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With season two of True Blood currently airing on FX in the UK, blogger Kell Harker gives her verdict on the first episode. [WARNING: Contains spoilers]
2.01 "Nothing But the Blood"
Written by Alexander Woo
Directed by Daniel Minahan
THE ONE WHERE Bon Temps residents are left in shock after the gruesome murder of Miss Jeanette, whose body - minus one heart - is discovered outside Merlotte's Bar and Grill. Sookie learns that Bill has been keeping newly-sired Jessica in his home, which makes her wonder what other secrets he has been keeping. Sam remembers an awkward sexual encounter he had with Maryann when he was younger. Lafayette is held prisoner in the basement at Fangtasia. Jason considers attending a leadership retreat with the Fellowship of the Sun.
VERDICT The second season is back, and it has packed one hell of a of bite! Sexy, smart, and graphic, this episode seems to have everything. Picking up where the first season left off with good acting, humour, lots of blood, and lots of sex, Nothing But The Blood will send shivers up your arm, it’s so dang good.
The acting chops of Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer as "star-crossed lovers" is so believable and absorbing that your attentions will be focused on the screen, even when they’re both fully clothed. But the good acting doesn’t stop with Paquin and Moyer, as Dobora Ann Woll (playing new vampire Jessica Hamby) provides the perfect comedic relief with one-liners that will have you laughing-out-loud. It will certainly be interesting to watch Jessica mature (or watch her remain immature ) as a vampire in the coming episodes.
And if you thought that the series couldn’t get any naughtier after the first season, you were wrong. The second season has started out fully-charged, as Paquin bears all as Sookie Stackhouse for a hauntingly-erotic sex scene with her lover, vampire Bill. If that alone doesn’t get your blood start pumping in anticipation for the next episode, you might not have a pulse.
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR VAMPIRE The relationship between Bill and Jessica is that of a father and daughter, so watching him try to enforce rules, only to have her whine about them, is hilarious and adorable. And kudos to Bill for knowing that just because you’re dead, doesn’t mean you have an excuse to not practise recycling.
GROSS! The best (and coincidentally also the most violent) scene is when Eric viciously eats and tears apart Royce, with Lafayette watching on helplessly. And even when Eric is covered in blood, the foils in his hair manage to make him strangely endearing.
BEST LINE Jessica: “Compared to Fangtasia, this blows!”
This episode reviewed by SFX in issue 186 (four and a half stars). For more True Blood blogs and reviews, click on the True Blood tag on this page.
