“True Blood” Season 3, Episode 1: “Bad Blood” Review

“True Blood” Season 3, Episode 1: “Bad Blood”

Television Review

By our guest blogger, Julie Lam

Several thousand raving fans beat their little Twitter wings in anticipation for the Season 3 premiere of HBO’s mega-hit “True Blood,” which aired this past Sunday. The exclamatory phrase “True Blood premiere party! Woohoo!” rapidly multiplied and swept across the Twittersphere in rapid-fire succession, hours before the broadcast. Not even “Lost” could muster that kind of camaraderie. Recognized for its snappy writing, penchant for gritty detail, and x-marks-the-spot eroticism, the inaugural episode of the season was sure to pack a lot of bite.

“Bad Blood” picks up where Season 2 left off, with a distressed Sookie Stackhouse searching for her undead would-be fiancée Bill Compton. The authorities give Sookie little leeway, stating that they cannot conduct a search before the 48-hour benchmark. Sookie heads over to Fangtasia to seek Eric Northman’s counsel, and finds him tied up in some alternate, racy business. Turns out, the regional deputy sheriff has been “playing” with his newly hired human dancer at vampiric hyper-speed for the past six hours. Sookie is clearly in awe of Eric’s sexual prowess, to which Eric teasingly asserts, “Is Bill’s stamina not up to snuff?” After a few (failed) advances from Eric, he agrees to help Sookie find Bill.

It isn’t difficult to pick up on Eric’s underhanded demeanor, especially given Eric’s shady dealings dating back to Season 1. Expectedly, Eric previously arranged for Bill’s kidnapping, but his plans were foiled because another party grabbed a hold of Bill first. We see an enraged Eric telephoning and cursing at one of his minions for his ineptitude.

Meanwhile, a shirtless and bleeding Bill is riding in a car full of unknown escorts. We know nothing about their mission or who they are. The only thing we do know about these hard-bodied men is that they love vampire blood. They take turns taking blood hits off of Bill, nearly draining him to death. While the henchmen are doped up on V, Bill takes charge of the steering wheel and sends it rolling over the road bank.

Baby-vamp Jessica ends up accidentally killing the sketchball truck driver from Season 2, and plays mental frisbee over what to do with the corpse. She throws the body in her sleeping hole, and is hilariously frightened by it upon waking from her sleep. Jessica even tries to revive the corpse by feeding him her own blood. The baby-vamp has yet to bite her own wrist so she is definitely lacking in the experience department. Sorry sweetheart, the guy’s a goner.

Vampire Pam makes a glorious and noteworthy appearance at Merlottes. As per the Queen’s orders, all the V has to be sold immediately, and it’s Lafayette’s job to move the product. When Lafayette falters in his abilities to sell the V, Pam uses her vampiric influence to push Lafayette back in line. I am fired up to see what directions Pam and Lafayette will take in terms of character development. Both are androgynous characters are ripe and for the picking.

With one killing, a ménage à trois, three homoerotic scenes, an attempted suicide, and an alarming confrontation scene, “True Blood” increased its excitability quotient quite a bit. We only find out at the end of the episode about Operation Werewolf, which introduces a whole new dynamic to the show. It looks like Bon Temps is raising its heat, and it's housing a bunch of smutty fun and moral fiber.