampire crack."

There are several subplots. Sookie's friend Tara (Rutina Wesley) once again endures numerous hardships, primarily being kidnapped by a love-struck vampire (James Frain). Sam, (Sam Trammell) the shape-shifting bar owner, tracks down his birth parents and discovers he has a brother who can turn into a pitbull. His parents put him to work in dogfights, and Sam rescues him, but finds out he's a lot of trouble.

Jason (Ryan Kwanten), Sookie's dim brother, falls in love with a pretty and mysterious girl from the backwoods. She's got a secret, too. Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis), Tara's flamboyant cousin, falls in love with his mother's male nurse, who, keeping with the True Blood pattern, also has special powers. It's no wonder that the sheriff (played by William Sanderson) quits halfway through the season.

While the show is lurid and gorey, it does score points about politics in America. The show has always been a metaphor for homosexuality--vampires have "come out" and are fighting for an equal rights amendment. Their cause is hurt when Edgington rips out the spine of a newcaster on live television.