Ah, True Blood. As the HBO Southern Gothic vampire soap opera wraps up its third season, I have been thinking back about what transpired. The show used to inspire so much enjoyment thanks to its over-the-top exploits and campy humor, not to mention because it’s preposterously gory (bloody explosions after a vampire is staked to death) and unbelievably sexy (Boobies! Vampire Sex!). And with those insane cliffhangers every episode, you can’t wait to tune in again next week. That is, until this season.
Season three has been so all over the place that it has me wondering if the show has lost its way or simply going in a direction I don’t want it to go. Where it used to be one of the first things I would watch each week, I’ve let many episodes pile up in recent weeks. In anticipation of the finale, I finally caught up, and while there is still much to admire, the show is not hitting the same highs it used to. I think I have it pegged down to these three issues:
1) Too Many Characters.
True Blood is not the first show with an ever-expanding cast. Deadwood, Sopranos, and The Wire rarely had an issue with huge rosters of characters to keep track of. True Blood hasn’t delivered as seamlessly as it expands its universe. Because the show is primarily plot-driven rather than character-driven, we see little in the way of character development. As such, True Blood continues to introduce new people* with little for us to care about, while leaving others on the sidelines for long extended periods of time, or mired in inane story lines.
Continue reading Three Reasons Why I’ve Dropped ‘True Blood’